Dishing the dirt... on coal in Guernsey County

You will be hard-pressed to gain a better understanding of the life of a coal miner than a 10-mile trek along the rails winding south and west through Guernsey County along the Byesville Scenic Railway (see right, click to enlarge). Just two miles south of the I-70 and I-77 interchange, Byesville is a stop along the Marietta & Pennsylvania Railroad and later the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O).

It is the combination of Ohio's earthen riches (coal) and transportation routes that make Guernsey County significant to history. Zane's Trace, a government funded trail in the late 1790s, was constructed to open up the lands of Ohio and Kentucky to the east, passed directly through the county. Zane's Trace became the National Road, and eventually U.S. 40, and further developed as an interstate (I-70) in the 1960s through the Eisenhower Interstate System. Just as the interstate system bisects the county, so do the rail lines moving significant amounts of cargo through Ohio to the Great Lakes and beyond.

The Byesville Scenic Railroad (BSR) offers a casual (about 12 mph) trip along the Marietta & Pittsburgh and B&O lines, beginning in its namesake, Byesville (see right, click to enlarge). The town's growth a hundred years ago was due to the high volume of coal workers in the area descending upon the city. Following the Civil War, coal mining became a huge endeavor in and around Byseville with dozens of mines being operated (see full history of Guernsey County). The city was incorporated in 1882 with a mere 300 people and today stands at 2,500 according to 2000 census totals. Between its incorporation and the height of the coal era, over 12,000 people (mostly coal miners in the region) are said to have visited town for shopping and entertainment.

The newly built station in Byesville (see left, click to enlarge) is the starting (and concluding) point for the rail excursion. Still being finished in the summer of 2010 were what appeared to be permanent offices, restrooms and souvenir shop. Here, passengers climb aboard one of several old rail cars, some originally built in 1918, nestled behind the purple and black diesel locomotive replete with logos of the BSR. Recently flooding severely damaged rails along the route, but despite this the BSR, certainly not immune to the modern economic difficulties of non-profit organizations, rebuilt the sections and operates normal tours and special excursions.

The cars (see left, click to enlarge) are spacious with ceilings that would be high for even modern luxurious homes. The windows, although aged, open and hold at different heights. It is recommended that passengers refrain from sticking anything out the window as the windows are heavy and dislodging from the set height could seriously hurt an appendage -- not to mention at several points objects along the railbed are very close (bridge trestles) or brush the cars (shrubs and branches). Looking at the details of the near century old passenger car one can find details of craftmanship that are noted on hinges, fasteners and latches (see right, click to enlarge).

The southern five mile route is a leisurely roll through gentle countryside but also economic hard times. From the windows can be seen sweeping hills, open wetlands and struggling local areas in another part of Ohio hard hit after industry has moved on. Through a wireless microphone and a speaker swaying dizzily from a mount on the car's ceiling mid-train, a narrator talks of the railroad, the landscape, the people of the area and a little about coal mining.

Some of the wetlands passed are more recent, as mother nature is reclaiming abandoned coal mines as collapsing roofs and mineshafts lead to natural flooding of the freshly created lowlands.

The area and people have seen tough times, and is evidenced by some of the sites seen outside the car's window. A few makeshift memorials are passed along the way for those who gave their lives in the grueling and dangerous occupation of coal mining (see left, click to enlarge). There is a movement by the BSR to construct a permanent memorial in Byesville that tributes coal miners.

Along the way the narrator jokes about the "local airport", where at one of the homes passed an old plane fuselage sits at the rear of the property either in storage or awaiting restoration. Another property showcases what looks like a 1950s gas station, with vintage pumps, building and signage -- and even the frame of an appropriate era car (see right, click to enlarge).

The train settles to a stop (see left, click to enlarge) about 8 miles from another Ohio tourist destination, The Wilds (web, previous blog entry). The wildlife preserve, operated by the Columbus Zoo, is located in Cumberland, Ohio and future plans (already under way) are to connect the BSR with the Wilds to give tourists a chance for a train ride on their visit to the preserve. The seats are here reversed in the cars (to keep a forward view of the activities) and the narrator undertakes a transformation.

The return trip, giving the tourist an alternative from much of the same vistas just encountered out the window, is an entirely different experience. The narrator applies some make-shift make-up to take on the look of a coal miner complete with tools (see left, click to enlarge). He enters into more of a first-person role and the following hour is time well spent back in history and deep underground. A little Johnny Cash provides the soundtrack at the beginning of Act II (as it were), as the strains of "owe my soul to the company store" (from Sixteen Tons, an often recorded folk song) set the tone for this trip back in time and back to Byseville.

Such personal interaction with the working conditions that were harsh (coal dust, trapped gases, flooding, etc.) to treatment that was less than ideal (payment of 10 cents a ton) and work that wasn't always constant (see right, click to enlarge) provides a stark contrast to the serene first half of the excursion. One learns of how the company store owned the worker, where payment (done in scrip) was redeemed only at that store and even homes were built on future scrip credit. All of the miners working tools, clothes, lunch pail, etc. were bought from his own pocket... and at the company store. As the narrator implies, it was essentially a form of slavery or indentured servitude.

It is a wonderful ride back in time, and the entire return trip feels like an authentic journey to a place a century ago where workers toiled long and hard, prying from thin and long veins in the earth the raw materials that would propel America into post-war Prosperity. Often overlooked is that many a men chose a different wartime path of patriotism by going into the mines to provide the literal fuel that would fire a nation's industry in wartime. The planned memorial seems all the more fitting upon arrival back in Byesville.

It's another of Ohio's intriguing place in history that can be found just minutes off the highway, along roads travelled hundreds of years by countless individuals.

- J.

Take ride on the WILD side...

Ohio is home to some pretty incredible zoos (Columbus, Cincinnati, Cleveland) but there is one place to go in Ohio where the animals roam free and the visitor is locked up! Roaming across 9,000 acres in southeastern Ohio's Meigs County, The WILDS is a twist on a zoo that shouldn't be missed. It's a place where the wildlife roams freely about the landscape while the visitor safari's around in a bus to view them (see right, click to enlarge).

Billed as the nation's largest animal conservatory, The Wilds opened to public viewing in the mid 1990's, offering a multiple-hour tour around several gated habitats where a handful of animals ranged free. The land in use was reclaimed after AEP had stripped-mine the area for coal and donated to the Wilds. There are rolling, grass covered hills, a few small bands of forest and many small lakes that dot the landscape.

Among the first white settlers to these hilltops were the Lett family, which became a mixed-race family whose descendants held many honored positions in Ohio and included several African-American soldiers in the Civil War serving in colored regiments. An Ohio historical marker notes this near the Overlook cafe and gift shop (see right, click to enlarge), but strangely this bit of historical context does not make any of the guided tour narration.

This is one destination where you have to get off the Interstate to reach, but it is easily found south of I-70 and west of I-77 about 35 minutes southeast of Zanesville and about 20 minutes south (and slightly west) of Cambridge. Mileage and/or Google maps will easily fool you, as your route winds you through some hilly countryside and you will not be able sit on your cruise control once off the highway!

The most common entrance to the Wilds leads along Zion Ridge Road, which as the name implies, is a unlined road that runs along the top of a hill and gives you sweeping views of the area. Once you reach the Wilds parking lot, a shuttle bus takes you from the parking lot to the visitor center. Whether you choose to tour the Wilds or not, parking and shuttle is separate cost of $3.

There are several touring options for the facility, the most common being a multi-hour, air-conditioned, closed shuttle bus (seating about 15) for $20 per adult. Small sliding window panels above the large picture windows allow for smudge, streak and glare free photography. Visitors will view all of the habitat zones while having a chance to visit three different off-the-bus experiences too. You can spend as long or as little as you want at each of these three stops.

A second, and nearly as popular, touring option is an open-air "safari" bus (see left, click to enlarge). This vehicle looks like a school bus that was turned into a rag-top convertible. There are no windows, which allows for great photo opportunities, but a canvas top that protects from the sun. This second, more expensive option at $27 per person, has less flexibility for the visitor to choose how long to visit each step-off site, but you will have the same guide the entire time. Each step-off site will have a narrated visit, whereas the smaller enclosed bus will drop you off for perusing on your own.

These stops are thoughtfully places along the tour as to give a nice variety to the experience. Visitng about 10 years ago, these options did not exist and it was a lengthy afternoon of being cooped up in a bus touring animals.

The first step-off experience is a prairie that edges up to the biggest lake on the property, nestled at the bottom of a pair of ridges (see left, click to enlarge). A few different habitats touch this lake and you can view, although at a considerable distance, different animals. While along the lakes edge, where you can feed the swans and catfish (the only feeding location in the park), we could spy at the waters edge on the opposite shore the Sichuan Takin (pronounced Sesh-wan Talk-in). An unusal breed that looks like a cross between a goat, antelope and... guinea pig. High-powered binoculars, which can be rented at the visitor center, or long-lens photography would be the only way to view these animals at that distance.

The smaller bus option has a guide who drives and talks as you drive through each habitat. The driver will stop along the route at optimum viewing angles for the animals. What makes The Wilds so unique, is that the animals are frequently on the move. It also means you just don't know what to expect (including the driver!). The first habitat we came across the guide sensed our excitement as we spotted a few Rhinoceroses between a grove of trees (see right, click to enlarge) and stopped for several minutes for us to gawk and snap photos even though she couldn't spot them from her seat.

The habitats are set up so that competing animals won't be prowling the pen for prey. Some of the more curious, or perhaps attidue-laden, animals like to come up to the busses. Unlike some animal situations involving visitors, feeding them is not one of them. So the animals are not coming to the vehicles looking for some goodies. The guides are sensitive to the animals and if they plop themselves in front of the vehicle you'll have a few minutes (or more!) wait until the animal decides to scoot along.

The second stop to disembark at was the Mid-sized Carnivore Center. This is the one area that more closely resembles a zoo, as you can walk along a path to a building that overlooks three different pens where hyena, a fox species and cheetahs are penned. Each area is significantly bigger than a typical zoo's displaying area, but they are still constricted in their range. The building also serves as a nice snack stop, offering light-fare (sandwhiches, chips, drinks, ice cream) and ample and modern restroom facilities. The other two step-off sites offer only porta-potties in comparison.

This stop on the day of visiting also was offering face-painting for kids. The fencing around the pens, and throughout the Wilds, is elecrified and it allowed the visitor to get very close to a few snoozing cheetahs. As we moved to catch the next shuttle bus at the Carnivore Center, a cheetah broke out in a gallop as it heard a staff vehicle approaching near its gate and assumed (unfortunately and incorrectly) it was dinner time (see right, click to enlarge).

The final step-off experience is a shorter one, located among the habitat for the white rhino and zebras (see left, click to enlarge). As we entered the habitat you could see the rhino near the enclosure where we would get off the bus, but by the time we were about halfway to the enclosure (about 5 minutes later), they had wandered 200 yards beyond it. Upon arriving (15 minutes after entering the habitat zone) the rhinos had moved another few hundred yards to the edge of the road where we had just been. This enclosure (called The Outpost) gives a sweeping view of the southern end of the Wilds and has several horns and skulls of animals and a brief narration by the guide. Upon leaving the zone, the rhino had moved several hundred yards again, far beyond the road.

Weaving around to the final habitat, you pass a narrow but long lake known as "Lake T". This was an artifical creation left behind from strip mining. The lake was dug by a behemoth of a crane, known as the Big Muskie. Created for strip mining operations, cranes like the Big Muskie were used to dig deep to unearth the coal in the hills (see right, click to enlarge). At a "mere" 27 million pounds, the Big Muskie would dig 185 feet down with each scoop of its 220 cubic yard bucket. The remaining lake was courtesy of Big Muskie, which today resides about 15 miles down Ohio route 83 as a historic/tourist destination in Reinersville, Ohio (map, web, YouTube).

The Wilds has continued to expand options for those interested in visiting. Newly built cabins near the visitor center with a grand view of the region can be rented for overnight or weekend stays. There are several of summer camp options for families and kids that involve the park and the staff. There is even a sunset tour where a catered buffet dinner preceds an open-safari bus tour of the complex.

Due the nature of this twist on nature, visits to The Wilds will offer different experiences each time. As the guide pointed out, each time they drive through a habitat the animals can be doing something different or be in a completely different part of the pen from the previous trip earlier in the day. Sometimes you get an up-close and personal view, as we did with camels and giraffes (see left and right, click to enlarge). But sometimes you might not see them at all, which was the case with the Sichuan Takins stayed along the water line and far from the road

The Wilds offers an experience quite unique to those zoo-goers and an experience unlike many you can find anywhere in the country. But you can see it on a quick jaunt within the Wilds of Ohio.

- J.