A Marietta Daily Times writer in 1917 referred to a Marietta bathing spot on the Muskingum River as "Our Coney Island," referring to the iconic amusement parks on Coney Island in Brooklyn. That comparison was a stretch; there were no carnival rides. But rivers were a major source of recreation: fishing, swimming, boating, or just enjoying the scenery. The river levels were a few feet lower, leaving more dry land for beach area than we see today.
Harmar Beach was located near where Harmar School is today. A series of 1916 newspaper articles from the “Historical Marietta, Ohio” blog paint the picture. Quotes are from that blog.
The Register Leader, July 31, 1916: "Hundreds of young people in Marietta...found relief from the heat wave in the cool waters of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, the most favored spot being the newly discovered bathing beach at the mouth of the Muskingum river on the West Side... Several hundred people (swam), while an even larger crowd (watched)...To add to the excitement of things on the river front, George Whiting, a local baseball player, jumped from the railroad bridge into the river, others following his lead."
Countering this enthusiasm was a stark reality: rivers were dirty and unhealthy. Sewage ran untreated into the water. Marietta Daily Times on August 3, 1916: "Sewers Too Close to Bathing Beach." A Dr. Ballard, chair of the bathing beach committee of the Chamber of Commerce, recommended against swimming at Harmar Beach because of a sewer discharge just above the beach area. Even so, West Side residents had started a fund to build bath houses and a boardwalk to access the beach.
City Council was monitoring the situation, too. The Register Leader on August 18, 1916 reported that Council debated the beach and sewer situation in Harmar "at considerable length." Should sewer outflows from area homes be moved? A Council Sewer Committee had estimated that relocating the sewer might cost $5,000 ($100,000 today). No action was taken. Council President Crawford stated dismissively that the sewer discussion "was of too petty a nature to occupy the attention of council."
Swimming in the rivers was nothing new. John L. Harrison, raised in Harmar, remembered fondly warm summers in the 1880s spent swimming with friends. Harmar boys "had a monopoly on good swimming places on the Muskingum River, and we jealously guarded them against any encroachments by "Marietta Rats." That term reflected the "enmity" between Harmar boys and Marietta boys. "We passed up all the shallow beaches and used only the jumping off places" - such as the railroad bridge, lock walls, and dam apron. Another favorite was a spot near the Marietta College boathouse that Harrison called "the logs." Here they skinny dipped from a raft of logs, but only after dark - a requirement imposed by the Harmar town marshall:"You kids stay outa there until (dark) or I'll throw you in the can."
Remember the Coney Island reference earlier? The writer was talking about the beach at Devol’s dam, depicted in Michael Dickenson’s painting. I remember swimming, fishing, other antics there - such as sliding down the dam itself into the boiling cauldron of water at the bottom. It’s still a pleasant place today.
On a visit to Marietta decades later, John Harrison noticed “one unchanged thing…the voice of the old river…an old friend which remained eternally young.” That was the mesmerizing roar of water rushing over the Muskingum dam at Marietta. That same dam was my go-to place during several summers growing up. I remember smoking cheap cigars while fishing with friends from the outer lock wall, reveling in that voice of the river and feeling the mist from the falling water. What river memories to you have?
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