Photo courtesy Dirk Morgan
In 1957, Bob Morgan was a teacher at Sycamore Junior High School but in the summer months, his classroom was the Little Miami River. He took trips, called Canoe Trails with students, canoe beginners, and enthusiasts—even Senator Portman, when he was a young boy. A few years later, Bob and his wife June, bought an old farm on the Little Miami River in Ft. Ancient. Dirk Morgan, one of their five sons, remembers the trips fondly. Shortly after, in 1964, Morgan’s Canoe Livery was formed, and the family business was born.
Rob Morgan, another of the five brothers, says his earliest memories were of sitting in the middle of a canoe, paddled by his parents. “I dozed on packs and equipment on the way to the next campsite . . . and my brothers and I all grew up in the business working long summer days without a weekend break.”
For the six decades to follow, travelers and locals alike stopped to enjoy the river, canoeing, kayaking, and camping nearby. Morgan’s Canoe and Outdoor Adventures, as it is now called, announced on Facebook on January 15 a “bittersweet goodbye,” sharing it will be closing its Ohio location in Warren County. Some of its popular offers included twilight dinner floats, canoe trips, and triathlons.
On January 22, the family posted an additional announcement that the Brookville, Indiana location is now for sale. According to Dirk, the Costa Rica location has been for sale for months. Though the Morgan brothers running the family business—Rob, Dirk, and Randy—are soon putting up their paddles, their family’s legacy will live on by protecting the river through conservation efforts.
An Activist Before It Was Cool
June Morgan knew what a valuable resource the Little Miami River was decades before conservationism was part of the conversation. “She’s the one who really beat the drum to protect the river,” Dirk says. “They led a lot of clean-up floats in the ’60s, pulling everything from washing machines and refrigerators to cars and a lot of tires out of the river.” Dirk remembers people would get their money back for returning the boat with two bags full of trash.
Photo courtesy Dirk Morgan
Dirk’s father knew the land was in one of the more remote and scenic sections, and that it would hold its water level better than other spots. In 1971, after inviting the governor to canoe the river, the family played an integral role in the Little Miami’s Wild and Scenic River status, the first in Ohio and one of the first 12 nationwide.
Bob believed in a business philosophy; “Preservation through utilization. Get people out in the river,” says Dirk. “Teach them how to experience it, enjoy it, leave only footprints that would ensure they’d fall in love with it and want to protect it.”
Preserving the River’s Future
Dirk’s “thank you” to his parents for the family business comes in the form of protecting the river’s future. “My crystal ball says with the growing population between Dayton and Cincinnati, the Little Miami River is going to be kind of squeezed. We’re going to need to protect every bit of watershed and green space we can,” he says. It was a serendipitous day on the river when Dick Geier stepped forward as a donor. In a full circle moment, he was one of Bob’s participants in Canoe Trails with him in 1967.
Photo courtesy Dirk Morgan
The family leaves on a high note, proud of the conservation efforts to protect the river. 25 acres at the Warren County location are now considered protected land through working with the Susan Geier Peters Foundation, the Little Miami Conservancy, and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“The legacy of this river and its importance to people and wildlife will live on through conservation efforts that protect its beauty and ecosystem,” Morgan’s Canoe shared in a press release.
Jason Brownknight of the Little Miami Conservancy says the five properties they purchased from the Morgan family will be preserved as natural spaces and protect the wildlife habitat and river.
“No final plans have been made regarding the recreational usage of some of the properties, including the campground and livery headquarters,” he says. “The river access at Ft. Ancient is a public access so that will remain open to visitors who have their own boats. Paddlers can put in at the Caesar Creek Public Access and float down to Ft. Ancient. Or they can put in at Ft. Ancient and float down to the Halls Creek Public Access in Morrow.”
Brownknight encourages those looking for river maps of the properties to utilize the conservancy’s downloadable maps on their website.
The Memories Live On
For those relying on the livery for their summer adventures, summers on the river are now going to have to be just a memory. One such local mom is Lauren Helm, a Liberty Township parent who remembers high school and college trips on the river with friends. “Ten-plus canoes and kayaks would head out and take way longer than it should to get to the end,” she recalls. Later in life, she brought her dogs to the river in their own life jackets. Then, when her daughter was old enough, they started going as a family. “Two years ago, she was big and brave enough to jump off the same rope swing I did as a crazy teen.”
Photo courtesy Lauren Helm
Helm has fond memories of the winding drive along the river, which she says was always eventful. “One time the whole school bus sang along to a country song, and another time there were more dogs than people in their van riding back.”
Fans can follow the Morgan family to their Brookville, Indiana location to check out the Whitewater River, which will still have one more season as they await a buyer. Dirk says they will likely have a customer appreciation day there soon.
As for the Morgan brothers and their children and grandchildren who have worked at the family business, there are other campgrounds, river adventures, and relaxation in their future. Dirk shares they are headed to make some memories of their own after decades of ensuring others had the summer of their lives. But as Rob says of those long hot summer days helping others fall in love with the river, “I enjoyed every moment.”
Photo courtesy Dirk Morgan
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