Midwest Lost Site Blog

I know I havn’t done much the last 2 months or so.  Due to the holidays and some personal issues, I have not had a chance to go exploring or do any work on the website.  But over the past week, I have started working on writing HTML for places I visted on November 11th, 2006.  I’ve also started doing some house cleaning on the website.  Most of it is very minor, just like spelling and grammar.  But I did modify the email me script to allow you to return to the page you clicked “contact me”, rather than just forcing you to go to the home page.

Below is a list of new HTML pages I created:

• Moore Cemetery (On The Med Property)
• Belmont County Indigent Cemetery
• Mt. Wood Overlook
• Mt. Wood Cemetery
• Jewish Cemetery adjacent to Mt. Wood Cemetery

I have a good feeling about 2007.  There’s alot I want to do.  Both in exploration and with the website. If you have any suggestions for either, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll be more than happy to look it over and discuss it with you.

So far for 2007, the sites I want to visit are:

• Warren Harding’s Tomb in Marion, Ohio (along with afew other cemeteries in the area)
• Greenlawn & Mt. Calvary Cemeteries in Columbus, Ohio
• President Ford’s Tomb in Grand Rapids, Mi
• William Henry Harrison’s Tomb in North Bend, Ohio
• Rutherford B. Hayes’s Tomb in Fremont, Ohio
• William McKinley’s Tomb in Canton, Ohio

Once again, if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to contact me.

Last weekend I did some more exploring with Beth (from Grave Addiction), and another friend I met from beth’s message board. I’ve been searching for a grave yard that is near the eastern end of US 40, and Justin (from the GA message board) stated that he knew of one that fit the description that I had. He had also heard that they had closed off the road to the Circle Cemetery, and we wanted to check that out. Beth, Justin, and myself agreed to meet and do some exploring.

I got to the meeting site (eastern end of US 40) early, and snapped some pictures while waiting. After meeting up with Beth & Justin, we headed to Moore Cemetery (on the property of The Med). This cemetery is one of the coolest. It’s so stereotypical of the old abandoned cemetery in the woods.
After taking pictures there, we decided that we needed to verify the rumor about the Circle Cemetery. The rumor was false. We parked at the bottom of the hill (incase the road was closed, and walked up. We walked up far enough to see where the road goes around the cemetery and that it was not blocked off.

Being as no visit to Egypt Valley is complete without a stop at Salem Cemetery, we decided to make a quick stop. At first, I didn’t really want to stop. But I am very very glad I did. While Beth & Justin were inside the cemetery, I took a walk across the road where the church had stood. While looking down over the hill, I saw what appear to be a gob pile (waste material from mining coal). It also appeared to be some small chunks of coal. I kicked one of the larger ones and realized that it was sandstone. The top surface appeared to be charred, while the rest of it seemed to have clean edges like pieces had been chipped off over time. I have no way of proviing it, but it’s *possible* that the chunk of sandstone I found was part of the foundation of the church.

When leaving Salem Cemetery, we decided to hit the Indigent Cemetery on SR-331 across the road from Belmont Technical College. I was not aware, but this still appears to be an active cemetery, with the newest marker (a wooden cross) being from earlier in 2006. While we were here, I took them to see the covered bridge near by.

After that, Justin wanted to hit Union Cemetery to check look around for some relatives of his and Beth wanted to check out the English Baron’s grave. While in St. Clairsville, I took Justin & Beth to visit the cemetery where Thomas Carr is buried.

At this point, it was getting late, and we decided to run to Wheeling, to check out some sites. When we got to Wheeling, we first stopped at Mt. Wood Overlook (the concrete castle). We then crossed the street and checked out the Jewish Cemetery and Mt. Wood Cemetery (which are adjacent).

By this time, we had been out in the rain all day and decided to call it a day. We plan to go back to Union Cemetery, and hit some more sites in Wheeling when the weather allows.

I hope to have the HTML done for those new pictures this weekend.

I realized today that I had not done an HTML page for Camp Chase.  This quick entry is to note that I have corrected that error.  Click here to view the page.

Some people I know just came back from a vacation in Az.  They were kind enough to bring me back some pictures.  I figured I’d share them.  They went to Tombstone, Az and visited Boot Hill Cemetery while there, visited Hoover Dam, and saw the London Bridge on Lake Havasu.

Enjoy the pictures.

When I found out the Silver Spade was the sister shovel to the GEM of Egypt, I had to see it. This was made more important by the news that the Silver Spade had been idled, and had broken down as they were moving her out of the pit. The chances of her working again when they started moving her out of the pit were slim, but with her breaking down halfway out. She was pretty much headed for the scrap pile. Luckly there is hope.

A group called the Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park is trying to save her. I ask anyone who has a love for big machinary, history, or just cool oddities to help out. This group is desprate. The GEM of Egypt is gone, along with The Mountaineer & the Big Muskie. This is something I feel very strongly about and ask all of my visitors to stop and take a moment to consider what one of the last (if not the last) large shovel in the US is almost gone. Please help this group save her.

Another reason this shovel means so much to me is that when the GEM of Egypt was scraped, a lot of her useable parts went into keeping the Silver Spade running. For me this is a link to the GEM.

I just finished the HTML for last weekend.  This included The Silver Spade, Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park, Union Cemetery in St. Clairsville, the covered bridge on the property of OUE, and a cemetery in St. Clairsville which I suspect Thomas Carr is buried in.

Feel free to check out the new pages.  I also ask anyone who enjoys these pages to support the efforts of the Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park’s efforts to save the Silver Spade from being scrapped.