By Brenna Angel
GREENUP, Ky. – The Indian Head Rock is back home in Kentucky. A flatbed truck transported the artifact from Portsmouth, Ohio to Greenup County, Kentucky Thursday morning. The 8-ton boulder was pulled from the Ohio River three years ago, starting a saga that caught national attention.
"There was a group of fellas from over in the Portsmouth area who just took it upon themselves to dig this thing, they've studied about it and got it out of the river. Made a big deal about it and come to find out it's an artifact and it shouldn't have been removed to start with," explains Greenup County Judge/Executive Robert Carpenter, who now oversees the rock.
The Ohio men who led the expedition to remove the rock were Steven Shaffer and David Vetter. The Commonwealth of Kentucky sued, and an agreement was eventually reached to return the Indian Head Rock to the other side of the river in Greenup County.
"I think it could be a great tourist attraction. It's very neat to look at it. I've went and looked at it a couple times, and it's got a lot of interesting things to look at," says Carpenter.
The rock won't be placed back in the river. Carpenter plans to appoint a committee next week to decide on a permanent location.