Local Deliverance

Do you remember the movie Deliverance? What a great flick, and one that gave me nightmares for many nights. I can remember that dead hand shooting out of the lake at the end of the movie like it was yesterday. Although Dueling Banjos is still one of my favorite tunes, I never watched the movie again. Once was enough. Of course, nothing like that can happen around here…bein’ all urbanized and everythin’…or can it?

I must have led a fairly sheltered life when I was kid because my family rarely drove south (or north for that matter) for any family trips. We tended to drive east or west. It was only after my friend moved to Steubenville that I discovered the beauty of the Appalachian part of Ohio. West Virginia is just about 30 miles away…so Dixie is just 30 minutes down Route 11. It was originally part of Virginia, after all, and they owned slaves there clear to the end of the Civil War.

Between here and there lies Columbiana County. It is a beautiful part of Ohio, with stunning views and vistas. It provides this area with the quintessential fall drive through the gorgeous foliage, along the creeks, rivers and canals and over the twisting and winding roads up and down the rolling hills. Rural, however, is the operative word. My mother used to teach in Elkton back during World War II. The one room school house is still there. She rented a room in the area and had to stoke and light the coal furnace every morning to warm the place up…before she did the daily check for lice.

The school house today is a quaint reminder of things past, with the former Lock 24 Restaurant (now defunct) bringing a degree of sophistication to the area. Now we have the Federal Correctional Facility down there. That gets you back to reality!!!

A week or so ago, the sky was blue and there was no humidity. I “googled” Columbiana County and looked for a place to drive, and stumbled across Scenic Vista Park. It sounded interesting. So I printed the map and went forth…Route 11 to and then through Lisbon on Route 30. The sign said “Scenic Vista Park 4 Miles” with an arrow to the left. I looked for the road. There was a driveway. That couldn’t be it. So we continued to drive thinking the road would be four miles down Route 30. Wrong, Johnny Appleseed! We had to drive back ten miles to that driveway, which was actually the road.

Well, it was sort of a road. The park was only four miles down the “road,” but when you can only drive 10 mph, that is quite a little ride. The road got progressively worse as we continued to wind our way towards the park. Sporadically on either side were some small houses, and “doublewides”. I kept looking for toothless guys to jump out at us, and wondered aloud how many drug deals were done down this God forsaken place. In the distance, you could hear the dirt bikes revving up! I felt like pickin’ and grinnin’.

We finally reached the park, which as a pavilion and two hiking trails. There is a log cabin on the grounds. It is actually very pretty. But the people who occupied the pavilion gave us the evil eye when we drove into the place, and we kept on driving. When we exited the park, we drove down the road “a-piece” to the horse stables. By then, the road was almost a path. We managed to turn around and head back to the highway.

On the way out, we spotted an old cemetery of sorts with about 20 graves, most of the tombstones being knocked over. We got out of the car to investigate, and it made the trip down to Deliverance land worthwhile. The cemetery was very, very old. Most of the markers were unreadable. The earliest graves we found were dated 1811, and we found a Civil war vets grave. The Veterans must know the place because flags are placed on the veterans' graves. Next to a very old, unreadable marker was a brand new one, giving the name of the occupant and stating he was a Revolutionary War veteran. That is fascinating. It makes you wonder what trials and troubles these folks lived with when they moved to this area. It was isolated then, and the cemetery is isolated today.

We often take for granted the comfort and conveniences we enjoy today. If it were me, I never would have left England!!!! These were hearty and brave souls that populated our country. Their rugged individualism is something to be admired today.

Just so long as there isn’t some lake for a hand to pop out of!!!!!! Dada da da da da da da…