The most photographed tree in Gallipolis, Ohio

Generations ago, someone wisely set aside land on the highest ridge overlooking Gallipolis, Ohio, for a cemetery and a park. It's a pretty big place for a city of fewer than 5,000 people. Restauranteur and sausage maker Bob Evans is buried up there, as is one of my nephews.

Mound Hill Cemetery and Fortification Hill park are popular spots for photographers. You have an unobstructed view of miles and miles of Ohio River valley. There at the top of a vertical drop is this old dead tree that works its way into many photographs that people take of Gallipolis from up there.

It's like that tree that was at the mouth of the cave at Cave-In-Rock, Ill., when I was there in 1986. You went back in the cave and pointed your camera back toward the mouth. All around you was blackness except for the light at the opening, and there below the opening, between you and the river, was a single tree.

I don't know if the tree is still there. I'd like to get back down that way sometime and see for myself.

If anyone knows of any other high points along the river that are good for wide shots of the valley, I'd appreciate hearing about them.

mv. Robert P. Tibolt

I was pretty amazed. At least three people had posted several photos of the towboats Indiana and Ohio on their final trip down the Ohio River on their way to South America. I didn't think that so many people were so interested in these old boats. Cool.

And I felt bad that I missed it. All the photos of these boats that I had taken over the years, and I missed it. Bummer.

I've been looking in my archives for some photos of the boats back in their Ohio River Company days. I've found some, and there are more archives to search. I spent a lot of years photographing boats and such on the river, and it takes time to go through all those pictures.

I found this one of the Indiana in its first incarnation, as the Robert P. Tibolt. It's heading upriver past Gallipolis, Ohio, with Mason County, W.Va., in the background. This is from the early 1980s, I think. A lot of my photos from that era are experiencing deterioration in their colors. Either that or the processor back then did a lousy job. I'm going with the first, because I don't remember thinking back then that the colors were so bad.

I've played with the colors some to get them back closer to what they should be. It's a skill I'm still learning. Maybe I should find the money to get some lessons from someone who knows what they're doing.