BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest

Subject: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 09:54 AM

On my visit with CarolC I saw many interesting things. Antietam Battlefield was nearby, there was the Potomac River and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal System nearby, and I saw the Rumsey Boat.

Of all that I have seen in recent years the Rumsey Boat has been the most mind blowing of them all. It was tested in 1786 and didn't work very well. Still it is a bit of local history that was thought of highly enough that a replica was built and is steamed on the Potomac once a year.

It was a steam powered jet boat.

Not only did I have no idea that such a thing had ever existed, I had no clue at all!

Another such thing that I saw once upon a time was an original air rifle from the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition. It was about a .30 caliber and the history books say it could kill a deer at 50 yards.

Back when I was researching a canal boating vacation in England I came across a posting in some web site or other where someone had posted their favorite local places of interest that the tourist knew nothing about. They look very interesting and I hope to make them part of a future visit some day.

So here is the point of this little thread. What do you have in your local area that would fit these criteria? First and foremost it has to be relatively unknown outside of your area. Secondly it has to be of real interest though that criteria will be wide open to interpretation. Thirdly, there should be some element of surprise to it. In the case of the Rumsey boat I knew that experiments in steam propulsion predated Fulton's Claremont but I never would have guessed at jet boat technology.

And, last, but never least, if you can unearth a related song or piece of music we will be able to keep in line with the music part of the whole site.

Whatcha got?

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 11:29 AM

As far as I know most tourists don't know where to find teepee rings, nor the site of the original Goose Egg Ranch in Wyoming, of "The Virginian" fame.

Most of the few things around here, though, are scenery or history and usually quite accessible to any tourist with a hint of a brain.

Though I haven't seen them, there are caves on Casper Mountain in which the bones of the little people were found adn promptly shipped off to Yale back East and relegated to some dusty subterranean corner never to be seen again. The Native Americans have stories about them.

If you time it right, you can drive up the road a piece to Kaycee and get in on a big BBQ and a sing-a-round the campfire with Chris LeDoux and all of his family and friends whom he grew up with.

Ft. Caspar would have more info on frontier life, weaponry, innovations etc., but it is pretty well known, so I don't think it would meet your criteria.

This should be a fun thread, Naes, thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Kim C
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 12:03 PM

Well, I don't know about the surprise element, but around here, I'd have to say it's the Sam Davis home in Smyrna, TN. Sam Davis, a Confederate spy, was hanged when he would not reveal the identity of his informant(s). He was only 21 years old, or thereabouts, very young. The story goes that he was very well-liked by his captors, and they did not want to hang him, but they had to follow the law.

The surprise may be that this historic site has been very well-preserved, and taken care of, despite its lack of national notoriety. Another surprise may be that they had a 3-hole privy. (maybe it is 4? now I don't remember) A multiple-occupancy privy was a sign of well-offness. The Davises were hog farmers (very common in Tennessee) and were fairly well-off.

It is said that on the morning of his hanging, Sam sang his favorite hymn, On Jordan's Stormy Banks.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 03:29 PM

In Doylestown, PA (central Bucks County) and the surrounding area, there are several items of note:

One is the Michener House in Doylestown (James Michener once lived there); they offer several cultural events throughout the year.

Another is the Pearl S. Buck House outside of town. Tours and cultural events here, too. I don't know if either of these two places count as "surprises", except for the fact that they're in the same locale for anyone who wishes to tour both.

But let me tell you about my favorite sites: Henry Chapman Mercer was a wealthy, eccentric Doylestonian who was enamored of concrete as a building material, and also of ceramic tile-making. He was a more-than-avid collector of 18th-19th century everday items, from small tools to horse-drawn carts. In town you will find the huge, 5+-story The Mercer Museum, designed (eccentrically) by Mercer and built of reinforced concrete in 1916. In the center court hang a prairie schooner, codfish dory, whaleboat, carriages and an antique fire engine; walkways with rooms full of what-was-once-considered-junk surround the court. On the third floor is a library with a wealth of *genealogical reference material* (kat, take note). Of particular note when taking the tour – watch your step, the concrete floor is uneven! – are the footprints of Mercer's dog as he strolled through before the concrete hardened!

Also in town is Fonthill, Mercer's self-designed mansion, also of reinforced concrete and even weirder than the museum (locally it's affectionately known as The Concrete Castle). It's filled with antiques, uniquely displayed (some set into the concrete!), and with tiles from his tile works. This mansion WAS featured on a cable TV program (A&E' "America's Castles"), so it may not fit the criteria of the thread, but it's still fascinating... and yes, Rollo the dog's footprints are there, too!

The Moravian Tile Works building is adjacent to the Fonthill grounds. As far as I know, tiles are still made here in the same designs Mercer designed and handcrafted.

Info on tours of the Mercer buildings is available at www.mercermuseum.org This site has contacts for the Bucks County Historical Society, which will also provide information about the Michener House, Pearl S. Buck House, and many other sites of interest in the county. Maybe I'll come back later and tell you about some more of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: SharonA
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 03:37 PM

P.S. – ...and, y'know, it's not all that far from the Philadelphia Folk Festival! Anyone coming to the area for the Fest may be interested in a side-trip to tour these places...

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 03:54 PM

James Brindleys inverse syphon at Wet Earth Colliery in Clifton is only 2 miles from my house. I never knew how it worked but for 17-something or another it was quite a feat of engineering apparantly. Used water from the river, which it went under, to draw water from the mine.

Too complicated for me - perhaps some engineering type could use words of one sylable to explain it to me one day:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 07:04 PM

I would recommend you have a look at The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis. The biggest kick was the phrenology machine. For a buck or so (I was there a long time ago.) you can have this device strapped on your head which measures your cranium and prints out your personality profile.

Any railroad buff will appreciate The Twin City Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul. I especially like the outstandingly realistic scenery.

I also recommend Forts Folle Avoine Historical Park, in Burnett County, Wisconsin. The tour guides there were excellent.

You may be able to find other interesting sites at Roadside America.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Gloredhel
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 07:21 PM

Somewhere in Sacramento (not my area--my grandparents'), there is a small railroad museum which was once a Carnegie Library. The building was leased to a manufacturer after the library closed, and when the company moved out, the terms of the lease were that it would revert to the original owners. No longer needing a library, they turned it into a museum to the railroads that once ran through the city. In San Fransisco (getting closer to me), there is a little alley on the north side of town where there is a zig-zag line in the pavement. This line marks where the coastline used to be before they filled in the cove to expand the city. I've lived in Nor. CA all my life and I never saw that til it was on a special on PBS--it's still pretty obscure.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: CarolC
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 09:56 PM

Here's the musical part of your Rumsey Boat story, Naemanson...

Every year when Shepherdstown holds the annual Rumsey Regatta (when we float the boat), music of the period is played at an historically representative encampment down on the bank of the river (near the boat ramp and the old mill), that people can listen to while they watch the boat demonstration.

There are usually several other replicas of steam powered boats on the river during the regatta (along with some cannon fire), and last year we had a replica of an old bateau, as well.

Last year's regatta featured the first ever public performance of the beautiful and moving 'Rumsey Suite' by local composer and musician, Cam Miller (who, I believe, is originally from Canada). It was performed by various local musicians, including Ralph Gordon, former bassist for the group 'Trapezoid'.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Aug 01 - 10:51 PM

In Dover, Ohio lived a man named Ernest Warther, known to one and all as "Mooney." He may well have been the greatest carver of all time and definitely a genius. He carved almost all of his life and after retiring from 20 years in a steel mill, he began carving full time. At the museum in Dover you can see an entire history of steam and the great steam locomotives of many railroads, all done in Ivory, Ebony, and Mahoghany.

There is no way I can simply tell you how wonderful and great these pieces are.........they are perfect. Even better are the tales of Mooney himself, a very opinionated fellow........and often viewed as the "Town Nut." Far from it......he was a genius by any standard. He said once he had a vision and carved a block of wood of which he made a duplicate. He cut the block with only straight cuts and there were NO shavings. When he finished, he open the block into a tree made of wooden pliers....555 pair of wooden pliers! The smallest are about a half inch long in the "upper branches" and the trunk pair is about the size of normal pliers. Challenged by Robert Ripley, he refolded them into the block and unfolded them again. It's on display at the Museum.

The Steam Engines are a wonder. They are perfect in every detail to include all the valves and operating gear set in the running positions. Take a look at this page from the Museum website.......CLICK........Did you read it and look at the pics? That Union Pacific "Big Boy" is about 4 foot long and there is no glue holding it together....including the inlay printing and everything else. He hand carved bell ropes out of ivory.....thread thin and look to be "hanging" between the stanchions in the normal rope curvature. Mooney said he only carved bell ropes on Sundays because they were very difficult and any other day he'd be cussing a blue streak....so Sundays were the day...no swearing!

I was lucky enough to grow up close by and he just loved kids. He'd a great canyon like backyard and the old swing was still there when I was a boy. One other important thing..........He NEVER sold a carving...said a man should never sell his hobby. He gave some away over the years, but never sold a one...........and believe me he had offers!!!

He loved Lincoln and there is a carving of the entire Licoln Funeral Train. There are other parts of rail history including carvings of the General, the Yona, and the Texas from the great chase in the Civil War. One last story.........Mooney was showing his visitors the carving of the "Driving of the Golden Spike" one day. It's beautiful of course and he had all the dignataries carved and standing there too. A visitor pointed out that President Grant, whom Mooney had in attendance, was NOT there. Mooney contemplated this for a moment and said, "Well, he shoulda' been!" Mooney died on my birthday in 1973, but he was one of those figures that will always loom large in my memory.

This is a fascinating place for anyone to visit....and I do mean anyone. Mooney built a knife shop and sold his knives and this is the family business located at the museum also....beautiful cutlery today as always. If you like railroading or carving of any sort, all the better. Dover is in eastern Ohio about 90 miles south of Cleveland.

Oh yeah, there's a carving of Casey's #382...so there's your song content.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:26 AM

Great additions! I love them. Keep them coming.

Carol, I had forgotten to mention the music. Thanks for getting that in there. Do you want to describe The Great Hall as another one of these sights?

Spaw, great story. Ernest Warther does some great work. I need to drag my father to a monitor some day to show him that site. There is almost no chance of dragging him to Ohio.

One of my favorite places is the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, MA. On the outside it is one of the first, if not the first, all steel and glass buildings ever made. On the inside it looks like a great hall in a castle and it is full of medieval and rennaissence armor. They claim to have the most comprehesive and extensive collection in the US if not the world. Anyone from eastern Mass. want to talk about thier area and mention Higgins?

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:45 AM

Well, there's Hanlon's Point; where Babe Ruth hit his first home run. Various taverns where Ernest Hemingway got drunk. The world's tallest thingy (the CN tower) serving the world's worst food (at the world's highest prices)

The Bata Shoe Museum, which I think contains one of Napoleon Bonaparte's shoes and one of Rasputin's (they're vastly different in size)

And of course Old Fort York, which still has cannons pointed at Dubyaland.(they've never been fired in anger)

Rick

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 10:20 AM

Might be time to scrub out those old cannons and get them into firing order. They may be needed if we can't get the three stooges out of the White House.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: SharonA
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 10:36 AM

Oh, yeah, the music! Well, at the Mercer Museum (mentioned in my post above), there is an annual Folk Fest there on Mother's Day (US) weekend, emphasizing "living history". This includes not only showcases of folk music and storytelling in various Early American styles, but also craft and artisan demonstrations AND an encampment of Revolutionary War re-enactors (6th Pennsylvania Regiment, who also play fife-and-drum marches).

There. It's Mudcat-relevant now! (I don't have to talk about the musicals made from Michener's books, do I?) (or Chinese music as relates to Buck?)

SharonA

P.S> – A request: When you describe your place of interest, please remember to include the name of the town, state, country, etc., where it's located, in case we want to go take the tour! Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 10:40 AM

Here are three gems in and near Louisville. These aren't exactly unknown, but tourists might miss them if they had limited time and had to choose "big sights."

Falls of the Ohio State Park - kat, this is my proposal for the Central USA Mudcat Gathering. It's just across the Ohio River from Louisville.

Louisville Slugger Museum - Rick, you gotta check this out. The website requires Flash 5, but it's well worth it. I used to take kids on field trips here. Besides the museum for baseball trivia nuts, the factory tour is fun.

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest - this is another wonderful site for the Central USA Mudcat Gathering. It's such a great place to visit because there is no commercialism (until recently when some "artist" put gaudy sculptures in woodland areas). There are picnic tables, but that's about all the entertainment. When my kids were small, whenever we had a "Bernheim Day" (gorgeous weather, cool temps, sunshine) we would head out to Bernheim for lunch. I also logged many miles jogging. The plant study areas are beautiful and informative.

Here in Kentucky (and I think in most states) there are Historical highway markers telling what happened at particular points along the highways. I recently heard of one marker that said "Absolutely nothing ever happened here."

If you're into steamboats and steam engines, do a Mudcat search on John Fitch, the "real" inventor of the steamboat, 20 years before Fulton. We have a marker here in Bardstown about him.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 12:21 PM

I've always been fond of the Nonesuch River in Scarborough, ME, which is said to pass under the Maine Turnpike. As kids we would always scream "Look! Look!" as we passed the sign and of course by the time people did there was...nothing to see. Some of us Roll & Goers are heading past there today, on our merry way to the Press Room session. Maybe I'll give another shout for old times sake.;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 12:29 PM

More "little known" sites from the Twin Cities...

The locks and dam...

The Schubert Club's museum of antique instruments...

Fort Snelling Chapel...

American Swedish Museum...

For folkies--West Bank School of Music, the Cedar Cultural Center, Kieran's Pub and Molly Quinn's.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 02:46 PM


One of our nearby towns has an old hotel with a working TWO-STORY OUTHOUSE.

It's a registered historic site, but not too much advertised. Maintenance is horrific if the traffic gets too high.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: M.Ted
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 02:47 PM

SharonA,

If you need another musical tie in, I seem to remember having seen an Elvis movie that was shown on the Mercer Museum one evening a few years ago--

Just up the road from my old house in Teleford PA on Allentown Rd,(which, according to local legend, was the escape route for the Liberty Bell, and other gov't stuff when the British occupied Philadelphia in 1777) just between Trumbauersville and Milford Square is is the John Fries house--Fries was the leader of "The Hotwater Rebellion",also called the "Fries Rebellion" in 1799, which was an armed resistance to the Federal Government by local farmers, who mistakenly believed that tax assessors were measuring their windows in order to impose a "Window Tax"--The local women drew "first blood" when the poured tubs of scalding water on the assessors--the farmers got out the rifles. forced the assesors out, freed prisoners from the prison in Bethlehem--Federal troops came in, quelled the insurgency, Fries and several others were tried, sentenced to be hung for treason, but Fries at least, was pardoned--

There is also an old and still functioning inn at Spinnerstown, just off PA Rt. 663(also called "John Fries Hwy") which is said to have been the central meeting place for the rebellious farmers--I can't find the name, off hand, or the address, but Spinnerstown isn't that big--the food is very good, not very expensive, and the story is recounted on the placemats, and it isn't far from Shwenksville--

I can't even list all the obscure but interesting places in Philly, there are so many that it puts all other American cities to shame--from the Mutter Museum of Medical Oddities(if you like human body body parts and Formaldehyde, this is your mecca!) to the Insectarium with it famous cockroach infested kitchen(a favorite with school kids) to the notorious Eastern State Penntentiary, to Rodin's famous sculpture, "The Thinker", to the sight of the first manned flight in America(no, it wasn't in either North Carolina or Ohio), to the site of America's first race riot, to the beginning of the Mason-Dixon line--to the Betsy Ross house where you will learn that she didn't sew the first Stars and Stripes flag--

The big Philly Icon, the Liberty Bell itself,is worth a visit, if only to hear the tour guides explain that its, true story is considerably different from it's "history book" story. The Bell was cast and given to Philadelphia in 1750 by the Crown, probably to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the "Charter of Privileges"--it was not hanging in Independence Hall on July 4, 1776, may not have been rung at all that time--the name "Liberty Bell" came from its use by abolitionists many years later--the cracks came about as a result of bungling and mishandling, the explanation probably is best left to the entertaining and good-humored guides, who you will see, should you decide to make the pilgrimage--they delight in bursting the tourists bubbles.

For a musical tie in, you might choose one or more of the melodies associated with "The World Turned Upside Down" which was likely played by captured Hessian Soldiers to celebrate the Declaration, which was accompanied by drinken revelry, brawling, and arson--Fourth of July traditions that continue in Philadelphia to this day--

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 06:07 PM

Mary in Kentucky,

It looks like Shepherdstown (West Virginia, USA) has your man John Fitch beat by about three months as the inventor of the first steam powered boat...

James Rumsey

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 06:17 PM

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod fountain in the town Green in Wellsboro.

Tioga Central railroad, passenger excursions and dinner train.

The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania.

The Lumber Museum.

The most beautiful church I have ever seen, where I am lucky enough to put acoustic worship into what was built for the people as a grand but simple space.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 06:50 PM

CaroC, the plot thickens! ;-)

It may be necessary now to add that the heavey charges of perjury, falshood, want of memory or candour, which are so illiberally brought by Mr. Fitch, against the fairest characters, were made by a man, who not only attempted to bribe a gentleman of character to swear to a falshood, but who actually committed this heinous offence, in order either to avail himself of Mr. Rumsey's invention, or to prevent him from deriving the emoluments due to his ingenuity. How Mr. Fitch can after this instance of flagitious conduct, expect the patronage of any honest man, I am at a loss to determine.

Looks like the lawyers got in on this one. I'll send it to my historian friend and see if the members of the DAR are aware of this one. LOL. Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 06:58 PM

Near Cedar Vale, Kansas (which is close to Winfield) is the Wee Kirk of the Valley---holds only 12 people and is beautiful. Somewhere is the World's Largest Ball of String, but I forget where. I once found a web site that had lots of strange, weird places like this in Kansas....

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 07:04 PM

oops, just remembered a couple more.
At Santa Rosa, NM there is Blue Hole--a large, deep, clear sinkhole with caves.......used by divers. Several are drowned there each year. Beautiful place with several ledges for high diving from. In Santa Rosa is also "Hidden Lake" which has Native American pictographs in the rocks surrounding the lake. Place gave me the CREEPS--my Dad got creeps too. Lots of local legends about the place.

There is also the Medicine Wheel in northern Wyoming.....large circle of rocks that resemble a tipi outline.......difficult to get to now, but possible.

Also, View Zone Magazine has some weird stuff about Oklahoma......

You could always look at crop circles......

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 07:19 PM

No kidding, Mary in Kentucky! Fascinating stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:15 PM

A most fascinating thread folks....Thanks to all and I mean all.......Mr. Dixon has really outdone himself here, as has Mary and Carol.....hell, everybody.

There are some other Ohio destinations well worth listing, but let me go to Kentucky instead. South of Somerset, outside of Whitley City to be exact, is an area now known as the Big South Fork River Project and even now the place I'm telling you about is still little known. On one of the small creeks feeding into the Big South Fork (of the Cumberland River) is a place named Yahoo Falls.

It's not far from Cumberland Falls, also a wonderful and scenic place known as the Niagara of the South. Many tourists stay at the beautiful lodge there and at certain times see the "Moonbow" produced at night under certain atmospheric conditions and times of the month. Cumberland falls is rightfully well known, well visited and still rustically beautiful........but let me tell you about Yahoo Falls................

You drive a series of smaller and smaller roads to a dirt path entrance which runs back through switchbacks for about a mile and come to a tiny parking lot and nothing else. A sign directs you to a trail that is quite steep and leads to the falls about 3/4 of a mile away. Getting to the bottom you walk along the cliffs in the woods with very tall trees searching for daylight. You finally round a bend and you are struck by what is one of the most beautiful little hollows you've ever seen. At the back of this hollow is Yahoo Falls, only 4 foot wide but dropping 103 feet to the little pond and creek below. Behind it is a large and open scree strown cave and ledge where some interesting history took place....Read about the 1810 Massacre here

I have seen it at all times of year and it is always beautiful. The summer is you can play in the water beneath the falls and feel the sting of the droplets, In the winter it freezes almost solid and in March or so, it's a gigantic "volcano" of ice with the falls dropping into the middle. Fair picture is here

One of my favorite spots on earth.....and after I found it 25 years ago, I always hoped it would remain undiscovered by the masses and it has......but if you are in southern Kentucky, you have my permission!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:53 PM

WOW, Spaw, what a link! Kentucky Wilderness But I'll have to disagree with you about the prettiest place on earth. I can't find a picture of it, but I'm looking through the links at Red River Gorge/Trails. In my ill-spent youth, I referred to it as Mary's Bluff. It was somewhere in the area of all these trails. It was hard to get to (for an unexperienced climber), so I thought I was the only person who had been there. One day when crawling through a narrow space between two rocks, I saw some coke cans and other trash. Anyway, after skinnying up some rocks, you ended up on a high flat hill covered with pines. I thought it was about the most lonesome place in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Mary in Kentucky
Date: 24 Aug 01 - 08:56 PM

Did you hear the joke about the Ohioan and Kentuckian crossing the double-decker bridge at Cincy? We won't go there...

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Harold W
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 12:27 AM

Heavener Rune Stone in Heavener, OK

A large flat stone on edge with runes carved into it was first found in the 1830's, as I recall. It suppose3dly was describing a land claim as there are three smaller stones marking the claim. The runes were said to be of Viking origin. How did the Vikings arrived there is anybody's guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: catspaw49
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 12:38 AM

Well Mary, that's probably a good idea (:<))

When I lived at Lake Cumberland I went to Yahoo a lot.....and when I was going through some of the worst of the medical problems I thought I had seen it for the last time. Happily Karen and I were able to go there awile back, her first trip. She loves it too.

And BTW, all the damn Ohioans with their boats left permanently moored at Jamestown on the lake? Do you know they have this great sign there, very large............

WELCOME TO JAMESTOWN

Home of the Buckeye Navy

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: RangerSteve
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 11:38 AM

New Jersey - An authentic working Dutch windmill in (where else) Holland Township on the Delaware River in Hunterdon County.

A buffalo ranch in Readington Township.

The Carranza Memorial near Tabernacle in South Jersey. Emilio Carranza was billed as the Mexican Lindbergh. On a goodwill flight from Mexico City to New York and back, his plane went down on the return trip in the Pine Barrens. There's an unusual looking monument in the woods erected at the spot where his plane crashed. It's one of the most quiet places I've ever been to. As a matter of fact, the whole area known as the pine barrens is pretty unique, and definately worth exploring.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 12:09 PM

well, it's not local to ME, but last week I was in Johnstown, PA, famous for floods......but the most fascinating thing I saw was The Inclined Plane , created after the flood to provide access to a new, more expensive community, on *higher ground*.....this strange system has 'almost' been discontinued several times since, but someone always steps in to keep it running....it seems to be a permanent tourist attraction now. Yes, it WILL take an automobile up that hill. (The speaker we heard at the meeting I attended said it used to be double-decker, with horse & wagon above, and passengers below, but that was not a popular configuration!)

Rides are, I believe $2.25 round trip...what a view!

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 12:35 PM

Harold W.: This is the first time I have heard of the Heavener Rune Stone. I was already familiar -- by reputation only -- with the Kensington Runestone, which has a museum devoted to it at Alexandria, MN. I understand every reputable historian, archaeologist, etc. regards it as a hoax. A few years back, a whole issue of the monthly magazine of the Minnesota Historical Society was devoted to it, and the evidence was conclusive. But the people of Alexandria happily ignore the evidence because the museum is an effective tourist attraction.

It is accepted, though, that the Vikings did visit North America before Columbus, but they didn't venture very far inland -- certainly not to Minnesota or Oklahoma.

See this review of the evidence by Viking Answer Lady.

By the way, I have an interesting book by Ian Wilson, called "The Columbus Myth: Did Men of Bristol Reach America Before Columbus?" which presents a very reasonable argument, but no definite proof, that fishermen from Bristol may have come to North America before Columbus.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Sourdough
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 01:28 PM

Rather than risking pushing this very interesting thread off-topic, I am gong to start another one about "Early Visitors to North America".

SOurdough

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: R!
Date: 25 Aug 01 - 01:40 PM

Walt Whitman's house is in Camden, NJ, and his crypt is in historic Harleigh Cemetary in the same city. In the northern part of southern NJ is Smithville, home of the splendidly named Hezekiah Bradley Smith, developer of the Bicycle Railway. The lovely and treasured Pine Barrens that RangerSteve mentioned is the reported home of the Jersey Devil. Exercise caution if you walk in the Pine Barrens at night!

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Naemanson
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 12:03 PM

Back home in Houlton, Maine, is the fort built during the Bloodless Aroostook War between the US and Canada. They've reconstructed it and it now guards against further incursions by those bloodthirsty canucks.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 12:26 PM

Weird Attractions in Kansas Includes the Almost Worlds Largest Ball of String, largest hand dug well, and other oddities.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 12:58 PM

In Hull we have the biggest yorkshire pudding factory in the world, we hold the record for the biggest christmas cracker, until recently the Humber Bridge was the biggest in the world, we have the biggest concentration of Mudcatters (30+) in one city. A few famous people came from Hull
William Wilberforce- Slavery Abolitionist
Amy Johnson - Pilot
Phillip Larkin - Poet or something
John Prescott - Government Bloke
Sam Pirt - Accordion Player & Mudcatter.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 01:25 PM

I've been looking up some Web sites for the places mentioned above:

Here is the James Rumsey Monument in Shepherdstown, WV, which may have been what Naemanson was describing. Also here is A Short Treatise on the Application of Steam, dated 1788, by Rumsey himself. (OK, maybe nobody here wants to read this, but I find it so amazing just to know that such things exist on the Internet, that I can't help sharing my fascination.)

Kim C mentioned the Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, TN.

Sharon A mentioned The Pearl S. Buck House, in Hilltown Township (Bucks County), PA., The Henry Chapman Mercer Museum in Doylestown, PA (which also has a folk festival), and whose site contains links to Fonthill, I also found The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, PA -- but I was unable to find any information about his house.

Dave the Gnome mentioned the Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton, Manchester, UK.

I'm guessing Gloredhel was describing the Carnegie Museum in Roseville, CA. (If not, it's an amazing coincidence.)

Rick Fielding mentioned the Bata Shoe Museum and Old Fort York, both in Toronto, ON, Canada.

That's enough for now. Maybe I will post more later.

Subject: RE: BS: Unkown Local Items Of Interest
From: ard mhacha
Date: 26 Aug 01 - 04:36 PM

My Wife`s purse. Slan Ard Mhacha.