It’s like a discovery channel special, a living history lesson and a heated border war all rolled into one. A recent river recovery of an eight ton treasure was followed by angry claims of archeological thievery.

This sandstone scratching is far from another face in the crowd. After years of planning and weeks of effort, a Portsmouth, Ohio Volunteer Recovery Team pulled the prehistoric, legendary Indian’s Head Rock off the mighty Ohio River’s bottom.

“It was tough to get straps around it,” recovery team diver Dave Vetter said.

In the 18 and early 1900's before the days of locks and dams, the boulder would pop up every decade or so, depending on river levels the rock became a popular tourist attraction, a gilded age photo op, featured in post cards. Some of Portsmouth’s most prominent citizens scratched their names in the sandstone. Some think maybe this smiling face is an ancient Indian petroglyph, or maybe not.

“Maybe a quarrymen or an alien from Mars,” Vetter said.

The recovery team presented the rock to the city of Portsmouth for public display.

“People can study history, it better than where it was,” Mayor Jim Kalb said.

Technically speaking, Corps of Engineers folks say this stretch of Ohio River is Kentucky property and now an angry group of Kentuckians from across the river is mounting a political and legal battle, calling the Ohio Rock Recovery Team archeological looters and possible interstate felons.

“They stole it, the consensus is to study it and put it back,” Joe Stockham of South Shore said.

The city of Portsmouth hopes to display Indian's Head Rock at the welcome center or the new city hall. Meanwhile the Kentucky group says the attorney general's office is contacting the state police to file theft charges against the Ohio recovery team.