M/V Charleston at dusk

 

Charleston (M/V version) after dark

 

I had a work thing in Lawrence County, Ohio, tonight. I got there a few minutes early, so I figured I'd go to Lock and Dam 27 and with luck I would see a boat. I did, but I didn't expect it to be this classic.

Swan goose

 A few years ago we had two or more swan geese at Harris Riverfront Park here in Huntington WV. Then we had none for a while. Now we have one again.

Swan geese are native to China and Mongolia, not the United States. I assume this was a domestic bird that got loose, or its parents did.

The future of century-old concrete

Earlier this year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine visited old Lock and Dam 27 on the Ohio River in Lawrence County, Ohio, to talk about his plan for water-related recreation projects. That was in May. In the seven months since we've not heard a lot about whatever plans he has for this spot, which happens to be one of my favorites along the entire Ohio River.

My big question is what happens here at Dam 27. It's a nice, peaceful spot that could use a few improvements. It's one of the few riverside esplanades left from the old dams, and one of the few of those that is a public park.

Specifically, I wonder about the concrete that formed the lock walls and guidewall at the old dam. The locks opened to river traffic in 1923, making this concrete more than a century old. As it has worn away, you can see how it was made in layers. It's an interesting site for industrial archaeologists, if that's what you call people like me who like to expore old workplaces and imagine how people earned their livings there.

By modern standards, some sections aren't safe to walk on, although that doesn't stop fishermen or curious people. I do ask myself what parts of the old concrete will be kept visible and what parts will be covered up. I guess we will see soon.

From the archives: February 2024

 Another time when I'm going through some pictures from a while back and find one that's more interesting now than it was then.

The morning of Feb. 6, 2024, when a Crounse boat was tied up at Catlettsburg, Kentucky.

I thought a wide, narrow crop would bring out the size of the barges better than a tighter crop.

Happy Thanksgiving 2024, everyone ...

 ... from the Ross estate near 

WV.

Six boats today

 It was about 40 degrees outside today. My body is still on summer standard time, so I was pretty cold trying to get a few pictures in Catlettsburg and Huntington. Maybe by the end of January this will seem like shorts and T-shirt weather, but my body's not there yet.

Anyway, here are a few pictures I got today. You can see six boats of varying degrees of clarity based on distance.

Here is the John Greet, with the Pocahontas in the background.

The Jean Akin, with the MAP Runner coming closer so it can turn up the Big Sandy.

The Bill Stile passing Huntington.

And the D.A. Grimm, the twin to the Bill Stile. The pilot came out to give me a wave. The clueless person I was, I should have gotten his beauty shot during the wave, but instead I waved back. Sorry about that.

Photo journeys close to home

This has been an excellent year for river photography for me. I wouldn't have expected it, though. Unlike most years, I haven't ventured very far from my home near Huntington, West Virginia, in 2024. I've been to Portsmouth, Ohio, and maybe to Pomeroy, Ohio. If I've gone beyond those towns, I don't remember, and my folder of 2024 pictures doesn't show any evidence of it.

I did go up the Kanawha River as far as St. Albans, West Virginia, on one photo expedition when the J.S.Lewis came down on a cold January day, but that's about as far as I went with my camera up a tributary.

There were plans to go to Cincinnati or Sistersville or places like that, but they never came about. Instead I was stuck at home along maybe 110 miles of river, if that many.

As with many things in my life in recent years, I didn't go where I had planned and I didn't get what I wanted, but I got better than what I had hoped for.

It was a good year for boat photography. I don't know that I had been as close to a Crounse boat as I had several times this year, such as this photo from August.

I got photos of weather and wildlife that I hadn't gotten before. Or if I had gotten them before, I got better ones or different ones. Here's one example. It's a heron flying off after I had scared it. I tend to do that with herons.

Even if I didn't travel far from home, I made frequent trips to the river to shoot a variety of things. When the year ends, I'll probably make a small book of my best river pictures of the year, just as I will make books of my kids and grandkids. I order a lot of prints of varying sizes, usally from 4-by-4 to 8-by-10. Now and then I will order one-time photo books. As much as I like photo prints, my images tend to look better on a book page.

Maybe next year I'll make it down to Paducah or Cairo. I do want to visit Golconda to see a couple of things there. Or I'll head up beyond Wheeling to look for a new baskethandle bridge there.

One thing I learned this year is that you don't always need to drive far from home to get a lot of memorable photos.

HTS. The boats, not the airport

 Huntington Tri-State is the name of the airport near where I live. Huntington Tri State is what you would call these two Marathon Petroleum boats meeting each other early this morning. This is seen from South Point, Ohio, looking across the river toward Kenova, West Virginia.

Visitor

 I was down by the Ohio early this morning when I saw this critter looking for breakfast.

Look at what I overlooked a few days ago

 From Sunday, Oct. 20 ...

When I got this picture, I didn't see the guy waving at me. I was looking at this image a little while ago and saw him. So whoever you are, forgive me for not noticing you until now.

Oh, yeah, this was the M/V Stacy Lynn exiting the Kanawha River after dropping off one barge.

M/V Ivy Brynne

 At Point Pleasant WV

M/V Ohio in the fog

 

From the archives: M/V Debi Sharp

I've been feeling a little under the weather the past couple of weeks. Or maybe I've just been feeling my age. Around the time I turned 60, I had to give up climbing trees to get good pictures of boats. Climbing up wasn't so bad. Coming back down was. About a year before that, my youngest son told me I was too old to climb up on guardrail posts. And today I remembered why I gave up climbing on rocks and riprap earlier this year. My sense of balance just ain't what it used to be.

But I didn't want people to forget I'm here, so I dug into my archives and found this photo from May 24. It was a Crouse boat pulling out of Kenova WV at sunset. You have to love that golden hour light. Here are two edits. One is color and one is monochrome. I like them both.

I hope to make a trip or two to the river this week and maybe get some new pics, my body and my schedule willing.

Four boats on a rainy afternoon

Actually six passed Harris Riverfront Park in downtown Huntington today, but I wasn't there in time to get good ones of the Elizabeth Ann and the Laura S.

I did, however, get the Ginger Moller, Debi Sharp, Larry Drummond and the Chief Bill Brown.

Four out of six is OK, I guess.

Lock & Dam 27, 9/25/2024

Yesterday, Sept. 25, I woke up feeling awful with this bug that's going around. It was not enough to knock me down, but it did make me question what I can and should do on a given day. I needed to get out of the house to determine how I would function that day, so I drove over to Lock and Dam 27. It had been a few weeks since I had been there, and I was due for a visit.

I wrote about that visit in a column on the Opinion page of this morning's edition of The Herald-Dispatch. If you can't get past the paywall and don't want to pay to read it, I'll summarize it for you here:

• The concrete is more than a hundred years old and is falling apart slowly.
• The state has set aside $5 million for improvements at the park there at the old dam site.
• I enjoy the site because it's like urban archaeology. I enjoy finding old pieces of the lock equipment that remain and wonder what function they served.
• When the park is improved, I hope it retains the same ambience it has today.

I'm no expert on concrete, but it looks like there were two kinds used in the construction of the locks. There was a very rough mixture that formed most of the lock walls, and there was a smoother layer on top of it. You can see what I mean in one of the pictures below.

Speaking of which ...

I also got a few shots of the park's flora and fauna.

After visiting the park, I decided I was strong enough to work, but I worked from home just to be safe.

I look forward to seeing the plans for the park once I can talk someone into letting me take a peek.

And today, I got an email from someone who grew up near Lock & Dam 27. He sent me a link to his web page, which has the only photo I can recall seeing of the powerhouse at the dam.

M/V Lynne Cissna

Seen this evening passing through my area.

One more from Point Pleasant

 I was looking through my recent pictures to find something worthy of a black-and-white image. I didn't find one right away, but I did find this one from the Tribute to the River at Point Pleasant WV a couple of weeks ago.

I don't know if I'll make it up to Pomeroy this weekend for the sternwheeler festival there.

M/V Charleston from above

 I saw the M/V Charleston was headed my way, but until I saw it, I didn't know it was traveling lightboat.

First, from Huntington's Sixth Street bridge. It's in black and white. That seems to fit the boat better.

Then a little while later at Catlettsburg.

If you're wondering, the Marathon boats are the Findlay in the foreground and the Galveston Bay in the background. I got some decent shots of the Findlay and the Mt Airy today that I will try to remember and post on here soon.

The Charleston stopped at what used to be Merdie Boggs. It was still there when I left Catlettsburg. You know you're getting old when you remember what was there better than what's there now.

Nighttime on the river

 Heading out for some nighttime fishing ...

... or heading home after being out too long?

We will probably never know.

Tribute to the River, Part 7

I had hoped to dig a little more into the history of the sternwheel towboat Juanita before I wrote this, but as usual, life had other plans for me this week. I didn't want this to hang out there forever, so let's go with what I have.

I've liked seeing the Juanita since it worked the AEP harbor at Lakin, W.Va.

(Photo taken in 2010, I think)

In the 1980s I went up there as I worked on a story for The Herald-Dispatch of Huntington, W.Va., about the three remaining working sternwheelers on this part of the Ohio at that time -- the Lady Lois of Catlettsburg, Ky., the Donald B of the Maysville, Ky., area and the Juanita. While at Lakin I met a man named Worthy Love, who worked on the Juanita and was more or less attached to it.

The Juanita has sinced passed into the ownership of Tom Cook of Dunbar, W.Va., on the Kanawha. When I worked in beautiful downtown Charleston, W.Va., for a while, sometimes I would take U.S. 60 and from to work instead of Interstate 64. I would see the Juanita tied up at Dunbar when I wasn't focused on traffic.

In March 2014, when I separated from one employer in Charleston (my decision), I stopped at a park in St. Albans to think about what was ahead for me. Seeing the Juanita go by made me feel bretter.

At the Tribute ot the River a few days ago, I walked past the Juanita when I asked its owner, Tom Cook, something. He invited me on board and gave me a short tour of the boat and a bit of its history. It seems the Juanita didn't have any construction plans. It was all figured out as they went along.

(A nameplate Tom Cook had made for the Juanita. It's mounted on the boat's exterior instead of inside the boat so more people can see it.)

(Tom Cook shows the sign on the lower deck of the Juanita. It's similar to the one the boat bore when it was owned by O.F. Shearer & Sons, although that sign was a bit larger and was painted on the side of the boat instead of mounted there, Cook said.)

(Engine room of the Juanita)

It was an interesting tour of both history and the present, and I'm glad Mr. Cook invited me aboard.

And that's about it regarding sternwheelers for now. Maybe I'll use the sternwheeler festival in Pomeroy, Ohio, at the end of this month as an excuse to get a few more pictures and to go back into Meigs County. From Racine up, trhere's some beautiful country along the river this time of year.

Tribute to the River, Part 6

 I thought I would try a few in black and white for a change.

The plan is to have Part 7 ready by tomorrow night, but it will take a little more research, so it may have to wait until Friday.

Tribute to the River, Part 5

Just two more nights. Please be patient. I hope you all will like Part 7 to wrap it up.

More photos from Friday evening. The last shot is my favorite of this bunch.