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• Page B-2 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Oct. 27, 2016
ON THE ROAD
@
@
I stand on an iron
bridge over Oil
Creek. I can see a
gray sheen of oil -- a
film -- swirl across the
surface of the stagnant
pond below the bridge.
A gravel bar separates
the pond from the free-
flowing creek.
Oil Creek is a
perfect name for
the place where
Edwin Drake
struck oil in
Pennsylvania on
Aug. 27, 1859,
sending America
into its first oil
boom, and
changing indus-
try throughout
the world, forever.
Titusville, Pennsyl-
vania, honors Drake
and his achievement at
Drake's Well Museum,
a National Historic Site.
During the summer, an
antique train brings visi-
tors up and down this
portion of the Allegheny
Valley. Its brochure
slogan, grandiose yet
true: "The Valley that
Changed the World."
The bridge I stand
on is in Oil Creek State
Park, a few miles south
of the well, and the
creek runs clear now,
despite the many old,
rusting historic drill-
ing rigs still visible in
the woods and along its
shores. They are quite
small, resembling crude,
twisted water pumps or
strange bicycle frames,
old and rusty, that you
come across like tomb-
stones on the trails.
Native Ameri-
cans gathered
oil for hundreds
of years, using
hides for collect-
ing it from seeps
like the one be-
neathmy bridge.
However,
By MARK once oil began to
WOYTOWICH pump freely, an
entire industry
grew up around
it: lumber works for the
millions of wooden bar-
rels needed to carry it;
more iron for rails to
transport it; refineries
to process it; new lan-
terns and light fixtures
to burn its precious by-
product, kerosene; and
millions of new furnaces
to heat homes and busi-
nesses with magical, af-
fordable fuel oil.
It's not common
knowledge, but Drake,
by drilling for oil, saved
the last of the whales
from extinction. Whale
oil was the chief source
of lighting fuel up until
then.
Weirton Steel mill on the Ohio River in West Virginia. Most of the sprawling
parts are still operational miles down the road.
MEN OF STEEL
I stand on a small
square parcel in down-
town Youngstown, Ohio.
My hand grips the crude
steel frame, torched
over time, of a massive
press where sheets of
molten steel were once
for the week of October 27 through November 3,2016
ALLYN I Case Inlet
21 4:37am 11.1 28 5:28am 12.329 6:11am 12.9 30 12:17am 05
lhu 10:27am 3.4 Fri11:13am 4.0Sat11:54am 4.6 Sun 6:49am 13.3
4:37pm 14.0 5:03pm 13.9 5:2/pm 13.1 12:33pm 5.2
11:22pm 1.8- 11:51pm 1.1 5~53prn 13.5
31 12:4Sam 0.0 1 1:14arn -0.3 2 1:46am -0.6 3 2:21am -0.6
Mon 7:24am 13.7 Tue7:59am 13.9 Wed8:36am 14.1 ~hu 9:16am 14.2
1:10pm -5.8 1:47pm 6.3 2:27pm 6.7 3:10pro _ 7.0
6:20prn 13.2 6:49pm 12.9 7:21pm 12.4 7:55pm 11.9
SHELTON I Oakland Bay
27 5:15am 11.7 28 12:28am 1.529 12:57am 0.9 30 1:23am 0.4
Thu 11:33am 2.9 Fe 6:06arn 12.3 Sat6:49am 12.9 Sun7:27am 13.3
5:15prn 14.0 12:19pm 3.4 l:00prn 4.0 1:39pm 4.5
5:41pm 13.9 6:05pm 13.7 6:31pm 13.5
31 1:51am 0.0 I 2:20am -0.3 2 2:52am -0.S 3 3:27am -0.5
Mon 8:02am 13.1 Tue8:37am 13.9 Wed 9:14arn 14.1 Thu 9:54am 14.2
2:16pm 5.0 2:53pm 5.4 3:33pm 5.8 4:16pm 6.0
6:58pm 13.2 7:27pm 12.9 7:59pm 12.4 8:33pm 11.9
UNION I Hood Canal
21 3:27arn 9.628 4:19am 10.3 29 5:05am 10.9 30 S:48arn 11.3
mu 9:03am 3.6 Fri9:Slam 4.0Sat10:36arn 4.5 Sun 11i19am 5.0
3:33pm 11.9 4:0Spin 11.8 4:35prn 11.6 5:01prn 11.4
9:54pm 2.2 10:31pm 1.4 11:0Spin 0.1 11:39prn 0.3
31 6:29am 11.7 1 12:12am 0.12 12:46am 0.13 1:20am 0.3
Mun 12:01pm 55Tue7:11arn 11.9 Wed7:54am 11.9 Xhu8:38am 11.9
S:24pm 11.1 12:43pm 6.5 1:27pm 65 2:15pm 7.0
5:44pm 10.3 6:04prn 10.3 6:27prn 9.9
THE SUN and THE MOON
27 28 29 30 31 1 2 3
Sunrise6:49am6:Slam 6:52am 6:54am 6:55am 6:57am6:S8am 7:00am
Sunset 5:03pm5:01pm 4:59pm 4:58pm 4:56pm 4:55pm4:53pm 4:52pm
Moonrise 3:38am4:39am S:40am 6:39am 7:38am 8:36am9:32am 10:26am
Moonset 4:06pm: • 4:32pm 4:58pm 5:26pm 6:30pm 7:09pm7:53pm 8:42prn
New moon October 30
SHELTON-MASON COUNTY
Tidal Informatiun cuurtesy NOAA I AstTonumical Data courtesy U.S. Naval Observatury
Journal photo by Mark Woytowich
structures are closed, but
hammered, cooled, thendustrial still-life, the saL
shaped into I-beams for vaged remains of a fiery
bridges and buildings blast furnace that once
that sprang into skylines turned the night skies
above Pittsburgh, Cleve- orange over Campbell,
land, New York, San Youngstown, Pittsburgh,
Francisco, Philadelphia. Weirton and Wheeling,
• Two men, also made during the great indus-
of steel, stand frozen in trial heydays of 1900 to
the postures of workers 1977, when iron became
("slaggers') who once steel and.steel won two
labored, sweated and World Wars.
swore during their shifts There are no more
in the mills up and down mills in Youngstown,
the Ohio River Valley. just a steel museum.
I stand next to the I was born here when
metallic men at an coal came up the river
outside display in front from West Virginia, and
of Youngstown's Steel Drake's lubricating oil
Museum. Here, beside still flowed down the
the empty parking lot, Allegheny, and it all
we stand as a gritty, in- worked together and
This Week
Non-Members Welcome
AT THE RANGE Memberships Available
October 27, Thursday 6:00 PM Winchester Sporting Rifle Marks,
manship program. Self-paced awards based program, fun and re-
warding for all ages and skill levels. Coaching usually available,
please bring your tmloaded rifle in a bag or box,no firearms outside a
bag or box outside the building. $6.00 members $8.00 non-members.
October 28, Friday 6:00 PM Gallery Bullseye: .22 Pistol Target
Shooting. You will be firing 10 rounds on each of 6 targets from 50
feet with one'hand. From novice to experts welcome. $3.00 mem-
bers, $5.00 non-members.
October 29, Saturday 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM Basic Pistol Phase 2
Course Practical instruction. Phase 1 must be completed on line
and a course completion number provided to participate in Phase 2.
Go to https://°nlinetraining'nra'°rg to register for Phase 1.
Sign up on our website for Phase 2, wwwanasoncountysa.com
November 1, Tuesday 5:30 PM Practical Pistol Fun Match: a sta-
tionary position, timed & scored event with situational defense style
challenges, including from standing, sitting or kneelingl Props for
cover/concealment may be used. Firearm requirement is a .38 spe-
cial, 9mm and/or larger pistol, requires drawing from a holster. Full
equipment list can be found at www.masoncountysa.com. Members
$6.00, non-members $8.00, juniors $1.00 when accompanied by a
parent or guardian.
November 2, Wednesday 6:30 PM MCSA General Business Meet-
hag at PUD3 2621 E John's Prairie. Open to the public.
Coming Soon: November 12, Saturday IOAM-2PM Turkey Shoot,
open to all ages 7 and above, come shoot for fun and prizes! $5.00
per entry, you may enter as many times as you like. Bring your un-
loaded .22 Rifle or pistol in a bag or box, ear and eye protection will
be provided if you don't have your own.
MASON COUNTY SPORTSMAN'S ASSOCIATION
W. 521 Business Park Rd., Shelt0n
Message Phone 427-11020 www.mas0nc0untysa.c0m []
unions ruled, and we
all loved Detroit, and
Detroit's motorized toys
let us ride off to Eden
during Eisenhowefs
era, seeking Disney-
land, Kerouac and other
roadside distractions on
Route 66.
It really was that
way.
In fact, Route 66 is
still mailing postcards:
Hey, where did you guys
go to?
MAN OF GRIT
In the 1950s, my
father worked in the
secondary mills, eight
hours a day on a lathe,
shaping steel into super
slick pistons, making
hydraulics for tractors
and all kinds of lifts.
I remember seeing
the cuts on his forearms,
the nicks from flying
steel chips. My morn
saying he should never
wear cuffed pants; they
collected the filings. My
morn worried the wind
was coming from Camp-
bell that day; she'd hang
no wash on the line on
account of the smell.
Dad coming home
tired, falling asleep dur-
ing the TV news.
In the steel museum,
they built a replica lock-
er room from the very
lockers and wash basins
where the men like my
dad changed clothes,
put on steel shoes, hel-
mets, safety goggles, and
marched off to work. I
saw the wire baskets
where men stored their
lunches, wallets and per-
sonal things, how crude
pulleys raised their bas-
kets to the ceiling, sav-
ing space, and allowing
the men to padlock them
up there, safe from theft.
Like the mills,
thousafds of
see RIVER, page B-5