After 4 months of hanging around the house building wooden toys to avoid the cold, snow and covid, it was time to wander around town for a couple of hours on this cold, sunny Sunday afternoon.
It is time to nose around in the snow…
One cold, lonely deer statue.
A colorful house on a dreary day (actually better than most – there is a bit of sun)
In the summer there are signs all around this pond saying ‘no wading, no swimming’ – no need for those today.
Plenty of bike shares available.
The statues standing sentry at the statehouse.
It feels like a Russian Winter.
Winter – the time of year if the streets aren’t covered in snow they are white from all the salt to melt the snow, and rust the cars.
As noted in a previous posting Portsmouth, Ohio was once a town of nearly 50,000 people, now it has only 20,000, but has remaining architecture of a much larger town.
Chillicothe was Ohio’s first capital. A good collection of 150 year old buildings remain.
Todays Drone Tour starts out along the Ohio River at Portsmouth. The first view shows the flood wall covered in murals (later posting revisiting the murals).
The sun was just rising in the east, giving the U.S. Grant Bridge and the Ohio River some interesting lighting.
The Carl Perkins Bridge across the Ohio River, where the Scioto River enters.
The hills in Kentucky with the clouds reflected in the river.
Spartan Stadium was home to the NFL’s Portsmouth Spartans from 1928 until 1933, when the NFL had teams in relatively small cities. The Spartans moved to Detroit and live on to this day as the Detroit Lions.
An overview of the city of Portsmouth. The town has for decades lost population, dropping from a high of 43,000 in 1930 to the current population of 20,000.
The view east
Norfolk Southern Railroad has a large yard along the river in east Portsmouth.
Lake White State Park near Waverly.
The next stop was the city of Chillicothe. This view is of a large paper mill.
The same neighborhood has this large grain elevator. Unfortunately at this time the rain came and the drone became grounded.
Todays drone tour starts out in Newark, with the world’s largest basket (building). Previously the headquarters for the Longenberger Basket Company, it is now vacant.
A view of eastern Licking County on a frosty early October morning.
Black Hand Gorge is a scenic area of Licking County.
Additional views of the Black Hand Gorge Natural Area
Views of Dillon Dam and reservoir.
Muskingum County hills.
With more confident drone flying a return to Zanesville allowed me to get a better view of the famed Y Bridge from 250′ up.
The primary destination on this day was the Muskingum River Valley. This view is in Zanesville.
There are a series of dams and locks along the river as it makes it’s way south. This one is located between the towns of Philo and Duncan Falls, and is known as Dam Number 9.
The right side gives a view of the bridges between the towns – the new one was recently opened.
The valley extends for more than 100 miles through southeastern Ohio.
Lock and Dam Number 8 is known as Rokeby Lock.
The tour this day ended at the town of McConnellsville, and the 1913 truss bridge.
Burr Oak State Park Lake.
The final stop for today is in Nelsonville, and an overview of the Hocking Valley Scenic Railroad terminal.
Portsmouth easily has one of the best collection of murals in the country. They have taken a massive, ugly concrete flood wall and created almost 1/2 mile of murals celebrating the towns history.
The drone view give an idea of how large they are – this is just a small portion.
The theme of the walls was 2000 years of history in 2000 feet of flood walls. They were created by a team lead by Robert Dafford, a famed mural painter.
Most sections of the wall are 40′ wide x 20′ high. Some, such as the view of Portsmouth in 1903, take up multiple sections.
Some aren’t even on the flood wall, including this mural on the side of the local Kroger Grocery store.
The floodwall not only runs along the river but in places goes inland. One of the inland sections celebrates sports, including the ‘Tour of the Scioto River Valley’, an annual bicycling event that goes the 100 miles from Columbus to Portsmouth, then back.
Another section of the inland wall includes a tribute to the local labor unions.
Another includes Portsmouth’s rich baseball history.
The original U.S Grant bridge is featured on this panel.
For a short time there was an amusement park located in Portsmouth, but it was badly damaged in the 1913 flood.
The shoe industry was one of the major employers in Portsmouth.
Streetcars provided transportation from the late 1800s until 1939.
Government Square was the center of the city in the early 1900s.
The murals are done with fantastic depth.
One of the original NFL teams, the Portsmouth Spartans.
Portsmouth has had a few devastating floods, including 1937.
Chillicothe Street has always been the main commercial street in town.
Industry in Portsmouth.
A close up of the detail of the right panel for industry.
A 3 panel education mural shows various periods.
Situated in southernmost Ohio, the railroads have always been an important part of Portsmouth’s industry.
The Portsmouth Motorcycle Club is the oldest in the world, having been founded in 1893. Obviously it had to be founded as a bicycle club first since the first motorcycle was not invented until 1898.
It was known as the Portsmouth Cycling Club from 1893 until 1913.
This western view would be the actual view if the flood wall was not in the way.
Much like the European settlers later, the Native Americans utilized trails that went through the area. One originated on Lake Erie near Sandusky and went south along the Scioto River to Portsmouth.
The original village was known as Alexandria, but was abandoned due to frequent flooding.
The first European settlers arrived in larger numbers in the early 1800s.
The completion of the Ohio and Erie Canal was a boom to the area.
Built in 1901 this rail station served both Norfolk and Western as well as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroads. It was used until 1931 when an art deco station was completed.
A close up of the Chillicothe Street mural.
The Riverfront in 1903.
The Portsmouth Murals are one of the most impressive art installations in Ohio – well worth a trip.
Despite all the changes in the world some things still occur, including the annual chalk art festival at the Easton Shopping Center. While I did not attend on the official times during the weekend I was there very early Monday morning before anyone else arrived so I had the place to myself.
This posting of drone views focuses on the fall foliage.
The leaves seem to be changing fast, so it is a tough call to wait a week, or capture the mix of green, and the changed leaves. Clearly the tree lawn trees in this neighborhood are all the same, as they all have the same red leaves for the moment.
One of my personal favorite photos in a long time – Alum Creek State Park.
Another nearby view.
The trees are changing but with enough chemicals the golf courses will stay green until December.
Delaware Ohio State Park
The dam for the park. Whoever lives in the house in the foreground has the greatest confidence in the dam, and clearly is not a Johnstown, Pennsylvania native.
A return to Fairfield County covered bridges, and in the case below, an old canal lock.
This challenged my drone flying – a small space between the power lines, the trees, and the ravine.
Another tight spot for a bridge view – note how close the tree on the right is.
A neighborhood in Lancaster. The large house on the hill appears to be ruling over the smaller ones scattered across the photo like some old English estate.
Highbanks Metro Park, with the first tree changing colors for fall
Big Meadows in Highbanks
The sheep farm across the road from Highbanks Park is the last bastion of the former rural atmosphere. The entire area around it is now suburbia.
The largest office building in Ohio – a horizontal skyscraper. The Chase offices in Polaris has 2 million square feet of office space. To compare the tallest building in the state is Key Tower in Cleveland (947’/289m) only has 1.5 million square feet.
Note the entire roof is covered in solar panels and the parking lots and garages to the right are being covered in solar panels.
Ohio gets cold, Ohio gets snow, but alas – no mountains, so this qualifies as a ski resort. Snowtrails near Mansfield.
Mansfield Reservoir
A covered bridge in Union County.
Just down the road from the covered bridge is this corn maze (Maize maze?)
A berry field with a pumpkin sales.
A grain elevator in Urbana, Ohio.
Literally turning to the right you get a view of the old train station, the vacant factory and the rest of the town.
A massive shrub nursery surrounds the town of New Carlisle.
Deceased people and cars.
This view of Madison County shows Interstate 70 along the upper right, US 40 (The National Road) through the left middle, and an airport runway running along side – all in perfect East-West orientations.
Scioto Downs Horse Race Track and Casino (newer building on the left)
The 105,000 seat Ohio Stadium. The GPS in the drone would not allow me to fly any closer without seriously violating FAA rules (which I did not!)
Franklin Park Conservatory
A view along East Broad Street in Columbus
New apartments surrounding Columbus Commons Park.
We end this tour with a view of downtown Columbus, including the State Capitol surrounded by 30 to 40 floor buildings.
A recent trip to Buckeye Lake was planned as a day of sending the drone up for birds eye views, but the weather did not cooperate.
The fog was obscuring the tops of the trees, so that choice was unavailable. But the fog also provided an interesting touch to the ground level photos.
