The museum at Lock and Dam 22

About 70 years ago, there were maybe four dozen of buildings like this along the Ohio River. As the new dams replaced the old ones, many were demolished. A few remain, and I can think of three that are open to the public as museums. This is one.

Lock and Dam 22 was at Ravenswood, West Virginia. It began operations in either 1918 or 1919, depending on the source material and ceased in 1971, I think it was, when the Racine Locks and Dam raised its pool. As with the other wicket-type dams on the Ohio that were build between 1909 and 1927, it had one lock that was 110 feet wide and 600 feet long. The lower pool elevation maintained by Lock and Dam 23 at Racine, Ohio was 543.6 feet above mean sea level (MSL). Dam 22 raised the riverby 7.8 feet to 551.4 feet. The Racine Locks and Dam raises its pool by 22 feet. The normal pool of the Robert C. Byrd Gallipolis Locks and Dam is 538 feet. Racine's pool is 560 feet MSL.

The last lock worker residences on the former dam reservation at 22 were demolished a few years ago, Tbe powerhouse of this old dam was turned into a museum. It's a mix of local history and river history. Inside you can find a diver's helmet from the former Lock and Dam 21 a few miles upriver, and you can see the lockmaster's office, the bay window area on the right side of the building seen above. The window gave the lockmaster a 180-degree view of the dam and the river.

Here's that office. It's not big, but it was interesting.

I was born too late to have much firsthand knowledge of the old wicket dams. I did visit Locks and Dam 53 twice -- once on a trip to the Paducah area in 1986 and again after a media tour of the new Olmsted Locks and Dam in 2018. I asked the head of the Corps' Louisville District if I could visit 53 after the media tour of Olmsted was finished She said I could, so I did.

There is something about the old wicket dam systems that interests me. It could be because it's an era that passed during my lifetime. I hope to get down to the lower Ohio this summer and see the one near Evansville that's available for community events. We'll see.

Three Marathon boats in winter

I went down to the river at Catlettsburg Sunday afternoon before spending time with a granddaughter. I saw three Marathon Petroleum boats.

Here is the Tri State.

And the Canton.

And the Ohio Valley. 

Ode to an old camera

 This is what's left of the camera I used to begin this blog in 2009.

It's an Olympus E-510. It has a 10-megapixel four-thirds sensor. It's good in good light and not so good in dark unless you have a tripod. It's not nearly as "good" as modern cameras, but many times it's the person who uses the equipment, not the equipment itself.

As a newspaper photographer, now deceased, was fond of saying, "The camera had a photographer problem."

You can probably tell from the photo that it no longer functions. The memory card door is held shut by duct tape -- the handyman's secret weapon, as Red Green would say. It died a few months after I bought its replacement.

I bought this camera in 2007 when it became obvious a cheap little Kodak point-and-shoot was not what I needed to replace my old Nikon FM2 film camera, which itself was giving up the ghost after 20 years of heavy use. The E-510 was put into service on Thanksgiving weekend, and its performance was impressive. But time and rough use have a way of aging things, so I replaced this camera with a larger, newer one in 2018. That's the camera I've taken most of my pictures with for this blog since late 2018.

The other day I was thinking about some of the good pictures I've taken with the Olympus. Here are a few of my favorites. (Note: I took the resolution down to fit the needs of Blogger and because at the time I was on a slow dial-up internet service. These images were the ones I posted, not the originals.)

Here's one of the C.J. Queenan passing Gallipolis, Ohio, one winter as seen from Mound Hill Cemetery. The smooth river surface and the snow-covered landscape led me to title this one "Copper River."

In late 2016 when the new bridge between Ironton, Ohio, and Russell, Kentucky, opened to traffic, I walked across it and got this shot of a tower and its cables.

Here's the AEP towboat Hoosier State (as it was known back then) exiting the Kanawha River at sundown. Check out that golden hour light on the white paint and the black tow knees.

And here's one taken during a melancholy mood when it looked llke my career was over. I had been downsized from my previous job of 30 years about 18 months previously and no one seemed to want me. It was taken on Veterans Day. I call it "Summer Fun Abandoned."

From a technical standpoint, these images might have been "better" if I'd had a 2020-era camera and lenses, but they tured out pretty good anyway. And these aren't my all-time favorites I took with the Olympus.They are, however, among the favorites I have published on the Ohio River Blog since 2009.

People once said, "You take good pictures. You must have a nice camera." I would reply, "Yeah, but knowing where to put the camera is a big part of it."

Toward the end of its life, I was almost embarrassed to show up at events with my E-510. I felt like a guy with a toy around professionals with the gear I should have been using. But you know what? My pictures with the "toy camera" were good enough to sell.

About a year ago, I went on keh.com and ordered a used E-510 so I could have a second camera body available, particularly one that was compatible with the two lenses left over from the old E-510. I take a few pictures with it now and then because there's something about using an older digital camera. Here are a couple of photos I took with the "new" E-510 that I posted on my personal Facebook page last year. Again, the resolution was taken down for internet purposes. They were converted to black and white because they looked better that way.

If I decide I need another, newer camera -- one that's lighter and easier to carry than a full-frame model with a 70-200mm zoom lens -- I might look at Olympus (now the OM System) again. But for now, I'll stick with my full-frame Nikon and its heavy lens.

The E-510 was the right camera for what I needed it for at the time. And that's what it's all about, right?

M/V Zephyr heading down the river

Today was the first time in almost a week that I could leave the house and get a look at the area following the snow-ice-snow sequence we had this past weekend. I could have left by driveway, but the state took its time plowing my road, so I decided to stay home. I've driven in enough snowstorms in my life, and I no longer consider that to be a challenge, a necessity or an adventure.

On my run of errands, I made a quick stop at Harris Riverfront Park at Huntington WV. I saw a coal tow coming down the river. It was the Zephyr. Not the 6,600-horsepower triple screw boat of Kirby. This was the older, smaller one. But she still gave a decent view as she went under the bridge.

Later.

 Nine images to wrap up a busy day on the Ohio River at the mouth of the Big Sandy. Every time I tried to get away, another boat came and insisted I get its picture.

First, a few of the Sally Whalen leaving Kenova and backing down the Ohio to Catlettsburg with three empties.

The Gene Neal was there. Every time I see this boat I think of the former Ashland Oil boat called the Tri-State, now the Temple Huckabee down south. For a story in the Huntington newspaper, I rode the Tri-State from Marietta, Ohio, to Kenova in early May 1980.

Two more of the Sally Whalen, this time heading up to the former Merdie Boggs landing an ending up face to face with the City of Chicago.

And finally, the Mt Airy heading downriver.

There are several others I could add, but I don't want to wear out my readers.

And that should do it for this series. It was longer than I expected, but there were too many boats, which, sadly, is not normal on the Ohio River lately.

Boats at the Big Sandy, part 4

A few more pics before we wrap this visit up for good.

A couple of guys fishing as the Sally Whalen of Crounse Corp. comes up the river.

Wildlife among the big boats.

The Tri-State pushing an empty up toward the Big Sandy. I wish I had been quick enough to get the barge passing close by the fishermen, but alas, I wasn't.

And up the Big Sandy. Depending on the clouds, it was bright or dark that day.

Like the City of Chicago, the Sally Whalen drops barges at Kenova before heading down to Catlettsburg.

Aboard the Sally Whalen.

Another guy from the Sally Whalen.

And the next blog entry should do it. I hope to get it ready for 5:30 a.m. tomorrow, but things can change.

To be continued.

Boats at the Big Sandy, part 3

 There should be only one or two more posts on this topic coming.

To be continued.

Happy New Year, everybody

 I'll get back to boats at the Big Sandy soon. Meanwhile, here's my last river photo of 2024, taken this evening as darkness took over the landsape.

That's the M/V Canton of Marathon Petroleum passing under the East End bridge between Huntington WV and Proctorville OH with empties headed for Catlettsburg KY.

Happy New Year, everybody.

Boats at the Big Sandy, part 2

Time for more pictures from a day of a dozen boats at the Big Sandy harbor. These were taken from West Virginia, looking over to Ohio.

The City of Chicago eases in to tie off its barges at Virginia Point.

I'd come down here to wait for the Lynne Cissna. Here it's in photo range.

.

That's the Mt Airy over close to the Ohio side.

The Lester Parker comes into view.

The Mt Airy and the Lynne Cissna.

And now the Lynne Cissna and the The Caroline.

More to come.

Scrapped

I'll get back to photos from the Big Sandy area soon. My day job has kept me busy with end-of-year stuff.

But I did want to take note of this while it was fresh in my mind. Today the mailman delivered by year-end issue of the Waterways Journal. In the list of boats taken out of service this year it said the M/V Senator Stennis was scrapped. Here's a photo from August 2015 when I saw it shoved up against the bank at Huntington WV.

The Senator Stennis was one of those boats that I saw in the area every now and then. I guess its usefulness had run out.

The WJ also listed the American Queen as "Out of service, fate unknown."