Indian Head Rock returned to Ky.

April 28, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

FRANKFORT, Ky.

A two-state legal battle over who owns a chunk of rock is ending with a win for Kentucky over Ohio.

A federal judge has ordered a lawsuit stayed after the states reached a deal returning the 8-ton boulder to Kentucky from Ohio.

For generations, Indian Head Rock jutted out of the water on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. It served as a navigation marker for boaters and a surface for carvings of initials, names and a crude face.

An expedition of Ohioans moved the rock to Portsmouth, Ohio, three years ago. Kentucky has been fighting for its return since then.

U.S. District Judge Henry R. Wilhoit Jr. on Friday ordered the legal proceedings stayed while the sides work out the logistics of moving the rock.

Portsmouth, Ohio, Mayor Jane Murray, who took office in January, said she already has found a contractor to haul the rock to Kentucky from her city where it has been in storage since being taken from the river.

Both sides in the lawsuit declined to comment beyond what was disclosed in Wilhoit’s order.

“Until the paper is signed, and the T’s are crossed and the I’s are dotted, I’ve been advised not to comment,” said Steve Shaffer, the Ironton, Ohio, man who led the expedition. “This thing could fall apart. It has dragged on so long, and there’s so many personalities involved.”

Prosecutors in Kentucky initially opened a criminal case, charging Shaffer with removing a protected archaeological object. That charge was dropped last year because authorities weren’t sure the rock plucked from the river was actually Indian Head Rock. Court documents suggested another rock upstream from the one taken “has a likeness of an Indian with a headdress of feathers” and perhaps is the real Indian Head Rock.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway wasn’t swayed by the confusion. Conway filed suit in federal court last year to have the rock returned.

The boulder will be a tourist attraction when it gets back to Greenup County in northeastern Kentucky, said Tourism Director Bobby Allen.

Greenup County’s top elected official, Judge- Executive Bobby Carpenter, said arrangements are being made to store the rock in a government garage until a permanent display site is chosen. Options include a park in the tiny Ohio River town of South Shore, not far from the spot where the rock was taken.