Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville

The path to the creation of the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville, formally known as Clark Maritime Center, was quite a rough one. With the newly modernized Ohio River witnessing an upsurge in commerce and the construction of the public Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon fully underway at Mount Vernon, the Ports of Indiana turned its attention to the creation of another port further east at Jeffersonville. Initially, it appeared as if things would progress smoothly with the establishment of the state's third public port. As with Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon, a survey was conducted and out of five sites studied only the site at Jeffersonville fit the minimum requirements of a river port; namely, adequate rail and road connections, a location above the high-water mark, and available utilities.

While the plan for development met little opposition in the General Assembly and money was promptly appropriated for land purchases in Jeffersonville, outcries against the establishment of the Indiana port were immediately issued from directly south of the border in Kentucky. Vocal as they were, as time progressed and construction did not, such outcries - stemming mainly from wealthy Kentuckians with riverbank mansions - proved to be the least of the Port Commission's problems.

At all major construction sites, especially those along a major interstate river, an assessment is required to outline the environmental impact of construction at such a site. With the Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon, the assessment moved forward relatively smoothly and although prehistoric Miami Indian village sites dating back 4,000 years were discovered, construction nonetheless began promptly. However, upon the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1969, newer and tougher regulations were being implemented and such environmental assessments were not as hastily conducted.

At the Jeffersonville site, prehistoric ruins and remains were discovered to a far greater extent than at Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon, and after assessment, the National Park Services decreed that they be salvaged before any construction of a port could begin. The Port Commission accepted this legitimate delay, and in 1979, after many months of excavation, the Army Corps of Engineers granted construction permits.

Indeed, a major logjam had been overcome, but almost instantaneously another moved in to take its place. The state of Kentucky, fueled mainly by the aforementioned outcries of its wealthy riverbank citizens, decided in 1979 to level a lawsuit in a federal court against Indiana claiming that Kentucky, in fact, owned Indiana's Ohio River shoreline due to its 1792 statehood boundary lines. Such a lawsuit carried with it grave prospects both for the current establishment of a Jeffersonville port and for the establishment or existence of any port anywhere on Indiana's Ohio River, including the already completed Port of Indiana-Mount Vernon.

Kentucky, in 1792, would have had a legitimate claim to Indiana's shoreline, since its state boundaries did encompass the Ohio River as it flowed at the time. But at the time of the lawsuit, the river was several meters higher than it had been in 1792, effectively stretching the shoreline into Indiana territory. For this reason Indiana won the suit, and at last, construction on the port began in earnest with a 1982 groundbreaking ceremony.

The sigh of relief collectively breathed by the Commission at this point was certainly audible. As former commissioner Norman E. Pfau, Jr., asserts, "Probably the biggest highlight of my two decades with the Commission was the opening of the Jeffersonville Port after many years of litigation and opposition from the state of Kentucky."

The year 1988 brought with it the formal dedication ceremony of the Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville, then dubbed Clark Maritime Center. Upon its dedication, the port already had three tenants and could boast sophisticated 200-ton heavy-lift capacity cranes, and in the subsequent year's business surged far beyond expectations.

As the third and newest public port in Indiana, Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville is one of the Ohio River's fastest growing ports, with the addition of several new tenants in recent years. Additionally, the port features an acclaimed "Steel Campus" consisting of 13 steel-related tenants.

"The future looks quite good for Port of Indiana-Jeffersonville," said Rich Cooper, executive director of the Ports of Indiana. "Its state-of-the-art facilities are more than able to meet the demands of 21st century commerce, whether that commerce comes from as near as Pennsylvania or as far as Japan."