Portsmouth's defining attraction is also its most accidental one: a series of more than fifty enormous murals painted along the city's Ohio River floodwall. Each panel covers a different chapter of local history, from Shawnee villages and pioneer settlement through the canal era, steamboat boom, and twentieth-century steel and shoemaking industries.
The walk along the floodwall is free, takes about an hour at an easy pace, and is most rewarding on a sunny morning when the light hits the western-facing panels. A small visitor centre at the eastern end sells a guidebook that explains the historical context of each mural.