Searchin'

 Thinking about all the things that can be found in near-by areas, I came up with quite a list. The amount of “cool finds” is limited only by your own imagination.

    In our travels, we have discovered old ruins where houses used to stand along with barns and sheds barely standing. Old abandoned bridges crossing streams and rivers, ghost signs barely perceptible on the walls of buildings and stores and shops, abandoned to the elements. We’ve found religious statues covered in dirt and vines, forgotten in the backyards of empty churches. We’ve searched out and found piles of rocks which once were used as furnaces to make iron.

    Our geocaching adventures have taken us to fantastic views from the tops of cliffs and have brought us to hidden waterfalls deep in forest valleys. We once came to a spot where an airplane had crash landed and not far away was an old mill stone quarry, the stones laying in piles, some half finished, all covered with leaves, small saplings and weeds. We’ve found old cars and even trolleys sitting in the woods. Huge limestone mines and tunnels, no longer used except by explorers and graffiti artists.

    There are so many things hidden in the hills and woods and alongside the roads of the tri-state area. All you have to do is go out and look for them.

    We’ve stopped to look at old construction equipment, rusting away beside the road. I’ve photographed old tractors with trees growing through their frames, farmhouses made of logs and collapsing with the weight of time, good for nothing except a person with a camera. We never know what we might come across.

    This past Friday, Ann Marie and I took another trip. We headed to the west towards Weirton, West Virginia. There were a few geocaches I had in mind to look for and there were also ruins of old steel mills that might be photogenic. I also had the general location of an old iron furnace that we’d try to find. Anything else we came across would be an added bonus.

    The day was loosely planned, our route was open to change, it all depended on what we came across. Weirton isn’t far from Pittsburgh, less than an hour drive. We entered the town shortly after 9. Our first stop was at a restaurant where we got some breakfast. Specializing in biscuits, we both had breakfast sandwiches. Properly fueled, we headed towards our first geocache.

    The Veterans Memorial Bridge was opened in 1990. It is like no other bridge in the surrounding area. Suspended by cables strung from a high center tower, it was the third bridge of this type in the world when it was built! The cache was very close to it. We needed to find some numbers and they would tell us where the cache was hidden.

    We walked up a gravel road and found the numbers we needed written on the back side of a guard rail. A walk of about a ¼ mile brought us to the end of the Veterans Bridge. The cache was hidden about 10 yards away from the bridge, a view that very few of the drivers crossing the bridge ever see. 

    We returned to the car happy, we got some fresh air, a nice walk and a successful find. We then headed towards the northern end of town to see what was left of the old steel mills. Sadly, most of the buildings were gone, torn down leaving only a few unremarkable buildings, lots of pipes and wide empty fields.

    We were driving on Main Street but it didn’t look like one. Open empty lots were on one side with a wall and fences on the other. The buildings were all gone, only a couple houses remained, it was mostly scrubby lots alongside a dirty brick road. There was hardly anything that showed how industrious this area used to be. Closer to the center of town the mills are still in operation but here it is another story.

    Driving up the hill we came to another cache. Hidden on a hillside covered with weeds and jagger bushes, I scrambled up to where I found some partially covered cement steps and some yellow brick walls. This spot was once someone’s front yard. The brick walls lined their sidewalk, now they were slanted and falling down, their only purpose now was to hide a geocache. 

    Not far away was another remnant of the mills, some sort of tower. The temptation to climb it was strong but I managed to resist it!

    A short drive then took us to the Peter Tarr Furnace. Built in the late 1700’s and working until 1815, all that’s left is the stack. Finding it wasn’t as tough as we imagined. It was sitting right beside the road, looking sort of like a decoration for the housing plan beside it. Reading up on it, we found out it has been rebuilt twice. What makes it interesting is that it is round as compared to the normal (?) square pyramid shaped furnaces. 

    We were a bit disappointed when we found it; it is built around a steel corrugated pipe and held together with modern cement. The “neatness” of it sort of takes away from the historic aspect of the location.

    We’ve found piles of stones hidden by trees and weeds, stones which once were a point in history. I would feel excited after finding them, feeling as if I was the first one to find them. Perhaps I was, the first in a year or two or maybe even decades. This furnace posed no problems, its neat shape was sitting right beside the road, we rounded the curve and there it was.

    We were still happy finding it; it was another furnace to add to our list!

    Crossing the Ohio River and entering Ohio, we headed north into East Liverpool. We drove around the town looking for a spot to get some coffee and some lunch. We saw lots of ghost signs and plenty of nice buildings, built in a time where decorations were commonly added. Nice decorative woodwork over the windows and doors and inset balconies set in between windows adorned many of them. Victorian types of gingerbread and cupolas, it was enjoyable driving around the town. 

    While driving along a brick street below a highway I caught a glimpse of something behind an old, bedraggled building, it looked like a furnace. Luckily, the traffic was nonexistent, and we were able to back up to see what we nearly missed. It was a large bottle kiln sitting behind the building. Used in the pottery industry these kilns, named after their shape, were commonplace in the town. 

    Trying to find more information about them, I found that they tended to be rather dangerous. Fires were often started resulting in factories burning down. We explored around it and the building, took a few pictures and then headed across the river, back into West Virginia.

    A quick stop at “The Largest Teapot in the World” for a snapshot (Hmmm, have they ever been in Bedford??) and then we headed towards Pennsylvania and home.

    Four caches searched for and four found, 100%, can’t complain about that! We found the furnace we were looking for, even though it wasn’t as exciting as we had hoped. We also found a pottery kiln that we weren’t expecting. We saw nice views of bridges and the Ohio River and enjoyed exploring the river towns we passed through on a nice day. It turned out to be a great trip!

    Why do we search for these things? Is it our curiosity, our yearning to learn more about our history or just the enjoyment of being out on the road together, enjoying each other’s company? Perhaps it is all of these things! There is so much more out there waiting to be found and seen and we will keep looking for them as long as we are able. It is fun and exciting following the impromptu maps in our heads and finding out where they lead us!

    (I just saw an article about another iron furnace we haven’t seen yet in Clearfield County. Hmmmm…could be another road trip in the near future!)