In the early days of automobile travel, often on poorly maintained roads, towns and businesses had a desire to pull visitors into their establishments. The tourists provided income to the local stores and people, visitors, were always welcomed. Gas stations and restaurants were frequent draws since both types of fuel were necessary for any trip.
During long trips, stops would help break up the monotony. Places started advertising along the roads to bring people in. If there was something “interesting” in the town, it was that much better.
We’ve all seen the “Wall Drugstore” bumper stickers. The town of Wall has been described as the geographic center of nowhere. To draw customers in, they put signs up offering free ice water. What once was a small store in an almost deserted town has become a HUGE store, pulling in a million visitors a year.(?) Dare I say…"tourist trap", but still, it's a break in a long trip.
Roadside attractions, they can be a big draw! There is a house in Eastern Pennsylvania shaped like a shoe, built by a shoe company. The World’s Biggest Ball of String, the World’s Largest Tea Pot or The Smallest Church in America, they are all over the place, all you need to do is search them out! Within the last year, Ann Marie and I found a fork in the road, a six foot high fork sitting in an intersection. We had to stop and look at it!
This last week, Ann Marie and I were on the road again, this time driving out past the center of Indiana to visit her relatives. We passed a few interesting sites and even took a few detours to visit some others.
Crossing the state of Ohio, we exited the highway at Zanesville to see their unique Y-Bridge. Built originally in 1814, it crosses the Muskingum River. It has an intersection in its middle where it splits, allowing three ends to the same bridge. The current bridge is the 5th one built here.
The third one, built in 1832 was a covered bridge.
While roaming around the bridge, we came across a railroad drawbridge and a canal beside the river. We never know what we might find!
We also visited Zane Grey’s house while we were in the town. He was a writer of western novels and stories such as Riders of the Purple Sage.
Back on the highway, we passed a robot holding the sign for a metal supplier and a couple bowling pins that were a couple stories high. After we crossed the Indiana state line we passed “The World’s Largest Candle”. We had previously stopped for pictures, so we kept moving.
It took us a bit longer to get there due to a bridge being out just a mile or so away from it. A detour of about 7 or 8 miles got us there... eventually. Passing fields recently harvested, we came to a section of trees and there was the place we were looking for.
Bought at auctions, this collection is comprised of bells, anchors, chains and windmills. I’m guessing that nothing has been added in years if not decades. The owners have passed on and the property is cared for by relatives. We met one of them who was cutting grass and raking leaves. He allowed us to roam around and ring a few of the bells. They are covered with lichen and haven’t been cleaned in ages. They are showing their age. There is no order to the collection; they seem to be placed as they were bought. A big tree has fallen onto some of them. The clappers are still loose, and they sound good! It took us a little over an hour out of our way but we both feel that it was worth the effort! They may be gone soon.
It's little places such as these that stick in our memories. I can remember another spot like this, I believe it was called Bell Acres. Located somewhere near Freeport, we would pass it occasionally when we’d go to visit my mother’s relatives. Rumors had it that every 4th of July the public was allowed to come by and ring the bells. As a kid, I dreamed about doing that. By the time I was old enough to drive, it had disappeared. It may be gone but it’s still there, stuck in my memories!
Coming back through Ohio we dropped into the southern half and searched for a few charcoaled fired iron furnaces. The Hanging Rock area was the center of Ohio’s iron production in the 1800’s. We visited 3 sites. They were right alongside the roads.
The first was the Hope Furnace located near Zaleski. As we neared the site, I realized that we had been there about two years ago when we were looking for the remains of Moonville, a ghost town. (It’s a small world) It is in fairly good shape and has some nice signs describing how furnaces worked. The furnace was built in 1854 and was shut down in 1874, twenty years later.
Our second furnace was the Buckeye Furnace near Wellston, Ohio. This furnace was reconstructed decades after it shut down in 1894. It produced iron for 42 years.
We stopped to find one more, this one was The Lincoln Furnace, located about 5 miles from The Buckeye site. We didn’t have any idea of what this furnace looked like or exactly where it was. There was a geocache that was supposed to be within sight of it. We found the cache but not the furnace.
Later research showed that it was built into a cliff face. The Lincoln furnace was built in 1855 and produced iron until 1885, a total of 30 years. Not bad for a furnace dug into a hill! We had been looking for a pyramid shaped pile of stones, I guess our furnace finding genes just weren’t working. Then again, it might have been the idea that home was just a few hours away…
We were so close in our search…but not close enough! For some reason I feel as if there might be another trip into Southern Ohio in my future!
We left Ann Marie’s house at 5AM on Tuesday and returned at 5PM on Saturday, 108 hours later. Our little jaunts to these sites made the trip a little more interesting, they broke up the long highway times and they also stimulated our curiosity and imagination. We both agreed, they make it much more fun than a simple, straight through drive. We’re always happy to get back home but we’re also, always looking forward to the next trip…and the next roadside attractions we’ll come across!
1 comment:
It sounds like a fun adventure. Educational also.
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