The Ohio River forms the county’s eastern boundary. During the mid-1800s, over 100 paddle boats and flat boats left the Rising Sun wharfs each week, loaded with produce for market and passengers for southern river ports.

This sculpture appears to be a mask from the front, but when viewed from above a wheeled paddleboat streams away from port hauling its cargo. The two small circle objects look like eyes from the front but again when viewed from the top appear to be steam pipes. The subtle lines placed behind the rear of the boat as it travels upstream suggest movement in the water.

Designers Jeff Laramore and David Jemerson Young of 2nd Globe, an Indianapolis–based artistic company, designed all 92 of the county sculptures featured on the outside of the Indiana State Museum. Their designs narrate the counties’ famous natives, historically significant events, or their cultural characteristics, and were fabricated and installed by various Indiana sculptors, carvers, glassworkers, metalworkers, and other artisans.