All Over Ohio

I put 671 miles on the car in four days this week, all in Ohio except one trip over the bridge into Wheeling, WV. It was all work related. Two days in Morgan County (population around 14,000) interviewing people about what makes the local economy tick. Interestingly, many feel Morgan and its like weather the current recession much better than, say, my home county in NW Ohio where there's too much reliance on the Automobile. Down there, they had their shakeout, and their industrial sector is actually growing of late.

The new Chinese buffet in Morgan County's county seat, McConnelsville (pop.: about 2,000), is doing well, but it's hard to fill the seats with moviegoers in the Opera House. However, the Ohio Valley Opry does pack the place with connoisseurs of county, gospel, and bluegrass on the third Saturday of every month.

And the Quakers - perhaps 25 of them - still assemble on Sunday in Chesterhill (pop.: maybe 500) in the same place they have come since 1834. They follow up their time of silent contemplation with a lunch gathering in the next room.

Chesterhill, like McConnelsville, also has a working theater, the Union Hall, and a new geneaological museum. Chesterhill's Mayor was telling me about the most difficult day in his career, when the Klan showed up, deputies arrived, guns drawn, and things could have gotten more dicey than they were.

I also had meetings in two other counties, and here are some of my pictures from those 671 miles on the road.

McConnelsville's Opera House

At Rokeby Lock on the Muskingum River

Chesterhill's Quaker meeting house - still in use

The Guernsey County Courthouse - a light show every half hour!

The Belmont County Courthouse, "artistically" shot through the rear-view. (It's not 9:20 - more like 3:40...)

Detail on a railroad bridge crossing the Ohio into Wheeling. They don't make 'em like this any more.

Finally - the Gilboa Cow (Putnam County), decked out for the holidays (also appears to the right)