Also, I hear a lot of debate about fishing in the Ohio River. Some people say that the fish from the Ohio are way too polluted and that no one should ever eat anything that is caught in it, because of pollutants and estrogenic chemicals.

Other people say that most of the fish are fine to eat, just not catfish and other bottom-dwellers.

Does anyone know what is actually the case? Is it safe to eat the fish or not?

And obviously, I know that no true fisherman would ever post on the internet or in any public spot the revelation of his favorite fishing hole, but can anyone tell me if there are any good streams or ponds or lakes nearby that are good fishing spots?

Zoric said that in the 1970s, Ohio was a very low tax state. Ohio’s income tax was the 43rd or 44th lowest out of all 50 states.

Now, however, Ohio has the 4th or 5th highest income tax.

“People are moving from the high tax to the low tax states,” Zoric said.

Low tax states include Texas, South Carolina, North Carolina and Nevada.

Of course, Steubenville has a much steeper population decline than more economically stable Ohio cities (e.g. Columbus). Steubenville’s population has been dropping since the middle of the 20th century.

The 200 U.S. Census showed the Steubenville population to be 19,015 persons — actually 3,376 fewer persons than there were in Steubenville in 1910. This is quite drastic, especially considering that in 1940, during Steubenville’s prime, there were 37,651 persons living here.

A lot of this has to do with the local steel mills reducing their numbers of employees.

My own project:

http://drwaynelewis.info/convergence/tfasanello/

My classmate’s site:

http://drwaynelewis.info/convergence/jmarini/

Take a look at the audio slideshows, listen to interviews, and enjoy the pictures and the stories!

“In the immediate region of Steubenville, there are two female ghosts: The Steubenville Hitchhiker and Old Lady Loftus of Wintersville. On Route 7, where the road turns to East Liverpool, some claim to have seen an ethereal woman, begging for a ride into town. She seems confused, even pitiful, but no driver should be moved to take her in. According to legend, anyone who offers the Steubenville Hitchhiker a ride will disappear forever. Old Lady Loftus is the opposite sort of ghost. Mrs. Loftus wants to be left alone. In life, she wanted it so badly that she killed her husband. Today, she haunts the Loftus house in Wintersville and is mostly known for trying to chase intruders from her private property.

“The title of ‘Most Haunted Town in Ohio’ goes to Waynesville, according to Chris Woodyard, author of the Haunted Ohio series. In fact, this town is so haunted that it has its own ghost hunter, who will take visitors on a “Not So Dearly Departed Tour” of the area on appointment. There are at least 13 sites of paranormal activity in the town. One is the Stetson House, now an antique store that is home to at least two mirror-hating ghosts who allegedly bake gingerbread. The local drive-in is also haunted (by the presence of a soft-drink loving specter), as are several other houses, the firehouse, and the old Quaker Meeting House, according to locals.

“If you thought the scariest places in Ohio were Franciscan’s cafeteria on eggplant parmesan days or the basement of Egan Hall, then perhaps you may want to rethink your opinion and check out some of these and the many other haunted sites in the area.”

When you first walk in, you enter a shop full of assorted goodies for Easter, Christmas, birthdays and other holidays and nice little toys. If you are looking for inexpensive but nice things to put in your child’s Easter basket, I recommend looking here.

Unfortunately, Creegan Company has not been doing very good business lately, as I was told by the owner. Only one person (the owner’s grandson) was working that day, but he very kindly showed me around the place and even demonstrated how some of the toys and costumes are made.

The building is fascinating, piled high with odds and ends that go into making toys and costumes. I highly recommend going to see it. The company has actually been around for quite a long while, ever since Mr. Creegan came home from being in the air force in Germany with the idea of opening a toy factory.

For people interested in history or mechanics, and especially for grade school children, this place would make a great field trip.

I was privileged to interview the owner and his grandson, and will be posting the interview online at my Web site soon.

New Vrindaban Community

Somewhere near Moundsville, W. Va.

Photo used with permission

This palace, located only about one hour from Steubenville, is  beautiful, and the culture surrounding its history is certainly fascinating. But the drive to and from the palace nearly cost me and three of my friends our lives.

I heard about the palace of gold about a year ago, and had wanted to see it ever since.  One Sunday afternoon in February I made up my mind to go, and talked three friends into joining me.

I wasn’t sure where it was, exactly, but I got google directions and I checked the weather in all the surrounding areas using weather.com to make sure the roads would be safe.

I thought I was prepared, but I was wrong.

The first problem was the directions. Google directed me to the town of Moundsville, W. Va., a drive that took about 45 minutes from Steubenville. The directions deposited me in a quiet residential area in Moundsville. Both Google and my GPS said the palace was on this certain street. My friends and I stared at the stately Victorian-style houses and shook our heads. It didn’t take a genius to see that this neighborhood was no home to a Hindu palace.

We asked directions at a gas station. The attendant had no idea what to tell us, but his teenage customers told us to drive up.

“Right or left?” I asked.

“It doesn’t really matter,” they told me. “Just drive up. As long as you’re going uphill, you’re going the right way.”

The “hill” they described qualifies as a small mountain in my book.  As we ascended, it started to snow more and more heavily. The road wound around and around the mountain with unbelievably sharp turns and steep inclines.

Finally, after many miles of scattered houses and snow-covered fields, we spotted a large sign with an arrow pointing left to Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold.

Palace Road was covered with snow, and as we found out later, the thin blanket of snow was covering ice left over from the previous week’s snow storm.

Palace Road wound around the sides of the mountain, with a steep cliff on the left side. We drove through forests and farm lands, alternately, for about four miles. Finally, when we had nearly begun to think the palace was a farce, we saw it glimmering gold against the gray sky.

The snow-laden path to the palace

Inside, the palace was every bit as beautiful as described on its Web site.  Floors and walls of Italian marble, hand-crafted stained-glass windows and crystal chandaliers, intricately carved teak wood and more. The tour guide, who was the only person in the whole building besides us, I believe, told us that it cost only  about $1 million to construct and furnish the whole place.

The palace was indeed gorgeous. Of course, we were wondering: why? Why a palace in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia?

Our tour guide was evidently a member of a Hindu cult composed largely of American converts to Hinduism who built this palace in honor of one of their prophets. I found the history of the palace and the culture of this cult fascinating, but I admit I was a little creeped out to learn that worship services are held in the main hall three times a day before a statue of their prophet.

At any rate, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit, and might even go back in the spring to enjoy the award-winning rose gardens that surround the palace in the warm weather. The palace sits on the edge of a cliff, and even in the snow and fog the view from the balconies was magnificent.

I was able to take one picture of the palace exterior before my camera died.

After about an hour’s visit, we began the treacherous drive home. The snow had continued to fall while we were inside, and was now falling even more heavily than it had been on our way up the hill.

I was terrified to drive back on the unsalted, unploughed Palace Road which had become extremely slippery. At points along the journey, the right lane was next to a steep cliff that — most horrifyingly — had no guard rail.

I was driving in low gear, of course, but even so, three times I lost control of the car and it started to slip toward the cliff edge. Thanks be to God, I knew what to do and was able to stay calm and regain control of the car.

I had to drive in the wrong lane for part of the way. When we went around bends and could not see the road ahead of us, I held carefully to the wheel while holding the horn down with my elbow to warn oncoming traffic to slow down so that we would not collide.

Praise be to the Lord, we made it safely back to the main road, which was salted (and had guard rails!), and safely back to Steubenville.

Ever since this trip, I have a new affection and appreciation for guard rails.

Yes, go to Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. But please, go in the warm weather when it’s safe.

But few people are aware of the other illustrious citizens who called Steubenville their home. One of these is Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Civil War history, anyone?

Edwin M. Stanton was born in 1814 in Steubenville, the oldest of four children of Lucy and David Stanton. His father was a Quaker. Edwin grew up to become an anti-slavery democrat and a lawyer, and eventually, Secretary of War during the Civil War and the Reconstruction period.

Anyone know of other great men and women who were born in Steubenville?

John Neumann, an immigrant from Bohemia, served as pastoral associate of St. Peter’s Church in downtown Steubenville for a few years as a young priest. He later became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia in the Roman Catholic Church and a great saint.

The council voted unanimously to enter a partnership with Jefferson County in order to receive a portion of a grant from the State of Ohio Department of Development. Steubenville is part of a group of cities and counties known as Region 19, which received more than $1.4 million in a grant from the Department of Development.

The new partnership with the county puts Steubenville in a position where we can likely receive about $363,000 from the state grant.

If the city gets the money, it will only be allowed to use it for tearing down unsightly buildings.

I don’t know how long it will be before the city gets the money and starts using it—but maybe soon we’ll see a prettier downtown. There are certainly a lot of buildings that fit in the “unsightly” category.

I think one of the reasons few people from out of town take the time to enjoy the city’s good points—like the murals— is because they’re overwhelmed by the evident poverty and the empty buildings that are falling to pieces.

Steubenville could use a lot of fixing up.

The first time I drove around downtown Steubenville was in the summer of 2005 when I came here as a prospective student with my mother and grandmother. As we drove, my mother wondered aloud, “Why are there no flowers here?”

I think one of the biggest signs that people take no pride in their homes is if their yards are a mess.

Maybe Steubenville should start a gardening contest in the summer, or have some kind of incentive to encourage people to take better care of their property.

Steubenville may be a poor city. It may be a polluted city. But why can’t we try to make it a beautiful city?

Photo by TFasanello

]]> http://exploringsteubenville.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/possible-improvement/feed/ 1 living1mage hereandthere2008-067 http://exploringsteubenville.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/creegan-company/ http://exploringsteubenville.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/creegan-company/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 15:43:07 +0000 living1mage http://exploringsteubenville.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/creegan-company/ ]]> Creegan Company
508 Washington Street
Steubenville, Ohio 43952

The Creegan Company describes itself as the nation’s largest manufacturer of animated and costume characters. The Creegan Company has designed characters for Hershey’s Chocolate World, Sea World, and Disney World.
The Creegan Company building is a combination factory and showcase. Their Website promises visitors that they will get to see artists at work sculpting face molds, projects being assembled, woodworking, and more.
I have never been to the Creegan Company factory, but I am thinking about checking it out this weekend. More about it after I’ve seen it for myself!
To schedule a tour, call the Creegan Company at 740-283-3708.

All American Lanes in Steubenville, OH

http://allamericanlanes.com/

Some Franciscan students pose in front of the lanes after a couple fun games at All American Lanes