Portsmouth, Ohio

Portsmouth is a city that was settled in the late 1700’s and was incorporated in 1815. It is the county seat of Scioto County, Ohio and is located in southern Ohio 41 miles (66 km) south of Chillicothe. Portsmouth lies on the north bank of the Ohio River, across from Kentucky, just east of the mouth of the Scioto River.

In September 1803 when Meriwether and his boats passed by, the flood-prone settlement of Alexandria was transitioning to the slightly higher Portsmouth location.

Portsmouth is at the confluence of the Ohio, Scioto, and Little Scioto Rivers. It is a midway point among four major cities: Charleston (West Virginia), Cincinnati and Columbus (Ohio), and Lexington (Kentucky), each of which are approximately ninety miles away (roughly a 1 hr 50 minute by car).

Much of Portsmouth’s terrain is quite hilly due to dissected plateau around it. It is within the eco-region of the Western Allegheny Plateau.

Portsmouth now has the “Portsmouth Flood Wall Murals’, depicting 2,000 Years of History-2,000 Feet of Art,  a local micro-brewery, many local eateries, coffee breweries and the well-known Portsmouth Raceway Park. A quick 13 minute drive will take visitors away from the city and into the 63,000+ acres of Shawnee State Forest.