Tag Archives: History

Treasures of the Spanish World

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When the Cincinnati Art Museum announced this upcoming exhibit near summer’s end, I was interested but not overly so. In fact, I didn’t put it on my Gotta-See-That list but on my I’ll-See-That-If-It’s-Convenient list. That was a mistake and I’m sure glad there was a day when taking in Treasures of the Spanish World was convenient and it didn’t end up on my Sorry-I-Missed-That list.

First off, it’s big. Its more than 200 objects fill several of the galleries I associate with temporary exhibits. And it’s not just big in terms of space but in time as well. The oldest items in the exhibit are from the middle of the third millennium BCE; The newest are from the twentieth century CE. Most items, including intricately decorated fabrics and ceramics, call for some up-close study. The pictured “books” are letters patent of nobility (cartas ejecutorias de hidalguia) that attest to “the holder’s gentility” and social position. They are wonderfully decorated and often contain images of the holder and/or grantor.

Numerous paintings, including quite a few portraits, are on display. These, showing a wide range of scale, are the work of Domenikos Theotokopoulos (a.k.a, El Greco).

At the beginning of a section named “Golden Age“, visitors are reminded that “In the 1500s Spain was the most powerful country in the western world”. The western world was getting a whole lot bigger in those days and Spain played a huge role in that. The large map, from which the clip of the Americas was taken, was created by Giovanni Vespucci in 1526 as a royal wedding gift. Giovanni inherited the job of maintaining Spain’s master nautical chart from his uncle, Amerigo.

Of course, Christianity was really big in both Old and New Spain. The large wooden relief sculpture was once part of an even larger piece in a Mexican Church. It dates from around 1600.

The exhibit is organized chronologically and physically divided into two parts. The second section is certainly interesting enough  — there are a few Goyas among its several paintings — but I only have one photo from it. I seem to like my history with a side of art more than the other way round. “Advances of the Nineteenth Century” is a set of tiles recounting recent progress from the vantage point of 1903. The bicycle, locomotive, flush toilet, and sewing machine are clearly steps forward. Not so clear is whatever advance the bullfighting tile is touting.

This touring exhibit was made possible by a major renovation project at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York City. That’s where the items in the exhibit normally appear and many of them have never been displayed elsewhere. The exhibit initially appeared in Madrid, Spain, and appeared in Mexico City and Albuquerque before reaching Cincinnati. There’s still time to see it but not much. This is being published when just one week of the fourteen-week run remains. As I said in the opening paragraph, I’m glad Treasures of the Spanish World avoided going on my Sorry-I-Missed-That list. I recommend you keep it off of yours, too, if you can.

A Cosmic Reason for the Season

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Calendars come and calendars go and Earth just keeps on turning. And it keeps on orbiting, too. The turning bit creates what we call days. The alternating periods of light and dark impact almost all life on the planet and humans adopted the day as a basic unit of measure pretty early on. What we call years comes from Earth orbiting the Sun. There was plenty of time for early humans to stare at the sky and not a whole lot to keep them from doing it. They couldn’t help but notice that things in the sky moved around. In time, some of the more observant among them realized that not all that movement was random and eventually some patterns were noted. I can’t imagine how exciting it was when some smart guy figured out that the sun popped up at the same point about every 365 days. Of course, that “about” would be very important.

The opening photo shows the sun rising yesterday over a “gateway” in the earthen enclosure at Fort Ancient. The photo at left was taken a bit later and includes a small mound inside the enclosure in the foreground. When the mound, gateway, and sunrise align, sunset will follow sooner than on any other day of the year. This is the northern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice. It is the day when the sun is above the horizon for less time than any other day of the year, and yesterday that amounted to 9 hours, 25 minutes, and 9 seconds. Although we talk about Solstice being a day, it is technically just an instant. It is the moment when the Sun is farthest north or south of Earth’s equator. It happens twice each year and happened yesterday at 23:19 EST.

Serpent Mound, another ancient earthen structure containing solar alignments, is a little more than forty miles southeast of Fort Ancient. The serpent’s head is aligned with the Summer Solstice sunset. Body coils align with Summer and Winter Solstice sunrises. For several years, a modern event known as Lighting of the Serpent took place there at Winter Solstice. It was discontinued in 2017. The picture at right is from 2014 which is the only time I attended.

Long before they knew anything about orbits and equators, humans knew the day of Winter Solstice was special. It is the point where each successive day receives more rather than less daylight. It’s the big turnaround that will eventually lead to the warmth of spring and summer. It is clearly a day worth celebrating and it has indeed been celebrated in many different cultures in many different ways.

During their existence, humans have developed a slew of calendar systems. Several actually remain in use today, but the Gregorian calendar is the one most widely accepted. In the late sixteenth century, this started replacing the Julian calendar which had been around for all of those sixteen centuries and then some. The Julian calendar had been created by folks who calculated that a year was 365 and 1/4 days long which was a lot more accurate than an even 365. They came up with the rather clever idea of adding an extra day every four years to balance things out.

We now know that a year is 365.2422 days long. A year is the length of time it takes Earth to orbit the Sun, a day is the length of time it takes Earth to rotate, and neither is adjustable. When the Julian calendar was first adopted, the northern hemisphere’s Winter Solstice fell on December 25 but it slowly drifted away. Someone in authority thought to put an end to this nonsense by declaring December 25 the official solstice. But those non-adjustable orbits and rotations kept doing what they were doing and the official solstice and actual solstice just kept getting farther and farther apart.

The Gregorian calendar, which we have used for roughly 400 years now, put an end to that. Like the Julian calendar, it considers most years to be 365 days long but has a more involved system of “leap years” that add an extra day. The result is that over a long enough period our years will average 365.2422 days in length. Not only did the new calendar eliminate future drift, it tried to correct for some of the previous drift by throwing away ten days. The calendar’s namesake’s full-time job was as Pope of the Catholic Church. Ditching those ten days moved the solstice to December 22 which is where it had been in 325 when the church was founded. Of course, some holidays that had been tied to the official solstice (which hadn’t been anywhere near the actual solstice for some time) would continue to be celebrated on December 25.

Anyone wanting a more complete discussion of calendars, solstices, and holidays will find one here. Additional information on Fort Ancient is available here.

Book Review
After Ike
Michael S. Owen

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There are things that fans of old roads or of transportation history in general falsely assume that everyone knows about. One such item is the continent crossing Motor Transport Corps convoy of 1919. In the summer following the end of the first World War, a group of military personnel and vehicles set off from Washington, DC, to test the nation’s roads all the way to San Francisco. Although he was primarily an observer on the trip, his future accomplishments make Dwight Eisenhower the member of the convoy best-known today. Michael Owen uses the future president’s nickname in naming this telling of his own retracing of the 3,250-mile-long path that some 300 men and 81 vehicles of all shapes and sizes followed a century ago.

As one might expect, Owen mixes lots of information about the military convoy’s trip with the description of his own journey. Much less expected is the fact that he is not one of those long-time fans of old roads or transportation history that I mentioned earlier. As a US Ambassador, he spent considerable time in Africa and Asia. Now retired, he is happily becoming better acquainted with the roads and attractions of his homeland.

On his coast to coast drive, Owen is part researching author and part curious tourist. He often spends multiple days in one place and digs into local history and points of interest. Some of what he finds relates to the convoy and some is simply interesting on its own. A sampling includes a stop at Carnegie-Mellon to talk with a professor about autonomous vehicles and a visit to the Pro Football Hall of Fame which provides an opportunity to talk about Ike’s time as running back at West Point. He visits several museums including the Studebaker museum in South Bend, IN, and the El Dorado County Historical Museum in Placerville, CA. He spends time in small libraries and chatting with locals.

Much of the convoy related information Owen shares comes from journals and official reports written by the participants but local newspaper archives are also used extensively. The motorized convoy was a major event in those early days of the automobile and much attention was focused on its progress. Communities along the route often vied with each other to host the convoy and the dinners, dances, and demonstrations were documented by the local press. More or less typical is the South Bend [Indiana] News-Times report of the convoy’s arrival and departure that included the observation that “…lemonade was given to them in abundance by the Chamber of Commerce.” In Austin, NV, the Reese River Reveille reported that officials “…placed shower baths in the four cells of the jail…” for use by the soldiers.

Some non-convoy related items Owen finds in those old newspapers are used to provide a peek at the world of 1919. A headline from that South Bend News-Times issue reads “Seven Women Take Aeroplane Rides!” From the DeKalb [Illinois] Daily Chronicle, he quotes an article about the convoy’s “3,000,000 candle power searchlight” followed by quotes from an advertisement for the latest Thor Electric Washing Machine. In writing about his modern-day travels, Owen uses signs he sees in a manner similar to the way he uses those period newspaper items. It’s kind of like having a passenger who reads signs aloud; Signs like “Farm fresh eggs! Laid by Happy Chickens”, “Food! Liquor! Wine! Beauty Products!”, and “Gardening for God Brings Peas of Mind”.

Eighteen pages of black and white photos are placed just past the book midpoint. All were taken by the author. Readers familiar with the Lincoln Highway and the modern Lincoln Highway Association will find some familiar places and faces.

The book cover bio says Owen has “driven over the Lincoln Highway several times” but he doesn’t come across as a seasoned road tripper. On one hand, that brings some freshness to the writing. Things like reading aloud signs about eggs bring a sense of sharing the surprises to the reporting. On the other, it may be responsible for allowing a few minor errors to slip in. Early in the book, Owen notes his awareness of “America’s penchant for superlatives: biggest, oldest, first, fastest, best.” He does not list “only” and does pass along a couple of not quite true “only” claims. Qualifying it with the word “purportedly”, he writes that the bust of Lincoln at Wyoming’s Sherman Hill is “…the only statue of Lincoln on the entire Lincoln Highway” and says that the rotary jail in Council Bluffs, IA, “…is the only one of its kind in the US”. Regarding Lincoln statues on the LH, those in Jefferson, IA, and Fremont, NE, come immediately to mind. As for rotating “squirrel cage” jails, the one in Crawfordsville, IN, is not only standing but operational. These errors, and a few others, are not terribly significant but I couldn’t just ignore them.

After Ike is an enjoyable read that delivers an overview of an important event in US transportation history along with a sense of what a modern-day long and leisurely road trip is like. Owen’s fresh eyes and all those signs make it a bit unlike many travelogues.

After Ike: On the Trail of the Century-Old Journey that Changed America, Michael S. Owen, Dog Ear Publishing, LLC, July 22, 2019, 9 x 6 inches, 224 pages, ISBN 978-1457570421
Available through Amazon.

Book Review
Route 36 Ohio to Colorado
Allan McAllister Ferguson

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US-36 is kind of special to me. It is one of just a handful of US highways with an endpoint in my home state and one of just two that pass through my birth county. It’s even more special to Allan Ferguson. He grew up near the route in Illinois, has ancestral connections to the eastern end in Ohio, and currently lives near its western end in Colorado. It has had a role in much of his life from childhood vacations and visits to relatives to business trips and drives between old and new homes as an adult. Not all of his travels between Colorado and Illinois have been on Route 36. Not surprisingly, his early trips back home were on expressways. At some point, he tried US-36 and came to realize three things. The first was that it took no more time than driving the interstates. Between Denver and central Illinois, the US-36 is quite straight and about 100 miles shorter than either I-70 or I-80. Secondly, it was relaxing rather than stressful. The third thing he realized was that the drive was actually interesting and that realization eventually led to this book.

Ferguson stresses that this is “a book about today’s Route 36″ (italics his). He delivers plenty of history and even describes a few older alignments, but the subject of this book is the Route 36 shown on current maps and marked by modern signs. That means there are no turn-by-turn directions that fans of historic routes such as the Lincoln Highway or Route 66 might expect in a guide to a road. And there is another possible expectation that Ferguson intentionally does not meet. There are no lists of restaurants or places to stay. This sort of information is, he points out, ever-changing and available elsewhere.

Today’s US-36 runs through six states in connecting Uhrlichville, Ohio, with Estes Park, Colorado. There is a chapter for each of those states. Following an overview, which provides some history, geography, and geology, a drive through the state is described. Both the chapters and the drives are sequenced east-to-west. The basic organization is by town. Each town entry begins with some common items such as population and a website address. Museums, parks, and libraries are also listed where they exist. Descriptions of various well-researched points of interest, often with photographs, follow.

I know that all sounds rather formulaic, which it probably is, and maybe dry and boring, which it decidedly is not. Good writing makes for easy reading and the quality of Ferguson’s writing makes even this fact-heavy subject matter go down smoothly. In particular, I found the state overviews a very pleasant way to be informed.

A Section II, titled “Background,” follows the guide. A very well-done history of land transportation across the United States, its two chapters divide the story more or less at the appearance of the automobile. This history is not specific to US-36 and reading it is not at all necessary for enjoying a drive along the route. Depending on your own background, it can be a very nice introduction or a very nice review.

Naturally, many of the place names in the guide were familiar to me and I was pleasantly surprised to see a familiar “people name” in there, too. Road fan Jim Grey has documented a number of roads at JimGrey.net. Of course, Ferguson’s interest and recommendation was aimed at Jim’s photo-rich report on US-36 between Indianapolis and the Illinois border. I’ll second Ferguson’s recommendation and add that Jim’s reports on several other old roads — and lots of old cameras — are also worthwhile.

Some of those familiar place names come from the fact that I’ve driven certain bits of Thirty-Six hundreds of times. I have, however, driven the whole thing only once. This book’s east to west order matched the direction of my single full-length pass which made it easy to compare the book with my own memories and journal. I’m glad it wasn’t a competition. I documented very little that Ferguson didn’t, while he identified many points of interest that I missed entirely. I’ll do better next time.

The book has its own website at US36GuideBook.

Route 36: Ohio to Colorado – America’s Heartland Highway, Allan McAllister Ferguson, WFPublishing, August 1, 2019, 10 x 8 inches, 264 pages, ISBN 978-0971032668
Available through Amazon.

Cambridge Spirit(s)

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Like the one a fortnight earlier, last Sunday was preceded by a very blog-worthy Saturday that just had to wait because the weekly blog slot was already filled. Again, I’m calling that good since it gave me all week to produce this post rather than trying to put it together overnight. If I had, it’s certain that it would contain fewer pictures and more mistakes. The actual target of my trip was Zanesville, Ohio, but that’s close enough to Cambridge that I drove over to visit the annual Dickens Victorian Village. As things turned out, Cambridge and the figures that line its streets during the holidays get almost the entire post.

There are nearly 200 of the life-sized figures. Each is unique and dressed in Victorian-era clothing. They are grouped into 90-some scenes. Some come directly from a Charles Dickens story while others represent sights the author might have encountered walking around nineteenth-century England.

This is the village’s fourteenth year, and I believe this is at least the fourth time I’ve visited. The bulk of the figures are placed along Wheeling Avenue which once carried the National Road. The road and a bridge pictured on that panel will be mentioned again before this article ends.

The Guernsey County Historical Society offered two “living” tours of Cambridge’s Old City Cemetery and I made it to the second one. The first resident we met was Sophia Gibout, Sophia was a washerwoman who died in 1865 after living in Cambridge for many years. Being familiar with other residents — both before and after their move to the cemetery — she accompanied us as a guide. The lady with the white muff is Elizabeth Taylor, wife of Joseph Taylor. The Taylors figured prominently in Cambridge’s early history. A newspaper and hotel were among their contributions and Joseph served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Isaac Oldham, the fellow in the third photo, settled in the area before Cambridge was established.

The American Civil War was naturally a major chapter in the history of Cambridge and these three figures have some interesting personal connections to it. Before serving in the war, James Adair walked to California to join the gold rush of 1849, made his fortune in the goldfields, then returned to Ohio by taking a ship south to the isthmus of Panama, traveling across it, and heading north on another ship. Captain Adair was killed in Virginia in 1962 and his body returned to Cambridge for burial. John Cook was killed by an unknown assailant in March of 1865. The murderer and an accomplice were eventually tracked down and a major trial, which overlapped that of Lincoln’s assassins, resulted in both being hanged. The gentleman in the tophat is C.P.B. Sarchet. He survived the war after reaching the rank of colonel then developed a reputation as a great historian. He was born in 1828 which he proudly pointed out was the same year that the National Road came through and that double covered bridge on the panel downtown was built. The bridge stood until washed away by the flood of 1913. Colonel Sarchet died a few weeks later.

We walked back to where we had first met Sophia and where Elizabeth was waiting. Like Paul Harvey, Elizabeth wanted to make sure we knew the rest of Sophia’s story. She was well-liked in the town and at her death friends arranged for a proper burial. It was then that the undertaker discovered that the washerwoman was physically a man. That simple revelation ended the “living” tour and started some personal brain activity. I’ve read of nineteenth-century women disguising themselves as men in order to join the military, drive a stagecoach, or participate in some other activity otherwise denied them. This was something different. There are essentially no reasons that would justify choosing to live as a lower-class female in the early 1800s. Sophia Gibout’s story should make anyone who believes that questions of gender identity are a 21st-century phenomenon think just a little deeper.

Following the “living” tour, a presentation on tombstone symbols was provided by Randy Neff of the Guernsey County Genealogical Society. In the photo, Randy is standing beside a tombstone showing a pair of hands. The hand on the viewer’s left represents the deceased. It is always stiff and lifeless and is gripped by the other hand which may represent an already deceased spouse or other relative. A hand coming from a cloud represents the hand of God himself pulling the newly deceased into Heaven.

It was now that l realized my great blunder. I had driven to the area for the purpose of attending a gathering of the Ohio National Road Association. It was on my phone calendar for 7:00 PM. As I left the cemetery, I considered driving the short distance east to Wheeling, West Virginia, where one of my favorite bridges had recently been closed. I can’t explain why I only now double-checked the phone calendar with the original ONRA mailing, but that’s what I did. My intent was to determine with certainty whether or not if I had time to drive to Wheeling and back to Zanesville. What I discovered was that the information on my phone was terribly wrong. The gathering was a 12:00 lunch, not a 7:00 dinner. I had plenty of time to drive to Wheeling because I had already completely missed the event.

The 1849 Wheeling suspension bridge was closed in late September due to continuing violations of weight limits. I didn’t expect to discover anything new but my basic curiosity prompted me to take a look since I was fairly close. The result is a picture of a bridge closed sign.

Anticipating an evening spent with National Road fans near Zanesville, I had a motel reserved nearby. The sun set while I was in Wheeling which gave me an opportunity to stop in Cambridge for a look at the wonderful light show at the Guernsey county courthouse. 

Abandoned Delaware County Roadmeet

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This happened a week ago yesterday and would have been a fine subject for last week’s post if that slot hadn’t already been taken. Last Tuesday was Election Day which means the preceding Sunday was filled by my annual screed on voting. I don’t see that as a bad thing since it spared me working in Sunday’s wee hours (one of which went missing) to get this post together. The opening picture is not of one of the meet’s scheduled attractions but of one of the locals who joined us in looking out over Hoover Reservation from the Oxbow Road Boat Ramp.

The Delaware County of the title is in central Ohio directly north of Columbus. The roadmeet differed from others I’ve attended in multiple ways. In my experience, roadmeets tend to focus on new or recent developments. This time, as the name implies, the focus was on older and often abandoned structures. Timing was another difference. Previous meets I’ve attended were in warm summer months. Autumn was intentionally selected for this meet in hopes of improved visibility through trees that had shed many of their leaves. The cooler weather many have also been a factor in turn-out. There were just five attendees with one of those dropping out early in response to a message from home. The Facebook event entry is here.

One other way this meet differed from others was in the amount of off-road travel involved. The pictured trail hadn’t always been off-road, however, and patches of old Sunbury Road pavement can be seen here and there through the leaves. Bridge abutments where the road once crossed Big Walnut Creek are at the end of the trail.

Not everything we looked over was actually abandoned. This covered bridge on Chambers Road is still in use. Originally constructed by E.S. Sherman in 1883, it has been rebuilt at least twice. It is the last of its kind still standing in Delaware County.

Not only was not everything abandoned, some things weren’t even in Delaware County. These two bridges are within about half a mile of each other on Morrow County Road 225. The pony truss bridge was built in 2000 across an unnamed tributary of Alum Creek. What makes it interesting is what it was built on top of. That stone arch has been there for a very long time. The through truss bridge hasn’t. Built in 1876, its original location was near the Morrow County Fairgrounds. It’s unknown when it was moved to its current location on Alum Creek. One possibility is during major rehabilitation in 1942.

We got back on message with a stop at these abandoned bridge abutments in Delaware County. Before the Delaware Reservoir flooded the area, the Water Hill covered bridge crossed Whetstone Creek here. That’s roadmeet organizer Sandor Gulyas standing on the nearside abutment. Not only did Sandor provide a detailed map and overview, he shared lots of additional information at every stop.

Technically, these stone bridge piers aren’t abandoned; They were never used. They were built in the 1850s as part of a proposed Springfield-Mt. Vernon-Pittsburg Railroad that was only partially completed. One more stop was planned but the sun was rapidly approaching the horizon and we decided not to even try. Recent rain had scared us away from a couple of other planned stops but we got to nearly all of them. And I really enjoyed each one.

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I spent the night in the Columbus area with thoughts of taking in a little music somewhere but found nothing that fit my desires. Breakfast was a different matter. Some online research turned up several places that sounded interesting and tasty, but it was Gena’s Restaurant that got my business. I once drove for days to reach the “Cinnamon Bun Centre of the Galactic Cluster” so I could surely drive a few miles to the “Home of the Greatest American Pecan Roll”.

Inside, some wall space is devoted to the pecan roll boast and to their “Three Pancake Challenge”. There are photos of those who have downed three one-pound pancakes in forty-five minutes along with a few who have downed four and fewer who have downed five. Downing the pictured pecan roll was no challenge at all, and I will not challenge its claim to being the “greatest”.

Destination Moon (in Cincinnati)

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The vehicle that Michael Collins flew in circles waiting for his buddies to return is currently parked in the Cincinnati Museum Center. Apollo 11’s Command Module Columbia is on tour and doing a little overtime. The traveling exhibit, Destination Moon: The Apollo 11 Mission, was originally scheduled to appear in just four cities but the tour has been extended to include Cincinnati as a fifth and final stop. When the showing closes here in February, everything returns to a revamped home at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

The exhibit reminds visitors of mankind’s long-time dreams of reaching the moon and of the specific events that led to the first manned landing. The space race started to get serious — and scary — with the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik 1. Their hitting the moon less than two years later really underscored our second-place position. On May 25, 1961, after considerable discussion, President Kennedy announced plans to leap ahead of the Soviets by putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The exhibit contains several artifacts from the mission but the star is the Command Module Columbia. Its hatch door is displayed separately which permits both sides to be studied.

Columbia is, of course, the largest item in the exhibit. Surrounded by flat information panels and much smaller items, it automatically draws interest and initially looks rather big. It shrinks considerably, however, when viewed as a home for three men for eight days. It’s not quite 13 feet in diameter and the 218 cubic feet of space in the cabin isn’t much more than that of a typical minivan.

I had difficulty photographing most of the smaller mission artifacts in the exhibit such as the medical and survival kits, but Buzz Aldrin’s helmet and gloves were the things I was most interested in and a little extra effort produced a satisfactory picture.

Seeming to fill just about as much space as the physical artifacts, is a display of photographs taken in the decades since humans last visited the moon in person. For those having and seeking knowledge of the moon’s surface, these large images are possibly even more interesting than the fifty-year-old hardware.

Whiteboards in the hallway leading in and out of the exhibit invite comments on some moon related questions such as “Should we return?” and “What would you take if you went?” A couple of people said they’d take Skyline Chili. Others planned on taking a Mars Bar or green M & Ms. Those are all good ideas but maybe not quite as practical as taking extra underwear. As for how the moon should be used, one person thought it would be a good place to explode stuff and another saw it as a good location for a Disneyland. I was encouraged by multiple “stepping stone to Mars” ideas and discouraged by at least two “leave it alone” suggestions.

I attended Destination Moon as part of a Friday evening members-only event. Other portions of the museum center open for the evening included the Neil Armstrong Space Exploration Gallery where a movie about the famous Ohioan is shown and several artifacts are on display. The gallery opened as part of the Apollo 11 fiftieth anniversary celebration. Future additions are planned. The suit in the picture is an accurate replica. The suit Armstrong wore on the moon is in the Smithsonian. Its backup and the suit he wore on Gemini 8 are at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum which I visited on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch. That blog entry is here.

The Museum Center’s OMNIMAX theater was also open Friday evening so I watched Apollo 11: First Steps Edition for the second time. The first time was on the anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing which was also part of the blog entry previously mentioned. When I finally stepped outside the museum, I was surprised to see several large telescopes set up in front of the building. I was aware of an Observe the Moon Night scheduled for Saturday but not this. I guess they decided to do an extra night in conjunction with the members-only Destination Moon event. I stood in line for a bit and was treated to an incredible view of the moon’s surface. At my car, I put on a long lens, steadied the camera against the roof, and got an OK picture but nothing remotely like what I had just seen inside the museum or through the telescope.

Brewing Heritage Trail

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I wasn’t around when the first phase of Cincinnati’s Brewing Heritage Trail opened in April and checking it out has been on my to-do list ever since. Some nice weather finally lined up with some idle time this week, so off I went. There really isn’t an official beginning or end and the designated Hop On points are essentially just suggestions. Even so, I wasn’t feeling particularly rebellious and following the suggestion seemed easier than not so I did. This is the Hop On point at Findlay Market.

My first stop was physically on the trail but not part of it. I had thought of grabbing something to eat at the market but decided to skip ahead on the trail just a bit and have breakfast at Tucker’s, a Cincinnati institution since 1946. I’ve eaten here in the past but not since a 2015 fire that threatened to permanently close the place. And I’d never met Joe Tucker. Today I sat at the counter while Joe worked the grill and chatted easily with me and everyone else who walked in the door. A great way to start the day.

From Tucker’s, I backtracked just a little to begin following the trail in earnest at Vine and Elder. The current trail is a loop plus the beginnings of an extension on McMicken Avenue and the Elder Street connection to Findlay Market. Signs like this one identify segments of the trail as well as the turns. A map is part of the signage at the Hop On points. It is also available online and I referenced it a couple of times from my phone. Apparently an actual smartphone app was available at one time but it has been withdrawn while “we tweak a few items”.

The former Hudepohl Bottling Plant sits on McMicken at the end of Elder Street. Opposite the building is a display featuring a smiling Louis Hudepohl and lots of information about the company. Hudepohl was one of the few Cincinnati breweries to survive prohibition and was once one of the largest in the state. The main Hudepohl brewery was abandoned in the late 1980s but its 170-foot smokestack bearing the company name remained a Cincinnati landmark until its demolition in June of this year.

Just yards beyond the Hudepohl kiosk, I found something unrelated to the trail but too cool to ignore. It was the mural that first caught my eye but I soon realized that I was standing by a large — and slightly out of place — garden. When a voice invited me in, I stepped through the gate to meet Christina, the Flower Lady of OTR and a volunteer gardener. Started in 1980, the Over the Rhine People’s Garden was the first community garden in Cincinnati. It is filled with flowers, vegetables, and fruit and there there is a weekly free distribution. Food not taken is donated to a local food bank. I even found a small connection to the trail I was following. At least one volunteer does some home brewing and is growing hops for that purpose.

The trail is also marked with medallions pressed into the sidewalks. I’m sure I walked right past some of the smaller ones where they appear all by themselves without even noticing. Just past the green space and playground of Grant Park, this cluster at the corner of McMicken and Moore is pretty hard to miss.

The second Hop On point is just around the corner on Moore Street. It is next to one of the largest murals on the trail and includes multiple information displays. Among the many pieces of information presented is one regarding local per capita beer consumption. That statistic has been cited as one of the reasons that Cincinnati, despite having around forty breweries, was not known as a national distributor. There just wasn’t much left to distribute.

I slipped down the unfinished McMicken Street segment and even backtracked a bit to capture some of the numerous murals along the trail. The Crown Brewery is just one of several buildings in the Brewery District being spruced up to reflect their former lives.

This was once home to Kaufmann Brewery and is now home to Christian Moerlein. In between, it was the Husman Potato Chip factory. Besides containing a brewery and taproom, the building houses the Brewing Heritage Trail Tour Center. A wide variety of tours — both above and below ground — is available. Check them out here. I’d kind of been thinking about a cold brew in the taproom but hadn’t really considered the time. “It’s not yet noon and the taproom is hours away from opening,” I observed to myself dryly.

There were plenty more informative things to read and decorative things to admire. I even have evidence that I didn’t miss ALL of the solo medallions. Reading about history while standing where it actually occurred is always cool.

I finished the loop then the short extension back to the Hop On point at Findlay Market. I’m impressed. An incredible amount of Cincinnati’s brewing history can be learned in an hour’s time walking the trail. As much as I enjoyed the walking and reading, I must admit that two of the day’s highlights were not listed trail features. I really enjoyed talking with Joe and Christina. Both were familiar with and supportive of the trail even without an official connection. I also enjoyed speaking with John Donaldson who owns buildings near the Moore Street Hop On point and who paused to chat as I looked over the nearby signs. If only I could have chatted with a bartender over a cool pint inside the Moerlein taproom.

Ludlow Garage 50th Reunion!

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The Ludlow Garage is a sadly dim shadow in my personal reminisces. I blame that on being busy and broke. My first child was born about seven months before the Garage’s opening on September 19, 1969. Some months prior to that, my wife and I had moved from an apartment roughly half a mile from where the Ludlow Garage was about to appear to a house in a Cincinnati suburb some seven miles distant. Besides the new baby, I was working a full-time job and playing in a band which meant there was little time. A mortgage and commuting to downtown — along with that new baby — meant there was little money. I visited the Garage a few times but I missed biggies like the Allman Brothers and Pink Floyd. I almost saw Santana. A friend and I were in line when we convinced each other to go somewhere else. I may have seen Mother Earth since I distinctly recall seeing East Orange Express there and their only appearance listed on the Ludlow Garage Archive is as a Mother Earth opener. Despite thin credentials, I attended the 25th reunion in 1994 and came back for the 50th. As Ludlow Garage owner Jim Tarbell delivered some opening remarks, Rob Fetters, the day’s opener, crept up behind him following Jim’s mention of his name. This might have been a great photo if I hadn’t been so close and chopped off Jim’s head. But it’s the thought — and the spirit — that counts. Right?

Jim managed to finish his remarks and Rob got the show rolling. The January 1971 demise of the Ludlow Garage preceded the start of Rob’s impressive musical career so he never got to play there. In the early 1980s, he fronted local legends The Raisins. The Psychodots, The Bears (featuring Adrian Belew), and lots of solo work have followed. Using recorded tracks lifted from albums combined with live guitar and vocals, he delivered a cool retrospective.

I don’t believe Sonny Moorman ever played at the Garage either, but he’s played just about everywhere else. A typical performance consists of lots of his own blues songs but one of his side projects was an outstanding Allman Brothers tribute band and he has been a super fan of Lonnie Mack since childhood. Grand Funk Railroad headlined that first Ludlow Garage with Lonnie Mack preceding them. I’ve often said that if a Lonnie Mack biopic is ever produced, it absolutely has to involve Sonny. He reinforced that today with a remarkable Lonnie Mack tribute set.

This guy definitely played the Ludlow Garage. Sandy Nassan opened the Garage’s second concert which featured Spirit. I apologize for not catching the names of the folks providing harmonica and vocals. They were quite good and certainly added to the performance but, on the other hand, they might not have really been necessary for a guy who released the critically acclaimed Just Guitar within a year of that Ludlow Garage appearance.

Robin Lacy & DeZydeco recently celebrated their own 30th anniversary but I missed it. In fact, it had been a while since I’d seen the band and I’d almost forgotten how much fun they are. Robin and Joani Lacy live near the Ohio River town of New Richmond where they often perform as a trio with DeZydeco guitarist Ricky Leighton. It’s a place I tend to end up in on semi-aimless drives now and then and I’ve enjoyed several summer afternoons listening to the three of them rotate song selections. As enjoyable as that is it just isn’t the same as a toe-tapping bead-tossing full-band outing. “If you ain’t having fun,” Robin’s been known to point out, “it’s your own damned fault.”

I’m pretty sure everybody did have fun and that includes Mr. Tarbell. Here we see him catching a strand of thrown beads, struggling a bit to get them over his hat, then casually tossing off a few dance moves before continuing his walk to the opposite side of the stage.

The members of Haymarket Riot nearly exceeded the space available on the stage and the name apparently did exceed the space available on the behind stage screen. That screen, by the way, showed a recorded Ludlow Garage light show in addition to each performer’s name. The band was started in 1965 by the two guys in the second picture, G. Parker and Steve Helwig. They did play at the Ludlow Garage. Over the years, quite a few members have come and gone around Parker and Helwig and one was in town to help them with a song today. Gary Griffin left Haymarket and Cincinnati in the late 1970s then spent the ’80s and ’90s recording and touring with the Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. He is currently touring with Brian Wilson but had some time off to help his former bandmates perform Good Vibrations.

The Warsaw Falcons arrived a little too late for the Ludlow Garage. Originally forming in 1981, the band has deformed, unformed, and reformed multiple times with the only constant being guitarist David Rhodes Brown. The current three-piece lineup came together in 2014 and has continued the legacy of solid live music with a tinge of rockabilly.

It’s possible that I saw Tracy Nelson at Ludlow Garage fronting Mother Earth. As mentioned earlier, that’s based on the fact that I recall seeing openers East Orange Express but I doubt that was the only time they played there. Today she had wonderful backing by Cincinnati’s Bluebirds. Great voice and great performance.

As stated, Nelson’s backing band was the Bluebirds. There were a few members I didn’t recognize but that wasn’t particularly unusual. The band has been around a long time and I’ve lost count of the various lineups I’ve seen. The schedule called for the Bluebirds to perform their own set, including an Allman Brothers tribute, following Nelson’s set. I expected Nelson to just walk off and the band stay in place. Instead, a full onstage shuffle commenced and when it ended a more familiar lineup was on stage. Both groups were, of course, the legitimate Bluebirds. It’s kind of like whatever plane the President is on being Air Force 1. Whatever musicians accompany guitarist Marcos Sastre are the Bluebirds. And they’re always fantastic.

Although Jeffrey Seeman did not perform at the Ludlow Garage, his musical career is inextricably tied to the venue. Seeman was one of the neighborhood teenagers who helped create the place during the summer of 1969 and who worked there after it opened. Much about the experience made long-lasting impressions but none like being the only person to witness the Allman Brothers rehearsal on the eve of their first Ludlow Garage appearance. The teenager was already playing guitar but watching Duane Allman’s slide work inspired Seeman to master the technique which he has done incredibly well. Today he performed on both acoustic and electric and had Skip Cason join on guitar and vocal for one song.

I’d been there when the music started at noon and sort of surprised myself by still being there when headliner Rick Derringer took the stage more than eight hours later. Rick played the Ludlow Garage in 1970 as a member of Johnny Winters’ band. I stayed for a few songs, including Hang on Sloopy, before starting the climb to my car. I saw Rick most recently back in his hometown when Sloopy was turning 50. The band had been a trio then but now contained a keyboard player whose gear included a keytar. I was parked in the Art Museum lot which isn’t all that far from the concert pavilion but the museum completely blocked the music. Only when I pulled out and cleared the building could I hear what was being played. I exited Eden Park to the sound of Frankenstein as a keytarist presumedly did his best Edgar Winter. Maybe I should have stayed for that.

 

Military Vehicle Centennial Convoy

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Just months after the end of the First World War, a military convoy of about seventy vehicles spent sixty-two days crossing the United States. Setting out on July 7, 1919, it generally followed the young Lincoln Highway although there were several deviations. One of the most significant was that, rather than starting at the LH’s eastern terminus in New York, it began its westbound journey from a temporary marker near the White House in Washington, DC. A permanent Zero Milestone was erected there in 1923 with the intent that it would be the “POINT FOR THE MEASUREMENT OF DISTANCES FROM WASHINGTON ON HIGHWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES”. It hasn’t quite worked out that way.

For their observation of the 1919 convoy’s centennial, the Military Vehicle Preservation Association (MVPA) had originally planned on departing from that Zero Milestone but later decided to launch directly from their annual convention in York, PA. That happened on Monday, the 12th. On Wednesday, I caught up with them in East Palestine, Ohio, about a mile after they entered the state. East Palestine was a planned overnight stop and I had expected the convoy to already be in town and parked by the time I got there. It was delayed by an accident, however, and we ended up arriving almost simultaneously. Had I realized this and pulled over at the earliest opportunity, I could have photographed essentially the entire convoy. A few vehicles had already passed by the time I got stopped to grab the opening photo and photos of most of the vehicles following which included some pretty big gear.

A nearby park would be the convoy’s home for the night and I headed there to look over the vehicles. The trailered staff car is a 1918 Dodge. The Jeep is a 1943 model built by Ford. I imagine it’s a lot like the one my Dad drove around Belgium, France, and Germany in 1944-45. There’s a front view here and an interior shot here.

Before leaving, I asked one of the participants when they would be leaving in the morning. I was told between 6:30 and 7:00 but really thought that a bit ambitious. When I returned about 6:40 AM, I kind of expected to be killing time until everyone was awake and ready. Not so at all. The last vehicles were pulling into position when I arrived and the first Jeep rolled by at 6:47. The field was empty at 6:52. This is a military convoy.

That was the end of my planned contact with the convoy. I found an independent restaurant in East Palestine for breakfast (Heck’s, recommended) with thoughts of following it with a leisurely drive home. The path that the convoy was following is identified as an “Auxiliary route” on the online LHA map. Apparently, it was part of the 1913 Proclamation Route and the 1919 convoy likely followed it to dinner at Harvey Firestone’s place. I had never driven it before so decided it would be the first leg of that leisurely drive home. By the time I finished eating, I’d learned that the convoy was stopping along the route for breakfast at a place called Firestone Farms.

Their breakfast stop was considerably longer than mine which allowed me to catchup. Firestone Farms is a housing and shopping development on what was once Harvey Firestone’s farm. The original 1828 farmhouse was moved to Greenfield Village in 1983. This facade was built sometime later as part of the commercial development. During today’s stop, the screen on the right showed scenes from a movie of the 1919 convoy while the one on the left showed a movie about wartime manufacturing at Firestone. The tent beyond the clock tower contained displays of local history with an emphasis on Firestone.

The trailered Jeep was one of the vehicles involved in yesterday’s accident. Both drivers were taken to the hospital but are recovering. One of the participants told me that parts are on the way to repair one of the vehicles and the driver, though sore, expects to finish the trip in it. I’m thinking that this is the vehicle in question but do not know that for certain. The second picture shows how some convoy members proudly display Lincoln Highway signage.

When the convoy started getting ready to pull out, I headed to downtown Columbiana for one last encounter. I counted and snapped pictures of thirty-eight vehicles, including the three on trailers, as they passed through the roundabout. Here‘s a rear view of that Packard staff car I captured back at Firestone Farms.

I followed the auxiliary route to Canton and headed home from there. The convoy should be about ready to exit Ohio when this is published. The overnight for today (August 18) is South Bend, IN. A schedule has been posted to their Facebook page but I found it a little tricky to locate so have copied it to share here. Note that this is only a copy and more current information can be obtained through the Facebook page.

The Lincoln Highway Association has a separate centennial tour following the 1919 convoy route. That tour, described here, will be departing from Washington, DC, on August 31.