Auroraadvocate.com - Kaleidoscope: Eyeballing bridge, river, pottery land

by Ken Lahmers

Editor

Thirty years ago when I lived and worked in Cambridge, Ohio, I occasionally drove 25 miles west to Zanesville to shop at Colony Mall or watch a movie.

Back then, I didn't appreciate what the area near me had to offer. So after all these years, Muskingum County was a place I wanted to return to.

I did so two days before July 4 in an overnight road trip that culminated with a visit to The Wilds exotic animal refuge, which I previously wrote about.

Z-town, as I call it, was Ohio's capital from 1810 to 1812, and is home to the famous Y-bridge, which spans the confluence of the Muskingum and Licking rivers at the west end of downtown.

Richard Basehart, who with David Hedison starred in the 1960s TV show "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," grew up there.

Traveling across any of the three "spokes" or spans of the bridge, motorists can make a right or left turn when reaching the middle.

The present bridge, built in 1984, is the fifth on the site. The first was erected in 1813, with others coming in 1819, 1832 and 1902.

When the first Y-bridge was built, tolls to cross it were 3 cents on foot, 25 cents for a sleigh/sled pulled by two horses or oxen, and 75 cents for a four-wheel coach pulled by four horses.

Although tourists love the unique bridge, local residents don't think of it as a big deal. But aviator Amelia Earhart called Zanesville the most recognizable city in the country because of the bridge.

A spectacular view of the bridge, rivers, railroad bridges and downtown area is possible from an overlook at Putnam Hill Park on the far side of the Muskingum.

Standing majestically in downtown is the Muskingum County Courthouse, built in 1874. St. Nicholas Catholic Church is another beautiful building at the north edge of downtown.

More Z-town highlights

The Freight Shops, including a diner, sweet shop and stores selling unique items, are located in old New York Central Railroad buildings.

A developer has plans to restore a two-story brick train station, and Zane's Landing Park just down the street serves as the dock for the Lorena sternwheeler, which provides river cruises.

A half-block from the Freight Shops is the still operating Bloomer Candy Co., a four-story factory opened in 1910. The firm has been family-owned since its founding in 1879.

I bought some of its peanut butter peanut clusters at the Sweet Station in the Freight Shops. Very tasty!

Between Z-town and New Concord, home of Muskingum College and birthplace of former astronaut/U.S. Senator John Glenn, is an S-bridge on the Old National Road, plus the Zane Grey/National Road Museum.

The latter tells the stories of Wild West novelist Zane Grey, who grew up in the area, the National Road and the area's rich ceramics and pottery heritage.

The John and Annie Glenn Historic Site in New Concord is in Glenn's boyhood home. This year, it focuses on life in 1937.

The Zanesville area once was known as "the pottery capital of world" and the "clay city." There were many pottery manufacturers there and south in Roseville and Crooksville.

Several companies still produce ceramic products.

Roseville / Crooksville

The drive down Route 93 to Roseville and Crooksville in Perry County was scenic. The towns are home to about 1,900 and 2,500 residents, respectively.

With rich clay deposits, the ceramics industry began in 1840. Some big names in pottery making were Roseville, McCoy, Hull, Burley Winter and Weller.

Art pottery developed in the late 1800s and boomed in the early 1900s.

The five-building National Ceramic Museum & Heritage Center is on Route 93 between the two towns. It displays all kinds of pottery from the late 1800s to the present.

Crooksville is home to a pottery festival each July. Around town stand several ceramic urns, each about 6 feet high, with different scenes painted on them.

People up here look at me funny when I tell them Crooksville High School pays tribute to the ceramic industry by calling its athletic teams the Ceramics.

Along the Muskingum

After leaving Crooksville, I headed east, then south about 15 miles along the west side of the Muskingum River to Malta and McConnelsville. The latter is the Morgan County seat.

Malta boasts a one-room school which was used from 1877 to 1934 and the reconstructed Morgan County Dungeon, which was in use from 1833 to 1839.

I headed north on the east side of the river, grabbed some grub at the Old Corral Restaurant -- which offered a great view of the river -- and arrived in the river-straddling communities of Duncan Falls and Philo.

Along the river from northern Muskingum County to Marietta, a system of 11 locks and dams was completed in 1841. They now are managed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

It's the only hand-operated lock system operating in the U.S. and is designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

I explored Lock 8 (Rokeby) about midway between McConnelsville and Duncan Falls. A house formerly occupied by the lockkeeper overlooks it.

Lock 9 is beside the two-span iron bridge connecting Philo and Duncan Falls.

Philo once was the home of the world's first supercritical pressure-steam-electric generating unit to operate commercially. It went online in 1957, was retired in 1979 and dismantled in 1984. None of it remains.

The power plant resulted in another unique nickname for Philo High School's athletic teams -- the Electrics. I snapped a photo of the name painted on a storage building at the stadium.

Coal fields quiet now

On the way to Zanesville, I went through West Lafayette in Coshocton County because I wanted to see the Wills Creek valley.

Near Plainfield, Peabody Coal Co. once operated the large Simco mine, where a shovel named the Coal Chief worked from the 1960s to 1980s.

I passed the Coal Chief a few times in the late 1970s when traveling between Cambridge and Coshocton to cover high school sports.

The shovel was scrapped in the '80s after the mine closed. The land has been reclaimed and there's no sign of mining there now.

E-mail:

klahmers@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3155