Tag Archives: Ohio

Lincoln Highway Driving Forces in Massillon, Ohio

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I think I was aware of the “Driving Forces: The Lincoln Highway Journey” exhibit at the Massillon Museum before I headed to the Lincoln Highway Association 2026 Conference in York, PA, but I’m not certain. I was definitely aware of it when the conference ended, and I considered ways to include a stop in Massillon on my way home. That didn’t work out, but the museum lingered in the back of my mind until the weather and my schedule aligned for a visit on Tuesday.

I didn’t realize when I took the picture that the big neon sign I parked beneath was newer than the exhibit I came to see. An opening reception kicked off “Driving Forces” on May 30. The brand-new 30-foot sign was hung on the building around June 6. A wall-mounted plaque provides more information about the building.

The exhibit begins with several items travelers might take with them on a trip along the Lincoln Highway or any other highway of the era. Missing the official existence of the Lincoln Highway by a few years, The Negro Motorist Green Book was published from 1936 through 1966. The rather thin document on the table is a reproduction of the 1940 edition. It would grow over the years.

Some wonderful artifacts from businesses that once operated on the Lincoln Highway in Massillon are on display. John Margolies took the two photographs in 1988. Is it possible that Massillon had the very first no-tell motel?

Wall-mounted signs identified several driving forces, such as the Good Roads Movement, that contributed to the Lincoln Highway journey. Of course, the original Lincoln Highway Association was top of list and the three men pictured here were top driving forces within that association.

The museum’s lower level contains a gallery filled with work by local artists. The exhibit, titled “Creativity Within Community”, is organized by the Massillon Community Arts Council.

The upper level contains several galleries devoted to what I’ll call general local history as well as two dedicated to specific local icons. From the general galleries, I’ve included a 1908 Jewel automobile built in Massillon and some glass canes Massillon Glass Works employees made from leftovers around 1900.

I found the gallery with Dr. Immel’s hand-carved miniature circus and related artifacts particularly interesting. I suppose my interest might have been boosted just a bit by my recent exposure to full-sized sideshows. The cane on the wall makes a lot more sense with a little background.

Not surprisingly, football legend Paul Brown has his own gallery in the town where he began his climb to fame by coaching the Massillon High School Tigers.

All in all, this is a very impressive museum that I enjoyed way beyond the Lincoln Highway exhibit that drew me here. That Lincoln Highway exhibit runs through October 8.

Three Nights at the Museum

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The American Sign Museum often hosts presentations and other events associated with temporary exhibits. The Freaks and Sideshows exhibit that opened near the end of July spawned three such presentations on three consecutive Thursday evenings. Each was available for remote viewing via Zoom, but I attended all three in person. The three presentations wrapped up this week. Freaks and Sideshows runs through October 4.

Freaks and Sideshows features sideshow banners from Dave Waller’s collection, and Waller gave the first of the three presentations on August 20. “Collector Talk: David Waller” was, of course, similar to Waller’s 2022 presentation, but there were differences. One example is that at the earlier talk, Waller told of meeting the niece of Johann Petursson, the Viking Giant, and giving her the Viking Giant’s souvenir ring he had acquired. The rings are not extremely rare, and Waller has since replaced his gift with two other rings which he circulated through the audience. This led to an impromptu three circus rings circus when one of the attendees pulled his own Viking Giant ring from his pocket.

The idea of human freaks as elements of sideshows has long been a controversial one. There is no doubt that some people with physical abnormalities have been taken advantage of and exploited by promoters, but it is also true that for others, sideshows provided both income and community at a time when the general society offered little of either. While not denying the existence of exploitation, Jason Harris’ “Behind the Curtain: The Tales and Lives of Sideshow Performers” focused primarily on the positive aspects of the relationships. Underlying the individual stories were observations of how the pure curiosity that fueled mid-19th-century audiences faded as science explained conditions once considered complete mysteries.

The third presentation wasn’t as tightly coupled with the banners as the first two, but it clearly aligned with the spirit of those banners. As expected, “Full Circle: The Golden Era, Decline, and Renaissance of the American Carousel” contained plenty of history, but it delivered a whole lot more. Presenter Danielle Bennignus is not only a passionate historian but an eager hands-on preservationist. She was accompanied by a pair of carved horses she owns. The last part of her presentation included several in-process photos of her restoration of Little Boy, so named because he fit in the back seat of her car for the drive home. His companion probably has a name too, but I missed it. The presentation was indeed focused on “the American Carousel”, although the wide-angle shot I’ve included is of a carousel in Paris, France, which Bennignus and her husband visited not long ago.

This last picture really has nothing to do with any of the presentations beyond my seeing the little truck for the first time when I arrived for the first of them. I snapped the picture on the way to the entrance, and only later learned that it is museum founder Tod Swormstedt’s new ride. The Daihatsu Hijet Deck Van is considerably smaller than what Tod usually drives to haul signs and pull a trailer. It’s a Kei-class vehicle with 1 cargo bed, 2 rows of seats, a 3-cylinder engine, 4-wheel drive, and a 5-speed transmission.

Mariemont Theater’s Back, Baby.

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I can’t recall the titles, but I do remember seeing a few movies at the Mariemont Theater in the early 1970s. I rediscovered the theater just over a year and a half ago when it was one of the relatively few theaters showing a movie (Porcelain War) I wanted to see. I immediately took a liking to the neighborhood theater vibe and made it to a couple more movie showings there before it was abruptly shut down in February of this year. That was pretty depressing, but seeing it storm back to life less than six months later really does make the closing a pretty dim memory.

Even before the theater actually closed, the Village of Mariemont began looking for ways to save this important part of their community. The local group Cindependent was soon involved, and with lots of help from others, the theater was acquired and refurbished.

A Grand Reopening Gala is planned for September 16 that promises to be really special. I won’t be around for that, but I was around Friday for what was billed as a “soft opening”. It wasn’t nearly as soft as I expected. I was pleasantly surprised to see Cindependent mascots Crunchy and Bubs greeting attendees and waving at passersby in front of the theater. That’s Cindependent’s Associate Director Dahlia Kressler and an unknown volunteer off to the right.

Inside, is a tasteful indicator that the place is under new management. The concession stand looks familiar, but not the stack of very cool cookies near the entrance to the screening rooms. The cookies were free, and I intended to grab one on the way out, then forgot. They definitely look too good to eat.

Most of the improvements are not obvious on entering. New state-of-the-art projectors and surround sound systems have been installed for all five screens, and some seating has been rebuilt. I was there to see The Brink of War, which turned out to be a pretty good movie. Arriving early meant I had my choice of almost any seat in the place. The second picture shows the view from the seat I chose. About a third of the other seats were filled by the 4:40 start time.

Clearly, things had been picking up while I was watching the movie. Out front, the Queen City Sisters were entertaining folks in the line that had formed for the evening shows. The theater originally opened in 1938, and several 1938 films were on the agenda for the upcoming gala and the days between now and then. The biggie for Friday night was the Oscar-winning You Can’t Take It with You.

Honda Heritage Center

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I’m guessing that many of you have seen plenty of attraction lists filled with places that you’ve already seen, are no longer open, are too far away, are by appointment only, or are so distorted by AI as to be laughable. I know I have. But I recently came across a list of museums in Ohio with several entries I thought useful. Every place on the list is currently operating, and I detected not a whiff of AI. I’d already visited several, and a few were too far away to fit my immediate plans, but that’s my problem. One requires an appointment, and my reluctance to do that is a personal problem, too. The list came from Ever After in the Woods. This is my first time hearing of them, so I’m not ready to give a wholehearted recommendation, but I like what I’ve seen so far.

As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, my first selection from the list was the Honda Heritage Center in Marysville, OH. It’s roughly two hours away, open at reasonable hours Monday through Friday, and free. I drove up Friday, registered for my stick on pass, and spent just about an hour roaming through the exhibits.

The first Honda plant in Marysville, actually the first in the U.S., was for motorcycles. It opened in 1979 with the intention of building the big Gold Wings. However, that was considered a little too complex for a brand new operation in a brand new country, so production started with the CR250M shown on the right side of the photo. Before too long, the facility was turning out Gold Wings and it turned out a whole lot of them before closing in 2005.

Although I don’t believe any of these were ever made in Marysville, these are the machines that firmly established Honda in the U.S. The Civic was the first Honda automobile to achieve any sort of success here. Next to it are 50cc and 90cc motorbikes. The only vehicle I’ve ever owned with a Honda nameplate fit between these two, at 65cc. The 50cc Honda is the most popular motorized vehicle in the world with more than 85 million sold. I think everybody’s view of two-wheeled Hondas changed when the 4-cylinder CB750 came out. I never owned one, but did ride one when a friend and I swapped bikes for a day. Nice bike.

I did have one of these. I just leased it, and it’s an Acura rather than a Honda so there are two technicalities allowing my only-owned-one-Honda claim. Acura was the first upscale brand from a Japanese auto maker and the 1986 Legend was one of their first offerings. I loved the car, but didn’t care for the leasing experience.

Honda has definitely done some serious racing on both four wheels and two.

Marysville is only about thirty crow-miles from The Ohio State University campus, so it’s only natural that some long term collaboration would take place between the two. That a Buckeye wrapped pickup truck would result from that partnership was probably inevitable.

Honda continues to develop other forms of transportation. Here are vehicles with two, one, and zero (Yeah, I know it’s gotta land sometime.) wheels. The two wheeled Motocompacto looks like something Inspector Gadget might use to cover the last mile to a crime scene. The UNI-CUB is controlled by body position. I guess it’s kind of like a Segway with one less wheel.

And there are even devices like the Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility that transport themselves. Nearby is an image of ASIMO on a screen (That’s me in the corner.) with a spot marked on the floor where guys like me can stand and make awkward gestures and get undeserved compliments.

No one will be surprised to hear that I paused in the Heritage Center lobby to check email and search for nearby breweries. You may be surprised to see that once I reached a brewery, I ordered a flight. It’s something I don’t normally do because I think a full pint of a single beer is better. But everything I read about Camp Brewing made a point of mentioning the flights in small Igloo coolers so I decided to go with the flow. The original location really is at a camp near Indian Lake. I went to the second location in Marysville where Markley poured and delivered my flight with a smile.

ADDENDUM 23-Aug-2026: There’s a reason Camp Brewing’s flight holders look familiar. One of my long time travel companions could actually be the first piece of gear in my brewery. If I took the stickers off, and if I had a brewery. Walmart now sells what appears to be the modern equivalent of this cooler for $27.99.

Odyssey Week

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I’ve heard plenty about the latest moving picture version of Homer’s Odyssey since its July 17 release. I probably heard plenty about it before its release but wasn’t paying attention. Information was certainly out there. I’ve learned that 95% of the tickets for pre-release screenings of the movie in select theaters were sold within an hour—one year in advance! The movie made it onto my personal wish list last week when some members of my trivia team said they had seen it and were impressed. They echoed what I’d already heard: You want to see this in the theater no matter how big a screen you have in your living room.

Not to worry. I am not going to attempt to review this movie. There are lots of professionals who have already done that, and many more who will do so far into the future. Although I can’t avoid talking about the movie entirely, I intend just to describe my own experience. Clues in the opening photo suggesting I did not attend a theater showing in my local Ohio neighborhood may not be obvious. Clues in the picture at left are harder to miss.

My trivia teammates had seen the movie at a nearby IMAX theater, and thought that was a pretty good choice. Those select theaters hosting the pre-release showings had all been IMAX theaters. But they weren’t just any IMAX. They were all showing 70mm film. I felt that the 70mm to digital switch at the Cincinnati Museum Center’s OMNIMAX Theater had been a big improvement, if for no other reason than it eliminated floaters caused by dust on the film. Now the experts, including the movie’s director, were telling me that this was the ultimate way to watch Odyssey.

Apparently what they really mean is 70mm film with 15 perforations per frame (a.k.a. 15/70mm IMAX). That produces a 1.43:1 aspect ratio, which gives you a really tall picture. 41 theaters worldwide support this format. There are 25 in the United States; None in Ohio. The closest to me is at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis.

News articles that discuss the different formats, particularly those that mention the near-instant sellout of pre-release viewings, usually also note difficulty in getting tickets to 70mm showings. Indeed, if you go to the IMAX website and select the Indiana State Museum Theater, it will show as sold out beyond next week. But for some reason, clicking the IMAX link on the museum’s website might reveal some available seats. At least it did on Monday, when it showed a few front-row seats open for most of the week’s showings, despite appearing to access the same page as the IMAX site. Not long ago I accidentally ended up in the front row of a theater where the reclining seats made it tolerable. I hoped for something similar here and purchased the third-to-last seat for Tuesday’s 11:00 showing.

My seat is just beyond the left edge of the picture I snapped when I entered the theater. Not as close as I feared but mighty close. The second picture shows the view from my seat. The projected images in both pictures are just a fraction of the real thing. When the movie starts, it fills that entire wall. Top to bottom; side to side. It was definitely closer than I—and obviously every other ticket purchaser—would prefer, but it was still quite acceptable. The big action that filled the big screen was matched by the big sound that filled the theater. I was more challenged by the seat-shaking rumbling that accompanied most action scenes than by the giant men and beasts projected in front of me. The sudden quiet after a storm or slaughter was always welcome.

After seeing the newest and probably loudest of the many movie adaptations of the Odyssey, I checked out the oldest and almost certainly quietest. L’Odissea is a 1911 Italian silent film. The music used in the YouTube version linked in the image at right has been identified by SoundHound as Edward Elgar’s Symphony No. 1. Brightly colored talking, clanking, and booming movies are nice and all, but some of these 115-year-old special effects are, in my opinion, pretty darned cool and are certainly impressive for a time when movie cameras were cranked by hand. Neither the oldest nor the newest nor any of those in between are completely true to the original poem. Every one of them leaves out something, although it seems that no one wants to leave out the Cyclops scene.

Everybody knows that it took Odysseus ten years to reach home after the war ended. Not everyone realizes that the majority of that time was a very unstressful seven years with Calypso. Still, three years of actual travel time is certainly considerable. To be fair, that was approximately 3,200 years ago. Things have changed. This trip was made just the other day, in a modern vehicle, on a land route that was not available to Odysseus and his companions, and from which sirens, cyclopes, and most other monsters have been cleared, in about half an hour.

Will the Buc-ee Stop Here?

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So, I was relaxing by the bike trail in Loveland, OH, enjoying some fine weather, sipping a beer, and munching on pot stickers when I received a text message, and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in a rush-hour traffic jam on the expressway. The text was from a road-tripping friend in Indiana, and said little more than “[I] decided to make my way to Beavercreek for some snacks.” I immediately knew exactly what he was talking about.

That friend was Pat Bremer (half of the Road Trip Memories team), whose Facebook feed, like mine, had recently been filled with posts about a little store in a suburb of Dayton, OH. I knew enough of the story to understand Pat’s reference, but there was a lot I didn’t know. I’ll start with what I knew before my phone pinged in that trailside bar.

I knew that the travel center Goliath, Buc-ee’s, had sued Davidish Beaver’s Mini Mart for copyright infringement. Note that the Mini Mart doesn’t have a website or even a Facebook page. Nor does it have any gas pumps. Buc-ee’s locations tend to have a hundred or more. Many of the Facebook posts that made me (and presumably Pat) aware of this resembled this one, which identifies several local businesses that have temporarily placed a beaver in their logos in support of their longtime neighbor. The town that is home to the business being sued already had a beaver in its name. Beavercreek, OH, was incorporated as a city in 1980.

In addition to all those companies posting logos featuring beavers, customers have been showing up in droves. Snacks are being purchased, and donations are being made to a legal defense fund. There is a GoFundMe. Reportedly, lines at least as long as the one in the picture are now nearly constant.

When I met Pat in the store parking lot, I knew of but had not seen John Oliver’s July 26 segment on Buc-ee’s, and didn’t know much about their growing reputation for aggressive trademark activity. In particular, I knew nothing about their attack on Mickey’s. Pat clued me in. Mickey’s is a regional chain of convenience stores with headquarters in Milan, OH. Their stores in northeast northcentral Ohio could legitimately be considered Buc-ee’s competitors, but, as Mickey’s attorneys have astutely observed, “a moose is not a beaver.” I personally have to question whether customers who confuse one for the other are worth pursuing. The same thing could be said of folks who cannot distinguish the rodent with the red hat from the bare-headed fellow on the Mini Mart sign.

I have never been a Buc-ee’s customer candidate. This photo of the recently opened location, about 10 miles north of Beaver’s Mini Mart, is as close as I have knowingly been to one. Although they are a rapidly vanishing breed, my favorite gas stations are still those where the actual owner steps out of a tiny office or pauses an oil change to fill your tank. The further a station moves from that image, the more my fondness fades. Buc-ee’s seems to be about as far from that image as possible. The pictured location in Huber Heights is the first in Ohio. Another is planned for Mansfield. It’s pretty obvious that these are the triggers for the attacks on Beaver’s and Mickey’s.

Is the answer to the half-witty question in my title yes or no? Regarding Buc-ee’s vs. Beaver’s Mini Mart, it seems at least possible that the answer is yes. In a statement taped to their door, the little market says it will “fight this lawsuit all the way”. In addition to the surge of flat-tailed and big-toothed logos, donations are being made to support the fight. Ohio’s governor and at least one state senator have made statements condemning the lawsuits. Governor DeWine calls them “ridiculous”. Beavercreek’s city council is about to vote on a resolution “affirming the beaver as a historic symbol of the community”. All that negative publicity can’t be good, and it’s hard for me to see how even the complete disappearance of Beaver’s Mini Mart would benefit the big Texas corporation. It seems reasonable to believe that the big guy just might end the ugly-looking assault on this little guy.

As for the less focused version of that question, the answer is almost certainly no. Buc-ee’s is not at all likely to stop its expansion into Ohio. There is a movement and a petition opposing the planned Mansfield store, but land has been purchased beside I-71, and the Mansfield city council has unanimously approved the plan. The second quarter of 2028 has been floated as a possible opening date. It’s true that the signers of that petition and the people in that line at Beaver’s Mini Mart may never shop at Buc-ee’s, but they are not the company’s target customers. While I don’t doubt that there are Buc-ee’s regulars who live just down the street from one of their stores, I do doubt that they are the chain’s primary patrons. Nor do I believe the chain is depending on folks like me who travel, but do so largely on two-lanes while keeping an eye out for mom-and-pop businesses. No, they are looking for people driving on interstates who might never stop at a particular Buc-ee’s twice but might stop at one down the road and the one after that.  

This is a photo I took as I was pulling out of Beaver’s Mini Mart’s parking lot. At the time, my guess was that Buc-ee’s did not sell bait. It turns out they do, but only at some locations, and Huber Heights is not one of them. There is a pretty good overview of the situation in this USA Today article. I considered including links to other bits of news, but items are appearing so frequently that you’re better off searching for the latest yourself. I will mention two things that have appeared since my Tuesday visit. One is that it appears the mini mart’s owner Vikramjit Singh Boparai owns several businesses in Ohio. The other is that Buc-ee’s CEO Arch Aplin called the mayor of Huber Heights (Not Beavercreek!) to tell him that the lawsuit was filed because Boparai filed for a national copyright and failed to respond to their communications. Boparai denies that a national filing exists. This development is summarized in a Cincinnati Enquirer article.

Big Boy Seen — Briefly

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On Tuesday, as part of its tour of the eastern United States, Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 was on display in Fostoria, OH. I drove up to see it, but the picture at right is as close as I got. The entrance to the train yard where the locomotive was parked is about 2.5 miles farther on. Note that cars are converging onto the road I’d just left from both the left and the right. As might be expected, other roads leading to the yard from other directions were just as packed.

The announced opening time had been 9:00, and it was now about 9:45. Even though I knew better, I told myself that maybe this was just the buildup of people who had been waiting there since well before 9:00, and that it might thin out later. I turned back into town and treated myself to a $6.99 breakfast special at The American Table. After a leisurely meal, I tried again. This time, I followed a route through downtown, and although I got no closer to Big Boy than I had earlier, I did get the day’s only glimpse of a train. When I turned around this time, I spoke with a policeman directing traffic, who gave me directions to bypass most of the Fostoria traffic and reach Findlay. I asked if he thought things would settle down before day’s end. “Oh, hell no,” was his answer.

Findlay was my destination because that’s where I had reserved a motel room. I was way too early to check in, but finally had some luck and found the Findlay Brewing Company open. I claimed a bar stool and very slowly nursed a nice Irish Red Ale. After checking in and spending a little time at the motel, I returned to the brewery for a salad and a stout.

I had booked the room partly to postpone the nearly three-hour drive home, but also because I hoped to catch the train in motion. Seeing it head west on Wednesday would have been a goal even if I had been successful on Tuesday, but now it was even more important. Honey Joe’s Cafe in Arcadia looked like a good place to start the day. It was, and I had another fine breakfast.

There was a crossing just east of town that I thought might be a good viewing spot, and the fact that several cars were already there when I arrived reinforced that idea. The picture shows just a fraction of the cars that were there when the train came through. We had a couple of hours to wait, but things moved rather quickly after the online tracker indicated that it had left Fostoria. The first local indication that it was near was the passing of several small planes that seemed to be tracking the train and probably filming it. Then smoke from the locomotive could be seen approaching from beyond the trees.

I really don’t know what its speed was, but Big Boy moved to and through the crossing at a pretty good clip.

More than twenty cars made up the train, which meant that the locomotive was well beyond the crossing when the last car rolled out from behind the trees. I was happy to get a look at the Pullman bringing up the rear. Built in 1927, it served Franklin Roosevelt as Governor of New York and then as the President.

Most of the crowd was gone rather quickly. I know that some of those leading the exodus were off to catch the train again at one or more crossings farther west. I waited until all that scrambling was over, then drove into Findlay to take a look at Iron Triangle Park. The park was essentially unreachable yesterday, and my guess is that was probably true for this morning when Big Boy passed through. As I looked around, I heard someone announce that a train was coming, and I spotted its headlight through the group clustered at the fence. Three active rail lines border the park. I’ve read one report claiming that at least 60 trains pass this park every day, and another that claims an average of 100. I know of two that did it on Wednesday.

When I told a friend of my failure to see the parked Big Boy, I noted that the town of Struthers, OH, had around 20,000 people show up to see Big Boy on Sunday when they had expected 5,000. I’d seen a projection of 20,000 at Fostoria, and offered that maybe 100,000 had actually appeared. Turns out that wasn’t far off. It has been reported that 46,000 made their way into the rail yard, and an estimated 46,000 were turned away. Lots of people were disappointed, and I really sympathize with families who drove for hours then waited in line for several more without seeing what they came for. There has been some finger-pointing and attempts to place blame, and I do not doubt that there were things that could have been done better and instances where people could have behaved better. But the majority of what I’ve read indicates that most of the people involved were really doing the best they could. No one should be surprised that dealing with 90,000 people in 90-degree temperatures in a city with a population under 13,000 had a few bumps.

ADDENDUM 19-Jul-2026: Although I didn’t get to see Big Boy 4014 up close while it was on display in Fostoria, I have seen a sibling, Big Boy 4004, on permanent display in Cheyenne, WY.

Happy Birthday to U.S.

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Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. Around 2010, the Cincinnati History Museum rediscovered a copy of the second printing of the Declaration and put it on display for the Fourth of July in 2015. Like this year, the Fourth of July fell on Saturday. Part of my blog post for Sunday, July 5, 2015, concerned the opening of the display on July 2. The 1776 document is again on display this year in an exhibit that opened on July 3. I took the opening picture from I-71 as I headed toward the museum for the opening of that exhibit.

Declarative Acts and Revolutionary Actors is paired with another temporary exhibit “Equal to Any in the City:” Ball & Thomas Photographs 1840s – 1870s. Both opened on the 3rd and are included with museum admission. Declarative Acts and Revolutionary Actors runs through August 23. “Equal to Any in the City:” Ball & Thomas Photographs 1840s – 1870s runs through October 14.

This year the museum’s copy of the Declaration of Independence is displayed in front of the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion flag. Josiah Harmar was a member of the 1st Pennsylvania Battalion and probably brought the flag with him to Ohio. His great-grandson donated the flag to the City of Cincinnati in 1926.

The Declaration of Independence was not signed on July 4, but was approved by representative from twelve colonies. Approximately 200 copies were printed that night in Philadelphia. Without instructions from their legislature, delegates from the thirteenth colony, New York, did not approve of the declaration on the fourth but did so on the ninth after which about 500 copies with the New York resolution were printed. The copy on display is one of four known survivors from the second printing. Twenty-six copies of the first printing are known to exist.

Additional informative displays and artifacts from Cincinnati’s earliest history, such as wood from the original Fort Washington, fill out the Declarative Acts and Revolutionary Actors exhibit.
 
 
James Presley Ball was a free Black man who, along with his brother-in-law Alexander Thomas, operated a very successful photography studio in Cincinnati from the late 1840s into the 1870s. The museum’s exhibit contains many of their original photos.

It’s perhaps not surprising that Ball was an active abolitionist. He frequently worked with the Underground Railroad, but his biggest contribution to the ant-slavery movement was probably a 600 yard long panorama he created in collaboration with other artists in 1855. It toured part of the country providing a visual depiction of the horrors of slavery. The panorama has been lost, but an accompanying pamphlet survives. A short video describes it in the exhibit.

The exhibit uses the Ball and Thomas story to share some details of early photography aside from the specifics of their activities. The film camera had just been invented and Photoshop was more than a century away but people were already busy improving on what the lens saw. Studio employees called retouchers might enhance black and white images with a little color or maybe even add something entirely new to the scene. Examples are turning a gray watchchain gold and placing a shiny gold ring on what was actually an empty finger.

It was still morning when I finished viewing the exhibits. It had already been uncomfortably hot when I arrived, and I knew the temperature was still rising. I opted to pause on a bench in the lobby for a bit before venturing out. What you see at left is the natural result of anyone spending more than a second or two in that wonderful half-dome with a camera in hand.

Because all of my previous 4th of July blog posts have included fireworks, I’m including this pair of worse than usual shots. In the past, I’ve photographed the shows at Kings Island, Loveland, and maybe a couple of other places. I can always hear, but not see, the Kings Island show, and that might be true of some other nearby events as well. However, I am surrounded by multiple neighbors who really like to celebrate on the 4th (and the 3rd, and the 5th, and more), so this year I just stepped outside my front door and grabbed a few snapshots with my phone. Then I stepped back inside and went to bed.

The 1955 Mountain View diner occupied by Sugar n’ Spice is a good place for breakfast when heading to the Museum Center. However, since it is in the downtown area, parking is a consideration, and for me, it often loses out to other places also within range of the museum with free parking. I’d already decided I was just going to deal with the parking, then learned that I didn’t have to. I had also more or less decided that I would have a very Cincinnati goetta-and-cheese omelet when I spotted something else on the menu. I believe this was my first-ever goetta Benedict. It is also very Cincinnati and also very good. Happy hollandaise.

Skirmish at Dogwood Pass

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I first heard of this faux town in southern Ohio a couple of weeks ago when someone reported on a visit there in an online travel group.  Dogwood Pass began as a man-cave-style retreat for Mike Montgomery and his buddies, but has grown to be a whole lot more. The place was used to raise funds for a seriously ill child in 2012, and the practice has been repeated annually, with an event benefiting a different child each time.

Ideas kept coming, and the place has become a year-round attraction, with something going on at least twice a month, and much more around Halloween and Christmas. When I learned that one of the big Civil War-themed events would take place on June 6 and 7, I thought it would be a good time to check it out. When it aligned with perfect weather, I knew it.

The three dozen or more buildings that make up the town sure look like authentic 19th-century structures, and there is even a boot hill for the truly permanent residents.

Storefronts and wooden crosses are definitely not the only thing to look at. Among the less static attractions are the Roy Rogers Memory Museum, the g-g-g-g-granddaughter of Little Turtle, Buildings, and a hard-working village smithy.

Two Civil War reenactments were scheduled, and as the time for the first one approached, Dogwood Pass founder and owner Mike Montgomery told spectators a little about his man-cave’s wild transformation and the upcoming visit by Morgan’s Raiders. Everyone should stay behind the safety rope, he explained, to avoid getting “run over, shot, or killed”. This was especially important today, he said, because “It’s too hot for anyone to dig a hole to put you in.”

The town folk remained calm and it was business as usual until word arrived that Morgan was on his way.

The town cannon was fired as the raiders reach the edge of town but it was just wasn’t enough. Confederate troops were soon in the town square.

In 1863, Morgan’s Raiders worked their way through many small towns in southern Indiana and Ohio looking for horses, food, or anything else the could use. On Saturday, reenactors did the same in Dogwood Pass, and for a time were in complete control of the town.

It was short lived, however. Before long, United States troops appeared and cleared the town of the intruders.

Of course, not all of them left. Then, after a moment to let folks take in the scene and consider what they had just witnessed, the command “resurrect” brought everyone dispatched during the melee back upright. The reenactors eventually joined in formation and all the participating units were introduced. I regret that I can’t recall and share their identities. Many had traveled quite some distance and every one of them added something to a very impressive operation.

An even bigger battle was planned for the afternoon but I left after peace was restored in the town. The event continues today, with what I believe are repeats of both reenactments. I’m sorry that this is being published too late for any but the nearest neighbors to use that information but encourage everyone to check out the Dogwood Schedule and plan a future visit. It’s quite impressive.

Loveland Museum Center

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Saturday was not the first time I’ve visited the Loveland Museum Center, but earlier visits happened long enough ago that this website did not exist. They were, in fact, long enough ago that I remember almost nothing about them. To be entirely honest, I don’t remember half as much as I should from Saturday’s visit. To illustrate, I met three extremely friendly and helpful staff members while I was there, but the only one whose name I remember is the lady who guided me through the exhibits and supplied tons of information: Nancy. The main museum building is known as the Bonaventure Hoise. It was built in 1862 by Dr. John S. Law. It was the home and office of Dr. Frank S. Lever into the 1950s. Apparently, Bonaventure was the name of an owner between the two doctors.

I don’t believe any of the building’s current content is original, but what is there is appropriate and interesting. A placard identifies the refrigerator as a General Electric “Monitor Top”, and says the name came from its resemblance to the gun turret of the Civil War ironclad, USS Monitor. I’d heard the name before, though not the explanation. I had my doubts, but it does make sense, and the internet seems to support it.

There is an impressive collection of guns and a display about a log cabin that I’ll have more on later. The large document on the left side of the third picture grants eleven hundred acres of land on the Little Miami River to Colonel Thomas Paxton. It is signed by President John Adams. This led to the founding of the village of Paxton, which eventually became Loveland.

During restoration, the name of paperhanger R.W. Prendergast was uncovered and preserved. It was placed there in 1872. It was apparently uncovered and again papered over in 1932 when S.G. Tufts added his name. Upstairs, a bit of wallpaper, thought to possibly be original, is similarly preserved.

That previously mentioned cabin is now on the museum grounds. It was built in 1797, covered over the years with numerous additions, then rediscovered in the 1980s when some remodeling was planned. A placard from that previously pictured display is here, and one from inside the cabin is here. Although they are not directly connected to the cabin, quite a few historic items are displayed inside it. The covered wagon bows against the wall caught my eye, and I snapped a picture, partially so I could mention that I once read that wagon bows were the first commercial product exported from Darke County, OH, my home.

Here is a different view of the cabin and the museum, along with a shot of the modern building containing museum offices and an event space.