A mid-winter's drive

Sometimes we huslte and bustle along the interstate trying to beat the rush or avoid the hassles. But sometimes twice the time can be a relaxing view of the history and beauty of the state. A Columbus to Canton drive was recently made more interesting by avoiding four-lanes of interstate.

The little, but growing, burg of Sunbury (wiki, government) is nestled northeast of Columbus US 36 and State routes 3 and 37. State Route 3, also known as the 3-C highway, connects Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland and was the preferred route before the interstate system connected the three cities in a nearly parallel path. Routes 3 and 36 skirt the town square, which today seems to be doing fairly well for aging buildings in a retail swath that has been avoided by traffic patterns. A wide open green surrounds (see Google aerial map) the main town hall building (from 1816) with plenty of retail stores rimming the square (see right, click to enlarge).

Riding north along Route 3/36 you pass through the alleged "geographic center" of Ohio, which is appropriately named Centerburg. One of the unique little buildings with an assured history that's unpublished on the web, is of a former little gas station/garage that sits along the main road. Over the years it has been renovated and currently it is hard to determine if it is still under work or if economic realities have struck (see left, click to enlarge).

The next big little burg along the 3/36 is the town of Mt. Vernon (wiki, history), which was founded in 1805. There are still many century homes along the main streets but the downtown square is another true town square like Sunbury's (see right, click to enlarge), only much more congested since Routes 3, 13, 36 and 229 merge here. Look lively while driving, for each carve a different path through the central city.

I found an old building interesting (see left, click to enlarge) in that what appear to be two apartments, or perhaps a single townhome, look to have been at one time a luxurious off-the-square living arrangement. Time has passed and the building used differently in time, but the living quarters remain.

Just off the downtown square is a restored railroad depot for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad (see above). It has been completely renovated with private funding, a total reaching approximately $800,000. While not in use as a depot, the railroad tracks are still active as a CSX train chugged through around the time of the picture. Close to the depot is the Mount Vernon Inn, a large bed and breakfast establishment. Rooms start around $100 per night but increase with Jacuzzie suites (see right, click to enlarge).

From Mt. Vernon there are several route options in heading for Canton. Route 36 runs east to Coshocton, where a link to I-77 will take you to Canton. Route 3 continues its parallel jog to I-71 and takes the driver through the hills of Mansfield, Loudonville and Mohican, where there are great summer excursions for hiking and canoeing. Route 62 takes a different scenic path, also through rolling hills, that leads into Amish country.

Amish country in Ohio (see left, click to enlarge) has become a tourist destination, if not Mecca, for crafts, cheese and furniture. Along these state and U.S. routes that are avoided by those traveling the to the Big C's in Ohio (Cincy, Columbus and Cleveland) there is much evidence of hard economic times and only in the suburban fringes of the big cities signs of new growth. But Amish country has plenty of new growth and signs of more coming. Some of the tourist destinations have closed, but perhaps more due to fierce competition of the tourist dollar and not the economy itself.

Millersburg (wiki) is the "big city" hub of Amish country. By Ohio standards, Millersburg isn't exactly and old "village", having been founded at the Civil War's end in 1865. The Old Town of Millersburg however was laid out in 1815. There is an old hotel, one of the oldest operating in Ohio (with reasonable rates rooms starting at $60), along the town square.

Millersburg is the third city along the day's drive with a sizeable and still functioning downtown square (see left, click to enlarge). Tourism and the convergence of US 62 and Ohio 83 have helped maintain some viability to the town. The courthouse is a sizeable brownstone structure that was built in the late Victorian Age and still maintains its charm on the square (see above right, click to enlarge).

From Millersburg a traveler can run right into Canton on U.S. 62, head to Massillon via Route 21 or run up Ohio 39 to Canal Fulton (wiki, history), where my final stop was before heading home. Canal Fulton is along the Ohio and Erie Canal and has been featured in a previous entry. The recent cold spell had frozen over many small creeks and ponds, and did not offer much variety for a good photo. But the Tuscarawas River is wide and flows fairly fast, and here at Canal Fulton along the abutment of an older bridge patches of ice, snow and mallard ducks made for an interesting final photo of the day (see right, click to enlarge).

While the time between Columbus and Canton was more than twice that of the interstate system (slowed albeit by a stop here and there for a picture), it was a chance to get off the beaten path and see a part of Ohio that is not often seen by those zipping along at 65 m.p.h.

- J.

Brick by Brick... a tale of two cities.

The staple of many childhood hours of creative fun for many was the imaginative ways to build things out of Lego's. First conceived as a Danish small business of tools and goods to help around the house that turned into toy production, LEGO was a combination of the Dutch words "Leg Godt" which means play well. The plastic bricks (wiki) though are synonymous with childhood play and are perhaps the most durable toy.

Wedged into a neighborhood, tucked between a river and a hill, The Toy and Plastic Brick Muselum (see left, click to enlarge) is home to the largest private LEGO based museum in the world. Located in Bellaire, Ohio (map, wiki), it would be easy to miss this museum, if not town, that is located just outside Wheeling, West Virginia about a mile or so south of I-470 right on the Ohio River. But inside this museum are virtual Lego cities that are creative, vibrant and bustling little villas from throughout time.

The museum occupies what was once the Old Gravel Hill School, (see right, click to enlarge) which is nearing 100 years of service having been a school in 1913 (reference in 9th paragraph) and allegedly apartment building in the 1950s (reference just above heading "Ohio River and Western Railroad"). It is hard to imagine the building as apartment as it is currently very school like and not configured for apartments. The museum opened in 2007 but due to economic realities all museums and historical sites face, does not always operate on a steady schedule. For winter 2010 it appears to be open only on Saturdays.

Greeting you through the front doors is a four foot Lego troll that beckons you to walk up the stairs (see left, click to enlarge), each with a backing painted a different color to give resemblance of Lego bricks. The front desk at the top of the stairs features two cash registers, one for real cash and another that is a Lego mock-up of a cash register (complete with Lego cash inside).


To walk the museum is to step back into one's childhood and see Lego creations of immense imagination. There are many life-size figures, including Star War's villain Darth Vader along with R2D2 that greet you as you walk into the main lobby. Other life size figures includes knights, Spiderman, basketball players and several trolls. The Star Wars room is a present favorite of this generation of youth, as the cartoon series and more recent prequels have spawned new interest in Lego creations. Fittingly the Statue of Liberty is on display yielding a light saber, ready to defend us all. (see above right, click to enlarge)

Each room of the museum features a theme and has Lego creations and other toys that match the characterization. There are rooms for Star Wars, Knights, Western, Aqua, Animals, and more stuffed into corners of the hallways and walkways. The third floor boasts a 10+ foot replica of the Vietnam Veteran's Bridge over the Maumee River in Toledo, Ohio, completely made out of Lego bricks. (see left, click to enlarge)

Outside the water room is a miniature (but not by much) pleasure power boat, with part of the front deck missing to better see the impressive construction of the vessel (see right, click to enlarge). Inside the water room are a 5' x 2' by 3' Coast Guard cutter (see left, click to enlarge), similar sized ocean-going cargo ships, an old paddle-wheeler and several others. The boats all sit on a Lego ocean, as each room is a sort of diorama setting with the creations as part of a scene.



The medieval room has an impressive 30,000-element storming of the castle's keep (see right, click to enlarge), which took six month to create and features over 1,000 little black knight "mini-figures". The attention to detail in building these creations is fascinating and shows a patience and perseverance few have. I thought of this as I looked down into a small part of this 10' x 10' layout and saw a pit of scorpions... probably 20 little plastic Lego scorpions.

The animal room looks like a sort of plasticized zoo, with animals, some true-to-scale (see left, click to enlarge), behind chicken wire for the spectator's safety (or to keep little hands from knocking the animals over and sending the bricks into disarray). The Western room, a bit sparse on the Lego creations, has themed Simpson characters including Bart standing guard outside of a jail where one of his school mates has been locked up. (see left, click to enlarge)


The city room has another 10' x 10' diorama that shows a modern city, billed in news stories as San Francisco (but it is missing iconic San Fran buildings and hills!). Most creative here is a basketball arena filled with Lego players, spectators, cheerleaders and impressive architectural structures (see right, click to enlarge). Lining places in the room, and throughout the museum, are little creations that children have made and left behind for the museum to display. Cubbies in the hallways sport little unique designs by children of all ages who stop to visit.



Some of the most impressive displays are the mosaics created with smaller Lego pieces. A Mona Lisa replica boasts 47,000 different pieces (see left, click to enlarge). A Yoda figure stares at you in the Star Wars room, but the largest scale mosaic is a replica of Mount Rushmore than is easily 10 feet long and 5 feet high.

The museum's website boasts of several world record creations, but the former gym of the school is host to an official Guiness World Record for the largest Lego image (see right, click to enlarge) weighing in at 44 feet by 20 feet, with hosts of large Lego people and other creations as well, said to have a total of 1.2 million Lego pieces (see news story).

While finding the museum is not difficult, being a right from Ohio 7 south, then a left turn down a one-way street, trying to jump back on Ohio 7 north can be quite confusing. Bellaire is a typical river town that is not very wide, but very long. Finding that one intersecting street that goes back to the highway is a trick but leads you through a town that time has passed by, perhaps repeatedly.

Appalachia Ohio was economically depressed before the recent recession hit hard. Steel and coal were once the staples of many river towns and the remnants of the downtown area show a town that was once vibrant and bustling. Today the 2- and 3-story buildings along the main drag are vacant or housed with mom and pop businesses that may last a few months or a few years. An old iron bridge that crosses the Ohio River was closed in the early 1990s and the Ohio approached demolished.

While the Toy and Plastic Brick Museum is not going to be the tourist source to revitalize Bellaire, it is one of those off-the-beaten-path treasures that Ohio hides within her borders. It shows how Ohio can Dickens-like in that within the economic hard times of one situation there still can be beauty and joy in another.

- J.

Get your kicks on Route Six...teen?

Not to be confused with the historic and legendary Route 66 that winds through the west and is recorded in song and nostalgia, Ohio has a Route that is quirky in its own way. Between Granville and Coshocton, Route 16 (google map) is primarily a two lane state highway that is part of a connector between Columbus and Pittsburgh. One can jump on Route 16 in Columbus and run it to Coshocton, where it joins U.S. 36 that crosses I-77 about an hour south of Canton. While far from the fastest way from Columbus to Canton, it does provide more interest than the repetitive treed hills, farms and otherwise monotonous landscapes of I-71, I-70 and I-77.

The quirky journey begins in Granville, where the 4-lane Ohio 161 merges with Route 16 in divided 4-lane limited access highway. Granville is a unique place to visit with a "downtown" that is picturesque and 19th Century. Home to Dennison University, Granville (wiki, city web) was settled by New Englanders who laid out the town similar to their homes in, fittingly, Granville, Massachusetts and Granby, Connecticut. For such a charming, but small community, it is little known that is has produced Woody Hayes, Lee Ann Parlsey (2002 Winter Olympics medalist), Steve Carrell (The Office, feature films) and Jennifer Garner (feature films), albeit Carell and Garner attended Denison and wasn't a "townie").

It will take about an hour to travel this Route to Coshocton, but keep eyes out for many usual vistas that are historic or interesting (depending upon your definition of "interest" of course).

Newark is the next and most sizable city along this stretch, about 10 minutes westward. It is deeply historic, as the Fort Ancient peoples have a burial mound here known as the Newark Earthworks, operated by the Ohio Historical Society. It is not along Route 16, but it is close. Newark is another of those Ohio towns that had its heyday in another era. It's growth traced to the Ohio-Erie canal, Newark today is slowly revitalizing and updating but bigger than you might think if you looked at road maps alone.

As you reach the eastern outskirts of Newark, one of the country's most unusual buildings can be found soaring mildly above the countryside the beckons you beyond. Longaberger Basket Company plopped its international headquarters down here, right on Route 16, and how better to advertise your unique product than with unique architecture. The one-of-a-kind basket building certainly is a conversation centerpiece (see right, click to enlarge). The 7-story "basket" bears almost no resemblance to a building, save for windows "woven" harmoniously into the design. The handles of the basket soar another five or six stories.

Moving beyond Newark the road carves through many rocky limestone and sandstone hills, leaving behind many interesting formations, including one where lichen has grown a firm and thick green sheen to the rock face (see left, click to enlarge). There are numerous places throughout Ohio where you can come across a sudden rock facing apparently out of nowhere. This particular facing doesn't appear man-made. Other facings bear the drill marks where explosives were set to blow the rock apart and can show the strata of the rock layers.

The aforementioned Longaberger's factory, and unique shopping village, lay another further east of corporate HQ along Route 16. Photos and essay of the Homestead were previously posted here, including links to former Route 16 little burgs of Frazeysburg and Dresden. 4-lane highway move the visitors to Longaberger out of Newark to the factory quicker these days by bypassing the few stoplights that exist along that stretch.

Passing along the high ridges of the hills, once can look down upon the sprawling Longaberger complex. While hit harder than other manufacturers during the down Ohio economy of the first decade of the 2000's (the baskets are an expensive luxury item), it is still nonetheless chugging along. About 10 minutes further east on Route 16 the 4-lane divided highway collapses back into a 2-lane highway, but one where no traffic light will be seen until the outskirts of Coshocton.

Along this 2-lane stretch there is a centennial, working farmstead (see right, click to enlarge). Nestled into the hills, a sign proudly displays the years of operation and fittingly the barn carries the Ohio Bicentennial logo. A barn in each of Ohio's 88 counties was chosen to have the logo painted and whether or not this is the official barn I have no knowledge. The farmstead buildings are all painted white and in excellent condition.

Continuing eastward, rounding a curve along the base of some hills is an open stretch of grassy land nestled between wetlands, railroad tracks and the road. A westward route makes this site easier to comprehend than an eastward one, but the long strip of land contains the Graham Farm Airport. Little more than a shed for a plane and a pair of large orange wind-sock indicators (see left, click to enlarge), this grass strip could easily strike terror into the hearts of motorists should a plane come in for a landing. The "airport" is but feet off the road!

Literally moments on down the road, a non-descript crossing belays the historic nature of what used to be here. Westward travel might make this landmark easy to miss, but eastward traveling focuses the eyes a bit better. It is the remnants of a pair of locks on the Ohio-Erie canal. This particular lock bears the name Adams Mills. The half-dozen buildings here with a simple state road sign announcing the name give little historic indication of the place.

George Willison Adams constructed a mill at this location in the 1830s and allowed his employees to construct homes on the adjoining property of the mill free of charge. The flour mill operated continuously and was dismantled and rebuilt a few miles down the road into Dresden in the 1900s but burned to the ground in 2009. Despite its tiny stature (only 15 homes currently), Adams Mills operated a post-office between 1944 and 1990 with only one postmaster during that time.

The stone foundation of the locks is in amazingly good condition despite the long-since disappeared canal (see right, click to enlarge). The road is but a dozen or so feet from the lock and either by chance or care, nothing other than grass has grown in the lock basin that extends for a good 30 feet or so. The individual cut stones look as if they could have been cut last week, let along just shy of 200 years ago.

Backtracking a quarter mile or so westward on Route 16 towards the "airport" the boggy wetlands between the rail line and the road is known as Munro Basin and was used to park or turn around canal boats. Fittingly that rail line mimics some of the old canal route moving significantly more freight but in similar circumstances.

About four miles to the east, as you finally start to close on Coshocton, lies Conesville, Ohio. The site along Route 16 here is visible just about as soon as you pass through Adams Mills from the west or Coshocton from the east. American Electric Power (AEP) operates a massive power generating facility in Conesville on behalf of Duke Energy (see right, click to enlarge). The smokestacks of which tower high over the land (google map) and can be seen snaking in and out of the treeline as the road winds between hills and the Tuscarawas River as one travels westward from Coshocton. A sign along Route 16 near the facility entrance touts the energy and job creation of the plant, the site is not without its opposition as a web site warns of its high toxic output to the environment.

Route 16 ends in Coshocton, and as the road re-emerges as a divided 4-lane limited access highway, Roscoe Village can be seen on the western side of the road. The town emerged in the 1830s as another canal stop along the Ohio-Erie Canal. Today the village is a restored arts and crafts stop that also offers historical connections in a museum, Monticello canal boat ride and renovated villages with first-person re-enactment available. Christmas is a unique time in the village with themed 1800s activities for the season (see above left, click to enlarge).

An interesting stop at the edge of Roscoe Village is the "Triple Locks" - a spot where canal boats were raised three levels to continue the journey along the canal (see right, click to enlarge). The locks today are a small community park, offering just a few benches and a small picnic shelter that overlook a little lake (or perhaps large pond better describes). At first glance the locks spill into the lake and it takes a moment to realize how an animal-pulled boat would make it to the locks across that lake. But still visible today are the stumps of the wooden piers that held a bridge or dock (see left, click to enlarge) for the animals to pull the boats across the lake.

While Route 16 ends unceremoniously here in Coshocton, continuing on U.S. 36 towards the highway to faster travel of points north and south along I-77, there is one more stop that provides a fitting cap to this quirky little journey. About 10-15 minutes east of Roscoe Village (depending upon wait time at traffic lights) is Unusual Junction, a fitting name to a strange sight (see right, click to enlarge). Several old railway cars and a reproduced depot are the storefront for a strange combination of bridal shop and antique mall... across the street from a winery no less (Raven's Glenn Winery). Scattered among the parking lot are more unusual sites, such as a miniature Statue of Liberty and a jail-rail car.

This last inclusion is not a historic stop, but the label is fitting for it is an unusual junction. And only in Ohio can such an excursion combine 200 years of history with unique, if not quirky, sites.

- J.

A brutal place at a brutal time

Just as you begin to enter the central downtown area of Columbus as you motor south on Interstate 71, a curve of the highway passes you my a very square and unassuming block of a building. Is it an office building? There are no windows. Is it an arena? It's too small. What is it? It is the center of Ohio's historical universe: the architectually significant Ohio Historical Society's headquarters and museum (see left, click to enlarge).

Housed within are the typical fare for a statewide museum charged with the mission of protecting, preserving and promoting the state's historical interests. There is a museum with permanent displays of the state's progress from a backcountry frontier in the 1700s and early 1800s to its political heyday in the Victorian Age and early 20th Century to its might as an industrial power in the mid 1900s.

A favorite with younger school aged groups is the wing on Ohio's natural history, with the mammoth Mammoth that greets visitors to this section of the building (see left, click to enlarge). There are plenty of animals and some hands-on activities in this part of the museum. The entire lower section of the museum offers a lot to see with artifacts and reproductions from Ohio's past and promise.

There are many temporary displays that can be national or local in flavor. One such display was of Norman Rockwell's America, another on photographs that changed the world. 2009 saw the introduction titled Soul! which focused on African-American art and historical contributions (see right, click to enlarge).

But this odd building is home to more than tourist displays. On the floors above there are archives and a library where one can delve deeply into the written history that has built the state's legacy. A private tour of the archives can unearth the unusual. If lucky enough to arrange an off-site tour (as a group of teachers was able to do in 2008), there is an off-site warehouse chock full of large and varied treasures of the past.

Next door, but on the property, is a limited-operation recreated village known as Ohio Village. At one time it was a regularly staffed 1800s village, but budget reductions has it now operating as a special event venue.

Hours vary for the museum and the research library, and budget issues at the state level can change the schedule even more.

The research library offers county histories, military unit rosters, city directories and much more for the curious or the family genealogist. A massive collection of newspapers and other state documents can be viewed on microfilm and microfiche.

But it is sitting in the library where gazing upwards can begin wonderment to the architecture of the building (see left, click to enlarge). At first glance once can muse about why the building hasn't been finished in all these years. The bare concrete roof is visible and the walls are but bare slabs of poured concrete. Were windows originally designed and cut out due to cost overruns? The answer is brutal... literally.

The building was built in the late 1960s in the architectural style known as "brutalism" (wiki, web). As described by the historical society:

Distinguished by its structural honesty and undisguised, blunt use of materials, Brutalism departed from conventional bourgeois styles. Stone and marble were rejected in favor of form-textured concrete, or beton brut, a technique employed by the French architect LeCorbusier.

The American Institute of Architects hails the building as a "bold, imaginative, almost startling structure" and the Architectural Record described it similarly as "the most architecturally significant public structure built in Ohio since the State Capitol Building." (see above right, click to enlarge)

Walking around the building brings a different sense then to history, as not only are the displays within the building historic, the building itself has become the same. While budgets are hard to balance in tough economic times, history and the arts tend to face the scalpel -- or sometimes the axe -- in cuts first.

The Ohio Historical Society is a treasure and here's hoping that it is not plundered to stem the loss of revenue during a lengthy recession and recovery.

- J.

Those Autumn Leaves... in Ohio

The big ticket tourism for fall colors is always New England. But don't sell Ohio short. With the right mix of hardwoods, Ohio's autumn foliage rivals any place on the continent. Ohio is one of the rare places in the country that boasts a full experience for all four seasons. We have beautiful and mild Springs, warm and humid Summers, cool and picturesque Falls and cold and snowy Winters.

While we have four full seasons, the length of each varies greatly. These seasons can be both envigorating and frustrating, as sometimes the cold of winter can set in well before Thanksgiving and linger until Easter. There are years where Springtime mild temperatures are but a week or two before a hot summer starts. But we also can see cool summers and mild winters. Variety. we have it in abundance and it is that unpredictability that make the seasons in Ohio interesting.

2009 saw a mild summer with few 90-degree days. But September had some early chills and some early frosts and freezes followed by Indian Summer-like temperatures kicked the trees full color mode. The many creeks, streams, rivers and lakes offer beatiful morning vistas, as the previous day's heat lingers as the cool air settles down overnight. A morning stroll along the water's edge will offer a misty view as sun peeks over the horizon. Copley Township's Wolf Creek offers several views such as the one above-left (click to enlarge) over many a September morning.

At first Ohio's foliage slowly turns with a spot of yellow,
red or orange seeping into the greenery of the woods.
It's a subtle start, where one isn't sure if this will be all
we get or if the colors will be bold and vibrant. This
year the oranges peeked into Northeast Ohio
first (see left, click to enlarge).

The southern and eastern halves of Ohio have rolling landscapes, as the Appalachian foothills spill into the eastern edge of central and southern Ohio. As the leaves begin to move into various oranges and reds, the rolling hills give a spectacular view. Even along the water's edge of Springfield Lake in Summit County, the little Village of Lakemore (below, click to enlarge) looks as if it is from a Normal Rockwell inspired town nestled into New Hampshire.

Those many lakes and streams in Ohio also serve as a great source of reflection for the splendors of the autumn colors. Some of the trees that defoliate early in spring bare a sense of winter foreshadowing against the greens, yellows, oranges and reds that are deepening as fall unfolds (see right, click to enlarge). The State of Ohio Department of Natural Resources offers driving tour suggestions for the different regions of the state as well as "peak foliage" charts on their websites.

Almost without warning, suddenly the reds splash through the spectrum of colors of the trees. Sugar maples, oaks and cherry trees burst on the scene, supplemented by other bushes, like Burning Bushes (see right, click to enlarge), and vines, such as Virginia Creeper, that join in the hue. Rain can even lend a sheen to the leaf and bring out the deep array of colors. Trees that often are overlooked during spring and summer become celebrities, even a simple maple in the courtyard of a building (see left, click to enlarge).

As October continues along, the yellow, golds and oranges deepen. 2009 has seen a very deep and rich orange end of the color spectrum. From the same vantage point as the above misty morning on Wolf Creek, a striking difference in the color palate is seen just a few weeks later on a bright and sunny day (see right, click to enlarge). Many Ohio county government and tourist agencies tout autumn trips along many of the riverscapes in the state. Lake County's Soil and Conservation District teamed with the Visitor's Bureau to sponsor tours of the streams and watersheds, nurseries and wineries in the county.

There are numerous parks throughout the state where one can take in the natural beauty on short -- or long -- hikes through woods. The only National Park in the state is the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, but to the far southeast in the state the Wayne National Forest will match the fall colors of the Valley. There are 73 Ohio State Parks (available from the Ohio State Parks website), major metropark system for the big cities in the states and countless municipal and township parks scattered throughout the 88 counties. The vibrant yellows pushing through the late turning greens are seen above right in the Firestone Metropark of the Summit County Metroparks system.

And even in Ohio our evergreen trees get into the game and show off a splash of color. On display at a local nursery is a form of evergreen that too changes colors as fall gives way to winter (see right, click to enlarge). The rusty color starts at the tips and spreads back toward the center of the leaf, leaving a bright green inner tracing on the leave.

But the beauty of the season will soon pass into the cold winter. How long and how deep with the cold be? As always, it's hard to predict. Ohioans like four seasons, but we don't always like them lasting beyond their time and in general "mild" is a nice way to enjoy the winter and the summer months.

Spring and Fall do not always last as long as we want, but while it is here we try to enjoy it as best as we can. And when the colors of fall are as vibrant as they have been in 2009, it gives one solace to think that should your final resting place be in Ohio even the cemetery can have all the splendor of nature's fall foliage on display (see left, click to enlarge).

Since you went away the days grow long
And soon I'll hear old winter's song
But I miss you most of all my darling
When autumn leaves start to fall
- Johnny Mercer, "Autumn Leaves"

- J.

Battle on the Ohio-Erie Canal

While the Civil War was primarily waged in the South there were skirmishes in Ohio, most notably Morgan's Raids into southern Ohio where a marker stands near a conflagration. But on an early fall weekend along the Ohio and Erie Canal, a battle waged that looked and felt like a step back into the 1860s.

Zoar Village is a living history village overseen by the Ohio Historical Society. Nestled along the Ohio and Erie Canal in northern Tuscarawas County, Zoar was a communal village that existed between the early 1800s and the late 1890s [see previous entry]. When you couple a historic village, replete with Victorian age homes and buildings that have been restored, with a passion for re-enacting the Civil War, you get a weekend unlike any other.

The Battle on the Ohio-Erie Canal puts over 1,000 re-enactors for a weekend encampment in this historic place. Camps were pitched throughout the town and as you walk the streets you could get a sense of real history. This is what many places looked like during those war-torn years. Fittingly the units portraying the north were camped along the northern edges of the village and the rebels the southern and western parts. While walking along one set of tents, marveling at how authentic the scene looked against a home built in the mid 1800s, you still can chuckle seeing a 2008 Mustang parked in the driveway.

What sets this re-enactment apart from many others is the air of authenticity of the village. It feels like this is the way things should look. Even a baby being pulled along in Victorian-age baby carriage did not seem to strike me as unusual. Although later walking through House #1 in the Village and the display in one room of Victorian baby gear (a kind of 1860s Babies R Us display) made me think of checking close to see if one of the carriages was missing.

Walking among the Sutlers (for non-Civil War folks, these are the merchants that trailed armies, selling them the wares they did not get from the Army), the sounds of a fife and drum unit demonstrating their military purpose could be heard wafting among the smells of kettle corn and other modern concessions. Certainly an unusual juxtaposition of vintage and contemporary! The care and detail the living historians take to present both military and civilian life in the Civil War is inspiring. These musicians range in age from elderly to juvenile and are as serious about their reproduction period pieces as any musician is about their modern instrument.

The earthen dam constructed by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect the village from flooding provided terrific theater seating for both demonstrations of artillery and cavalry fighting and the actual battle itself. A demonstration by the Battery A, 1st Ohio Statehouse was a special treat, as the highly polished bronze cannon is one of those on display of the ground of the Ohio Statehouse [see previous entry]. On Saturday night of the event weekend a dusk fire-off was held that provided the equivalent of a fireworks show for spectators. From a distance of about 30 miles I could hear the cannonade in my Stark County home!

It is a rare treat to watch a cavalry demonstration, as re-enacting is expensive enough to do as an infantry unit but a unit with horses brings a new level of cost and care [see previous entry]. The 6th Ohio Cavalry portrays both Yankee and Rebel units and demonstrated several cavalry tactics and manuevers, which was no small feat on the slope of a hill and a small plateau rife with gopher holes.

It is amazing to see how well trained the horses are and can only imagine and the sheer number of these animals used during the actual war. The unit spokesperson who led the public through the demonstration while on his own horse equated the use of the animal to how we treat our cars today. Cavalry horses were worked hard and not necessarily treated any better than the old beat up Chevy in the driveway. It was also neat to see just how much fun the re-enactors had in engaging each other in this demonstration.

The terrain offered a great, albeit condensed, view of how many of the battles during the Civil War played out. A Union skirmish line took on advancing Confederates, who wove through a field of goldenrod to reach the battlefield. The open fields offered a great vantage point to see the tactics of the time. Cannon exploded from the hilly and wooded slopes surrounding the field, adding an air of authenticity from a visual, acoustic and aromatic standpoint.

It is a combination that needs to be experienced: the authentic village hosting authentic living historians. Although it occurs bi-annually, it is well worth a day, if not two, to wander the village, order some bread from the still operating bakery, spend a night in a historic bed and breakfast and absorb all that was during a time very long ago when advancing armies engaged each other not far from a crossroads in America.

- J.