I grew up watching Jeopardy!  The answer is: Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  The question is: Where do you go to find the most Amish?  That would have been my guess.  And, I would have been wrong.  You too?  As it turns out, the 350,000 Amish in the United States span across 31 states.  Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has the third largest Amish population.  The second largest settlement of the Amish is around Elkhart, Indiana.  And, if you want to find the largest concentration of Amish, more than 40,000 people, head to Holmes County in Ohio.  The Amish comprise half of the county's population.

I vaguely remember this because Holmes County was my mother's "go to" destination of choice in Ohio.  She loved everything Amish because of her own German heritage.  And, I loved my German heritage every time she made German potato salad.    

ARRIVAL IN THE NEW WORLD    The Amish first came to Pennsylvania in the early to mid 1700s.  They came for religious freedom because they had been persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants in Europe.  They also came for the chance to own farmland in the United States.  Most of them had been tenant farmers in their homelands.  More Amish came in the 18th and 19th centuries, expanding into Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and Illinois. The first Amish to settle in Holmes Country arrived in 1809.

If you know anything about the Amish, you know they are farmers.  You can expect to see corn knee-high by the Fourth of July, as well as oats, goats, cows and sows.  Except, one of the first things I learned on a three-hour tour was that only about 10% of the Amish are farmers.  The top two occupations are construction (and they travel across the state to do their work) and hand-crafted furniture (that goes much farther than just the state line).

A THREE HOUR TOUR     Yes, that's right, I took a three-hour-tour through Amish country.  Now, I've known all my life that you should never take a three-hour-tour unless you want to end up on a desert isle with Gilligan and Mary Ann.  Fortunately, the weather never started getting rough and our spacious van was not tossed.  The guide was raised a conservative Mennonite but left the community to go out into the world when he went to Bible College.  He was an excellent source of information about all things Amish and he still had excellent ties with the community. (FYI: The faith beliefs of Amish and Mennonites are similar.  However, Mennonites may own vehicles and telephones as well as have electricity in their homes.) 

Right from the start, it was made clear that in the Amish community, you are either Amish or English.  Think about that English community for a moment.  You can certainly see that there are lots of variations among those English.  It would include Baptists, Catholics, atheists, people with brown, white, or black skin, English-speakers, people who speak no English at all, and an endless supply of other categories.  Still, if you aren't Amish, you are English.  The surprise to me was there are lots of differences among the Amish as well.  They do not all nicely fit into just one group.
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AMISH LIFE    Yes, different groups of Amish communities were explained during the tour.  I couldn't keep them straight. Suffice it to say that some Amish are a lot more conservative than others, but they are all conservative!  If I understood it correctly, cars, smart phones, and electricity are not a part of their lives.  Dress is simple, education only goes as far as grade eight, faith is very important, family ties are strong, and an insulation from the English world concerning modern technology and mass media is maintained.

Part of my tour included a horse-drawn carriage factory.  The factory had two employees (at least on the day I visited).  Because you aren't to dress or do anything flashy, the choice of color for your carriage is either black or black.  For the interior fabric, there is flexibility with black, grey, and certain shades of blue and burgundy.  (I was really surprised about the burgundy.)  But, you better check to see if the color is acceptable before selecting your interior.  And, if the people at the factory don't think the color is acceptable, they just will not use it.  Additionally, some Amish people like rubber around their carriage tires and other prefer metal.  I can't tell you which group prefers what or why.  I do remember that more conservative carriage drivers have open windows with cloth curtains that you can roll up and tie in place.  Other drivers permit actual windows in their buggies.  

I was a little depressed that a new horse-drawn carriage costs more than my current car.  The actual buggy would cost about $6,000.  Then, you'd need a horse that probably would start at $3,000 but could go so much higher. Finally, you'd need a barn for that horse and 60 pounds of grain per week.  And, somebody has to follow behind that horse with a shovel.  Not me, I'm going to stick with my Toyota.
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CLOTHING   I asked.  And, I was told ahead of time that there wouldn't be close-up photography of any Amish people.  It was possible to take photos from a distance while in a vehicle, but I wasn't going to get the kind of portraits I really like to take.  But, how was it that some books had portraits of Amish people on their covers?  The woman at a gift shop counter said that the view on photography was changing.  There was one trusted photographer in the community who could take photos of the Amish.  He had earned their trust. Part of the way he earned that was by keeping the photos for ten years before publishing them.  That way, the people in the photos wouldn't be as easily recognized and it could maintain their privacy.  I really appreciated the photographer's way of respecting privacy.  And, I certainly know that ten years can do a lot of damage, er, ... I mean, a lot changes can happen to your face in that amount of time.

There is an intended purpose behind what and how the Amish dress.  The style of clothing is one more way of expressing their faith in God and maintaining a separation from the world.  There is no jewelry.  Amish women wear long, modest, full-length dresses as well as bonnets covering their heads.  There are many styles of bonnets, but married women wear white bonnets and single women wear black bonnets.  The bonnet is actually a prayer covering and the hair it protects is never cut.  The hair is worn in a bun and pinned to the back of the head.

Of course, the Amish men dress in similarly conservative ways in dark suits with straight-cut coats and no lapels. There are no belts.  Men either wear suspenders or rely on the four buttons along the top of their pants to do the job.  Wide-brimmed hats are either black or made of straw.  Married men grow beards, but they never wear a mustache.  It was a part of maintaining humility.  That was a mystery until my guide explained that in Europe, important people used to wear a mustache.  The more important they thought they were, the bigger and more elaborate the mustache.   Not wearing a mustache stopped that display of vanity. 

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE DAY     In the northern part of Holmes Country, the tour stopped at the farm of a Swartzentruber Amish family, the most conservative of the conservative Amish.  Before we came to a stop in their driveway, my guide said, "Put away your cameras. You are not allowed to photograph anything here.  The father would be very offended if you tried to take a picture."

Bummer.

I really wanted to photograph the beautiful rustic things around the farm.  No, I wouldn't sneak a picture of a family member.  But, what harm would there be in taking a picture of aging red paint on a barn?  I never found out.  I never took a photo.  And, hands down, it was the best moment of the day!

The Miller family (which is the most common last name in Holmes County) made basket items to sell to visiting English tourists.  When everyone finished shopping, I had time to talk to the son who handled the shop.  This stop was my only chance to speak to the Amish while on the tour.  And the young man was warm and friendly, with his bare feet, straw hat, and button-up trousers.  

Since I live in Columbus, he was very interested in the Columbus Zoo.  It appears that two of his brothers and a sister had visited it.  I don't know how they managed to do that.  Some Amish are just fine and dandy riding in an automobile if they don't own the vehicle.  That is not the way of the Shwartzentruber.  They won't ride in a car unless it is a medical emergency.  And, I'm not sure how they'd ever call for help because they don't have cell phones either.

Actually, there is quite a list of things the Shwartzentruber Amish don't have.  No indoor bathrooms, no running water, no gas lights, no solar power.  If you happen to pass a Shwartzentruber Amish buggy in your neighborhood, you'll notice they don't have windshields, mirrors, reflectors, or the slow-moving vehicle triangles to warn approaching traffic.  That would just be too showy.

After talking with the son, I also spoke to the mother.  She probably also made baskets.  It appeared the whole family did, but at that moment, she showed off her quilting skills.  As it turns out, I have the top of a quilt that my grandmother made.  It needs the interior padding as well as a backing applied.  I've never known anyone able to do this because it must be done by hand (the way my grandmother did it).  If you find a quilter today, most people use their sewing machine.  But now, thanks to my own little Shwarzentruber connection, I may have found a way to complete the quilt.  If I'm just forced to keep in touch with this family, it will be a pleasure.  And maybe, possibly, if I have enough communication with them, I'll see how it might be possible for one certain young man to visit the Columbus Zoo.​

This daytripping was a result of my bad driving.  I'm the first to admit that truth.  I never have considered myself good behind the wheel.  It's not just controlling the vehicle.  I'm also not that good in following the directions on the road.  It's kind of normal for me to get lost when I travel.  I guess I could blame part of that on my old GPS.  It's too old to update online, naturally.  But, I've learned I have an even worse experience if I try to follow directions on my phone.  Anyway, the last time I made a wrong turn in the county where I live, I stumbled across a covered bridge in the middle of nowhere.  I had no idea there were any covered bridges around here.  I hadn't seen any since I was a kid.  I saw the movie; if you want to see bridges, you have to go to Madison County, Iowa!

It got me curious.   Are there any more covered bridges in Central Ohio?  As it turns out, they are all over the state.  So, I set out on a mission to see a few of them.  And, as long as I was on the journey, I wanted to find some very unique barns for the state of Ohio as well.
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BRIDGES    Most covered bridges built in the United States were constructed between 1825 - 1875.  The main reason for the covering was to protect the structure of the bridge from snow and rain that would eventually rot the wood.  A bridge without covering might last twenty years, but a covered structure could last one hundred years.  In the article "Back in Time, Ohio's Vanishing Covered Bridges", Ricki Longfellow described other uses for the coverings.  "It kept horses from being spooked by the waters underneath, it was a reprieve from weather to the weary traveler, and it was used for political rallies, religious meetings, a night's sleep for tramps, town meetings, poker parties, sweethearts' rendezvous, drunken revels, dances, and even rainy-day luncheons took place on the covered bridge."  Who knew there was so much to do under a roof and over a stream?

Approximately 12,000 covered bridges once spanned American rivers, streams, cricks, and creeks.  And, at one time, Ohio boasted 3,500 covered bridges.  Today, Pennsylvania leads the country with 219 covered bridges and Ohio comes in second with 138.  I'm guessing that Robert James Waller might not have known these facts when he decided to write about the bridges of Madison County.

The first bridge that I stumbled across was the Chambers Road Bridge, the only covered bridge in my county.  In the past, there were 64 covered bridges in Delaware County, but this is the sole survivor.  It's near Olive Green, Ohio, which also was a place that I never heard of and stumbled through as I tried to get my GPS to function.  The bridge was originally built in 1874, 1882, or 1883 (depending on your source) by Everett S. Sherman and spans 73 feet across Big Walnut Creek.  It is a rare surviving example of a Childs Truss bridge.  If that means nothing to you (which was my situation), a truss is an architectural term for triangles made from wood or metal used for support.  Because, as everyone knows, a triangle handles stress well without distorting.

Nothing survives in tact for over one hundred years without some help.  The bridge needed repairs in 1957 after an accident.  What kind of accident?  It was hit by a truck.  How did that happen?  I don't believe a drunk driver could have found the bridge.  There must be a story, but I don't know it.  And then, the bridge needed some additional repair and renovation work in 1982.  The bridge was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1974.  Sadly, that didn't stop all sorts of graffiti in the interior of the bridge.

The Mohican Covered Bridge, spanning the Mohican River, is the oldest and certainly the most recognized landmark at Mohican State Park.  The bridge was built in 1969 to replace the older one-lane truss bridge that had been there.  Mohican State Park is 1,110 acres of destination for anyone into hiking, fishing, and picnicking. It doesn't matter if you are into camping, cottages, or a lodge with 95 rooms (like me), all of this is available.  And, if by chance, you might feel a little cramped in with the size of the park, those in need of more elbowroom are in luck.  It just so happens that the park is surrounded by the Mohican Memorial State Forest.  It's a mere 4,795 acres for those into hunting, hiking, and bridal trails.  It is so not for me!

The park is gorgeous and it was a magnificent winding road that brought me to the covered bridge.  The landscape had a little assistance during the ice age in Ohio.  The final glacier to make its way into Ohio stopped in the vicinity of Mohican State Park forming a glacial boundary.  As the glacial ice melted, the runoff waters cut the Clear Fork Gorge into the sandstone.   It's the most amazing view in all of Mohican State Park if you have the right shoes and legs to view it.  If you are into a diversity of trees, Ohio wildlife, and birding, this park is for you.  If you're lucky, you may spot a wild turkey or bald eagle.

I came across a video that told the history of the Civilian Conservation Corps who rebuilt the depleted region and planted two billion trees in the 1930s.  It was a very exceptional thirteen-minute viewing.  I highly recommend it.
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The Bridge of Dreams was originally built in the 1920s as a railroad bridge for the Pennsylvania Railroad.  It's too narrow for automobiles, but perfect for bicycles, pedestrians, and Amish horse-drawn carriages.  I didn't see any, but if you cross along any path where horses trod, you may know that you need to watch your step.  

It doesn't appear so long when looking at the bridge directly.  But, at 370 feet, it spans the Mohican River and is the second longest bridge in Ohio.  The bridge was long abandoned by the 1990s when local residents and businesses decided to make it a part of the Mohican Valley Trail.  At that time, it was not covered.  Skeptics of the project called the visionaries who wanted to cover the bridge "dreamers".  That's how the bridge got its name.  A rather clever in-your-face triumph, in my opinion. 

If part of your journey takes you to the trailhead of the pathway, you'll see a horse hitching post made from the original metal pipe used on the railroad.
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BARNS    Both of my parents grew up on farms.  So, when I was a kid, I spent a lot of time in farm country and saw a lot of barns painted with Mail Pouch Tobacco logos.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself a city slicker.  It wasn't until I sat down and did a little research on the subject that I learned that the last Mail Pouch artist was from Ohio.  Yep, Harley Warrick was from Belmont County, Ohio.  

Now days, in Ohio, the more famous barns celebrate Ohio's bicentennial in 2003.  In 1997, Ohio's Bicentennial Commission wanted some kind of project to generate statewide enthusiasm for the upcoming 200th anniversary of Ohio statehood.  Just like me, they'd seen a lot of Mail Pouch barns and they thought that a barn in each of Ohio's 88 counties might be a unique way to celebrate.  They had no idea how successful that idea would be!

But, they had to find an artist.

At that very time, a 19-year-old artist in Belmont County, Ohio, was making a name for himself in the local community painting barns.  He painted the logo of THE Ohio State University on his father's barn.  Grandpa liked it so much that he sent a photo to the local paper.  It made the front page!  And, it just so happened, that someone from the Bicentennial Commission was in town that day to see it.  The artist, Scott Hagan, was discovered and his life would never be the same.

​You may have noticed that Scott Hagan is from the very same county as the Mail Pouch artist, Harley Warrick. They lived a mere 15 miles from each other.  Certainly, one of life's magnificent twists of fate!  And, Warrick was more than happy to give the teenager some tips and supplies for the project.  Hagan still uses the scaffolding plank that Warrick gave him so many years ago.  
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It took Hagan five years to travel 65,000 miles across Ohio with 645 gallons of paint and 100 brushes to paint all 88 barn logos. And, he did it the right way.  As I have learned with my murals, this is not a time to stay at a hotel and eat in a restaurant.  No, he stayed with the farmers, ate at their tables, and became part of their families.  That was evident when so many of these "family members" showed up to his wedding in 2000.
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​The project took on an unexpected life of its own as Hagan painted his murals.  Usually, it took two days for him to complete each project.  What nobody ever imagined was Buckeyes from across the state traveled to the barns to watch paint dry.  Well, I guess they wanted to meet the artist and see the process.  But, nobody on the Ohio Bicentennial Commission ever imagined such a thing.  If you have a desire to see each barn and learn a little of their stories, I recommend Ohio's Bicentennial Barns with text by Beth Gorczyca and photography by B. Miller.

The birthday party for Ohio was in 2003.  If you had a birthday back then, you probably don't have the party decorations from that day.  The barn logos were never intended to last forever.  They were a celebration for that special day in Ohio history.  So, if you travel the state to locate these barn, you never know what you are going to find.  I understand this fact of life for an artist.  I've gone back to visit a few of my murals.  Interior works remains in near perfect condition.  Exterior art just doesn't have the same kind of shelf life.  The barn at the top of this page, in Delaware County, is still a destination for celebrations and weddings.  And, of course, the barn is in great condition.  I read that the barn in Franklin County, where Columbus is located, has been painted over. Horror! Recently, I traveled through Knox County and looked up their barn.  It was so badly maintained, faded and chipped, that I just couldn't take a picture of it.  It's safe to say, it had gone to the dogs.  But, just a few miles away in the county seat of Mt. Vernon, it's worth a stop to see their Fountain of Dogs.  Eighteen dogs spit water into a fountain aiming towards a golden bone.  It might have been interesting if one of the dogs wasn't spitting, but whoever designed the fountain doesn't share my sense of humor.  ​

 PS     The very day I posted this blog, I thought it might be polite to write to Scott Hagan.  Perhaps he would enjoy reading the blog and I wanted to make sure it was okay to use his photo.  So, I wrote to him.  I also suggested that if he was ever interested in taking a lunch break while he painted, I would love to swap stories with him.  

Well, as it turned out, he was in Columbus, painting at the State Fair Grounds, and just across the street from my most visible mural in the city!  I had to drop everything to go see him.  I mean, seriously, was there even a choice?  I don't think so. 

I've heard that sometimes it isn't good to meet people that you've seen in the media and admire.  Frequently, they don't live up to their reputation.  I'm very happy to say that Scott Hagan was just as warm and friendly as his write ups and photos indicated.  And, there was no real hint of an art diva.  I've painted on several occasions as people watched me paint.  This time the tables were turned on me.  Scott said that he really didn't like that kind of attention, but it's what you have to do when painting at the state fair grounds.

It was fun to talk shop with another similar artist.  He was very interested in the community mural aspect of my projects.  So, I told him about painting with Little Stevie Wonder in Mexico and with Claudinei in Brasil.  In turn, I wanted to know how much talent he oozed.  Did he free-hand his drawings on the wall or did he use a grid?  He said he used to free-hand his art, but one of his friends said he had to use a projector.  It changed his world.  I'm going to have to try a projector one of these days and give up gridding.  I'm willing to have my muraling world rocked by new technology.

So, sometimes life has very good surprises.  This was a very special one.  I'm hoping that sometime, some day, I'll meet up with Scott once again and swap a few more stories.  

If you don't live in Ohio, there is a good chance that you don't know what the name means.  If you search for a bit on the Internet, you could find suggestions like Only Handle It Once, Our Hand Is Out, Over the Hill In October,  and -- my personal favorite -- Old Hicks In Outhouse.  But, the real meaning behind the name came from the Seneca people, one of the Iroquois nations.  They called the Ohio River "ohi-yo" which meant "good river", "great river", or "large creek".  Personally, I think great is better than good and river is better than creek.  So, I'm going to stick with "great river".  However, in my travels, I've also learned that if you say Ohio in Japan (although it should then be spelled "ohayo"), it means "good morning".

When I lived in Antwerp, Belgium, the oldest house in the city was built in the 1500s!  That kind of history makes most things in the United States seem so quaint and new.  However, there is rich Native American history throughout the continent -- including in Ohio -- that predates anything in Colonial America.  That fact should be obvious with a name like Ohio coming from the Seneca people.  

So, I decided to do a little daytripping in Central Ohio to see what I could explore.  I started with some Native American sites and then expanded.  I'd still rather tour a cathedral in Europe, head out into the remote bush in Africa, discover kangaroos in Australia, or wander Inca ruins in South America, but I was very pleasantly surprised what the land of that great river had to offer.  ​

SHRUM MOUND     Before European and American settlers came into the Northwest Territory, there were several Native American tribes in the region.  In my research, no site had a list that they completely agreed upon, but some of the main tribes were the Shawnee, Delaware, Ottawa, Miami, Wyandot, and Seneca.  Before these people, the Adena culture, a Pre-Columbian Native American people, lived in what would become Ohio (along with parts of Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania) from approximately 500 BC to 100 AD.  They were followed by the Hopewell culture (which expanded out from Ohio into present-day Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and New York) from approximately 100 AD to 500 AD.  

Both the Adena and Hopewell people were hunters and farmers.  They would hunt wild game, birds, and fish.  They would have grown squash, gourds, beans, sunflowers, and corn.  The Adena were known to trade with other tribes in what would become the Central, South, and Southeast United States.  The Hopewell expanded trade to get obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico, sharks teeth from Chesapeake Bay, and copper from the Great Lakes.

The Adena, as well as the Hopewell, were famous for the mounds that they built.  Some of the mounds were burial grounds.  Others were ceremonial effigy mounds shaped like various animals.  Perhaps the most famous of these is the Great Serpent Mound near the Ohio River.  This mound, shaped like a coiled snake, is three feet tall and 1,348 feet long.  Estimates say that it is probably 2,000 years old.

When settlers first came into the region, there were thousands of mounds in all sizes.  Most of them did not survive the passage of time.  Today, it is possible to visit about 70 different mound locations in Ohio.  There is one small mound in a local park that is very close to where I live.  It's in the middle of a woods, about six feet tall, and covered with brush.  There is no way to photograph it well.  I didn't even try.  Instead, I headed out to Shrum Mound on the other side of town.  It is about 20 feet tall with a diameter of 100 feet and one of the last conical mounds still in Columbus.  It is believed to be 2,000 years old and built by the Adena people.  More importantly to me, it is beautifully landscaped and so easy to photograph.  

CORNHENGE    Officially, it's called The Field of Corn, (with Osage Orange Trees), but the people of Dublin, Ohio, usually refer to it as Cornhenge.  Technically, a henge is supposed to have a circle of stone or wooden uprights. But, when you're coming up with a nickname, being clever is more important that accurate.  Anyway, much to my absolute shock, this park was constructed in 1994!  How could it have taken me over two decades to learn about it?

I counted the number of corncobs, but I wasn't accurate.  I came up with 106, but there were three more of them. Each corncob is made of white cement, stands just over six feet tall, and weighs 1,500 pounds.  The project was commissioned by the Dublin Arts Council and the ears were designed by Malcolm Cochran, a professor of sculpture at THE Ohio State University.  For those who just have to know, originally three differing ears were cast and then molds were taken of each ears.  When the corncobs were installed, the ears were turned at various angles to give the illusion that every ear is unique.

The instillation was designed to honor Ohio's rich corn heritage.  The field where the corncobs are on display was once an actual cornfield.  That comes as no surprise because so much of the land around Columbus, Ohio, used to be farmland (including where I live).  In fact, this particular park was farmed by Sam Frantz from 1935 to 1963. Frantz also worked with THE Ohio State University developing hybrid corn seeds on this very property!  The double-cross hybrid variety of corn that Cochran used for his design is called Corn Belt Dent Corn (which is probably more information than you needed to know.)

The biggest surprise to me as I learned about corn was that fact that it has been cultivated in Ohio for approximately 1800 years!  And, it wasn't just grown in small little garden patches around tepees, wigwams, and longhouses. By the mid-1700s, in the Scioto River Valley (from around Columbus and south to the Ohio River) and in the Miami River Valley (from Dayton to Cincinnati), thousands of acres of cornfields were grown.  Thousands!  Who knew?

The farming continued when the European and American settlers came to Ohio in the late 1700s.  Corn was their most important crop.  It was food for the family as well as the livestock and any surplus was sold.  By 1850, Ohio led the nation with its corn production.  Franklin County, where Columbus is located, was once one of the leading corn-producing areas in the state.  As the capitol city continues to sprawl in all directions, that is no longer the case. 

And, on a very personal note, the big festival every year where I grew up was the Wyandot Popcorn Festival.  It's actually the world's largest popcorn festival and annually draws a crowd of about 250,000 people.  When I attended in the past, I had no idea that the Wyandot people actually grew corn.  I still can't imagine Indians sitting around the fire eating popcorn (but with a little research, I learned that that was exactly what they did!)  And, I also had no idea that in the years since I moved away, the entertainment at the Popcorn Festival included Lee Greenwood, the Righteous Brothers, the Pointer Sisters, the Commodores, Willie Nelson, Kansas, Kool and the Gang, Ricki Martin, Blake Shelton, Boyz II Men, and the Village People.  I'm a little shocked.

So, lesson learned in my daytripping.  No matter where you live, if you do a little research, you might be surprised what you find in your own backyard.  And, if you get up early when the light is just right for photography, you may have a good morning in Ohio, or wherever you find yourself.