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Local veterans take Honor Trip to D.C.
Their journeys span continents and conflicts, from the battlefields of Europe during World War II and the jungles of Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War to the deserts of Kuwait and Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. But one element shared by more than 160 local veterans who have participated in the HolmesWayne Community Honor Trip through the years istheir love for the United States of America.
In the early 19th century, public city parks were virtually nonexistent. That doesn’t mean, however, that there was no green space in urban areas.
Ohio’s urban garden cemeteries are some of the country’s most distinctive memorial parks, and stunning examples can be found in nearly every population center. Here are three that are particularly outstanding and accessible.
On Aug. 30, 1892 (133 years ago this month), the steel freighter Western Reserve went down during a furious gale on the Great Lakes, taking 27 souls with her.
Though the tragedy happened on Lake Superior, the most northerly, largest, and deepest of the Five Sisters, the story has many ties to the Buckeye State.
Greg Miller’s father, Jay, planted his first bunch of trees on 100 acres in Carroll County back in the middle of the last century.
At one point, Miller says, a local coal company took note of all those nuts and briefly entered the chestnut game as a side-gig. It soon went bankrupt, however; the folks who bought up the land were looking for deer hunting sites rather than an agricultural specialty crop.
Wrap up your shopping and sleigh the holidays this year with our gift guide’s selection of original, useful, and ingenious made-in-Ohio items, which will make it the most wonderful time of the year for everyone on your list.
Barb Barbee Jewelry, Delaware
At her home studio in Delaware, Worthington Craft Guild member Barb Barbee fashions jewelry using 14-karat gold-filled wire, sterling silver, freshwater pearls, and precious and semi-precious stones. Her holiday line has Christmas tree-shaped green malachite pendants; mother-of-pearl snowman earrings; and stunning Christmas spiders that channel an East European folktale.
When a rig filled with 20 tons of sand arrives and dumps it on a beach, Carl Jara digs right in. Armed with shovels, buckets, imagination, and technical ingenuity, Jara turns massive amounts of sand into art.
Jara is a professional sand sculptor, and he’s been at this experiential public art form for 33 years. It’s a career that has taken him to 38 states and 13 countries, as far away as Australia. He’s won 14 world championships and earned medals at countless other contests along the way.
As viewed from above, some corn mazes are complicated labyrinths of intricate, themed designs. Whether they’re looking for a challenge or just an autumn atmosphere, enthusiasts of all ages are attracted to corn mazes.
McPeek’s Mighty Maze and Fall Festival
Located at the Coshocton KOA Holiday in Coshocton, the Mighty Maze is a part of the fall festival held by Ryan and Camille McPeek. Employee Amy Hamilton says they plant the corn like normal, and the maze is cut with a tractor and a GPS device.
Do mazers ever get lost?
“Some do need help,” she says, noting that guides are always available. Before closing each evening, employees sweep through the maze, looking for stragglers.
“We leave no man behind,” Hamilton jokes.
At the beginning of the 20th century, two brothers from Ohio launched a revolution in air technology at Huffman Prairie, a cow pasture located just outside of Dayton.
The Ohio Department of Transportation uses drones from the UAS Center to help with a variety of projects. In 2021, the center’s drone flight team logged over 2,200 flights for ODOT, including bridge inspections, construction assessments, facility inspections, mapping, and traffic and roadway monitoring.
