Warther Museum

We have seen many interesting places during our twelve years on the road that we recommend others put on their to do list if they are in the area. On our way back to WashPA we discovered the Warther Museum in Dover, Ohio, less than 100 miles from where we lived most of our lives and after a visit we agree that everyone should put it on the must see list of fascinating places. 

The museum tells the story of master carver Ernest "Mooney" Warther and his wife Frieda. Ernest's father died when he was three so he started working at a very early age. His first job was tending cows, thus the nickname Mooney. One day he found an old pocket knife in the field. So after he met a hobo passing through Dover who taught him how to carve a pair of pliers from a single piece of wood, this set in motion a lifetime of carving.

When Ernest was 14 he lied about his age and got a job at American Sheet and Tin, a local steel mill. After getting married, Ernest and Frieda bought this home in Dover where they raised their five children.

Frieda collected buttons and during the winter would organize them by type and hang them on strings. Later she would mount them to be displayed.

In the winter Ernest did his carving in the house.

There is a small building behind the house where the mounted buttons are displayed by type in various patterns. The Goodyear blimp is made of buttons manufactured by Goodyear. 

All four walls and the ceiling are covered with buttons displayed in many unique patterns.

The family garden. The small building was Mooney's shop and the large building is the museum.

The whole family collected arrowheads and points found in the fields around Dover. They were also mounted and displayed in the shop.

Another display of their arrowheads and points. They found over 5000, most near Dover. Finding one is still something that is on my to do list.

The first complex thing Mooney did with his knife was to carve working pliers from one piece of wood and he never stopped making them for people.

Even this huge Warther W logo is cut from one piece of wood. 

He often carried this to extremes. These pliers, forming the tree at the top of the tower, are carved from a single piece of wood like the one shown in the foreground. He also carved the building modeled after the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He could close them all back to the shape of the single piece. 

His greatest one was 511 pairs of connected pliers carved from a single piece of wood using 31,000 cuts and NO waste. It took two months to complete and was only opened and closed one time during the 1933 Chicago World's Fair to prove to Robert Ripley that it could be done. 

Ernest "Mooney" Warther working in his shop.

Ernest worked in the steel mill for twenty years while doing many carvings as a hobby. This is a working model of the floor of the mill where he worked. It includes many of his friends doing the various jobs. Here is the link to a very short video of the working mill.

Mooney found that the knives he bought to do his carving did not fit his hand so he began making his own. He then began making cutlery that became so popular that he was able to quit his job in the mill and dedicate his time to making knives and working on his hobby, carving. Top are his carving knives. Bottom are the materials he used for carving; ebony, walnut, bone and ivory. He wanted to use ivory because he read when archaeologists opened Egyptian tombs, items made of ivory were still intact.  His first ivory was chipped billiard balls, but later he used tusks..   

His greatest passion was carving steam locomotives and old steam engines. All the parts were carved and then but together using carved pins, never glue that he knew would dry out.

He carved everything; pipes, chains, screws, pins and more down to the smallest part.

Mooney's model of the Union Pacific engine that weighed 604 tons. Before he started using ivory, he used soup bones that he cooked to soften. When he had enough ivory he would carve pieces to replace the bones. He even carved the letters to label his work.

These engines show the evolution of the steam engine from one proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1680 (top right) to the prize winning engine at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair that traveled 90 miles an hour (bottom left). Henry Ford offer Ernest $75,000 for this collection, but he turned it down. He NEVER sold any of his works as he felt if he did, his hobby would become a job. 

Another collection of ancient steam driven machines. The detail of all his work is what makes these so fascinating. He carved every part to make his models and every one of them has moving parts that show how the real machine worked. 

Top is a 1913 Erie Railroad Triplex locomotive that was unique, with three sets of drive wheels, two on the engine and one under the coal tender. Middle is a 1938 B&O engine that was Mooney's least favorite with its modern lines. Bottom is a 1930 Great Northern mountain locomotive. The ones from the 1930's were built near the end of the steam era. The last steam locomotive in the United State was delivered in 1945.   

Once Mooney was able to buy ivory, he began making more trains and engines just using it. While the use of ivory would be unacceptable today, back then it was not.

The Union Pacific No. 119 and the Central Pacific Jupiter at Promontory Summit, Utah where the golden spike was driven to celebrate the connecting of the first transcontinental railroad 150 years ago in 1869. 

Pliers and trains were not the only thing Ernest carved. These canes, carved from one piece of wood, honors President Lincoln. 

The Abraham Lincoln funeral train carved from ebony and ivory is one of his most famous works.

The detail goes all the way to President Lincoln in the coffin. 

This ivory New York Central passenger train has people in the seats. The detail of all his work is really unbelievable. The pipes and wheels are carved from one piece. 

This unfinished B&O locomotive was what Mooney was working on when he died in 1973. 

The B&O caboose in the garden and one that Mooney carved. As I said, this is a stop everyone should have on their must do list. The photos really do not do his work justice.  Seeing it up close really shows what a masterful carver he was.  We think his carvings are some of the best we've ever seen.  Since he never sold his work, you are able to see a lifetime of one man's work in one place which is very unusual. 

We have been in WashPA for three weeks. I am still way behind with the blog. I have several more things to write about before I get caught up.

Year Twelve Summary

THE LIST........................ TOTAL.........AVERAGE.........YEAR 12

Motorhome Miles.................101975................8498...............5458

Average Miles Per Day..............23.3.................23.3..................18.6

Average Trip...............................175..................175.................182

Gallons of Diesel Fuel............13219................1101................733

Cost of Diesel Fuel.................43816................3651...............2164

Average Cost Per Gallon...........3.31.................3.31................2.95

CRV Miles............................127926..............10660...............9839

Camp Sites..................................584....................49..................30

Average Nights in Each...............7.5...................7.5..................9.7

Cost of Parks per Day.............86796.................19.80.............24.68

Number of States(Provinces)......50(11).............17(2).............13(0)

National Parks Monuments.........180.................15.....................4

Blog Posts....................................822.................69...................42

Days of Exercise (Jim)...............2025...............168..................76

Days of Exercise (Nanc)............2750...............229.................271

Number of haircuts (Jim)...............0....................0....................0

Friends & Family...........Priceless...........Priceless..............Priceless

Year 12 of our retirement and being full time travelers saw a big change. Many events with family and friends made us realize that this lifestyle was not going to last forever so we made a BIG decision and purchased a condo in Stuart, Florida. This does not mean that we are going to stop traveling, as we plan to get out of Florida during the warmer months. In 12 years we have traveled 101,975 miles in Opus and put 127,926 miles on the CRV. We have continue to add new sites to our list of new places visited. We know that we will never see it all, but it sure is fun trying.

This year we put 5458 miles on Opus and 9839 on the CRV while visiting 13 states. Since we spent several weeks in our new stix and brix we only stayed in Opus 292 days at 30 campgrounds at an average cost of $24.68. This is much more than we usually pay for a number of reasons; we stay in the Keys (very expensive) for six weeks, eight nights we only stayed night (more costly), we spent almost the entire year in the East (higher prices), generally speaking camp sites are getting more expensive (many more RVers) and lastly we only had nine nights of “free” stays. Our average fuel costs at $2,95 a gallon were about the same as last year but that is still well below our average 12 year cost of $3.31.

We started year 12 where we are ending it, in WashPA. We had so much to do this year that for the first time we stayed for three months. We had all of our doctor and dentist appointments and are happy to report all is fine. We had our usual fun time with the retired teachers weekly lunch bunch gatherings at many different local restaurants. We got to spend time with many friends and family and went to many music venues including seeing Million Dollar Quartet at the Mountain Playhouse. We had a fun time on a Caribbean cruise out of New Orleans with a group from Betty's RV Park to celebrate her 20^th anniversary in style. We did a trip to Pymatuning to fish and I was very happy with all the fish I caught even if they were all catfish. Nanc ran the Great Race in Pittsburgh and finished in the top 10 in her age group. I went to a small gathering of Union High School class of 1964 to see a few old classmates and we went to Nanc's Class of 1968 50^th reunion to catch up with many of hers. As always, we enjoyed our time with so may friends during our stay in WashPA.

We headed out on October 16^th with our first stop in Delaware from where we added two more state capitols, Delaware and Maryland, to our list. We also toured the First State NHS in Dover. From there we headed to Cape Hatteras National Seashore, our favorite go to beach for many years. We stayed for two weeks and had a wonderful time even though the fishing was the worst I have ever experienced. From there it was a three day drive to Brunswick, Georgia where we toured Jekyll and St. Simon Islands, two beautiful resort isles on the Atlantic coast. Next stop was Jacksonville where we enjoyed the beach and a very exciting Steelers last second win over the Jags.

From Jacksonville we headed to South Florida and the beginning of big changes in our lifestyle. We stayed in Hobe Sound for a month. While we were there we went to Miami to see the Pitt Panthers play Miami and were not happy with the results. We enjoyed the music at the Jupiter Jazz Society and did the Christmas display at Heathcote Botanical Gardens with friends Richard and Valerie, who were staying nearby. John and Sharon stopped for a couple days and we accidentally ran into George and Nan. The big change was and is that we bought a condo in Stuart. We have been in this area several times during our years on the road and really like it. Last year we made the decision that this was were we wanted to settle. We checked online and made a list of several possible places. We contacted a realtor and quickly narrowed it down to two places that we revisited. One was near the water but lacked storage space and was much older. On Saturday we made an offer on the condo at Lexington Lakes expecting we would not hear anything until at least Monday. That evening we went to a movie and during the show we got a text that the owner had accepted. WOW!!!! This started a whirlwind month of inspections, credit checks, securing financing and finally closing and becoming homeowners again after 12 years.

We already had reservations in the Keys until February 1^st so we headed there and did much of the paperwork online except for the closing in early January. We left Opus and drove to Stuart for the closing. Fortunately, the condo was fully furnished so we could move right in and we stayed in the condo for four days. We enjoyed all our time in the Keys with many old friends we have made there a few people who were there for the first time during our stay. We do love our time at the Elks in the Keys and still plan to go there next January even though we have a stix and brix just up the road. In February we went back to Stuart, put Opus in storage and stayed in the condo for a month. We did a thorough cleaning and had a couple issues taken care of while meeting our new neighbors and learning more about our new hometown. We spent more time with George and Nan who bought a place a couple miles from us. My cousin Missy and her husband Marty stopped by for a evening and Georgie flew down for a few days.

In March we headed to Louisiana for a few weeks stay at Betty's. As always, many old friends passed through while we were there and there was always many new people to meet. There is a long list of things that kept us busy while we are there including many great restaurants, fantastic music, festivals, and, of course, Betty's world famous happy hours. Betty's is one of the main reasons we intend to keep traveling, even though we now have the condo. In the middle of April we returned to Stuart with a stop along the way in Tallahassee to add Florida's capitol to our list and see Jane who I taught with for many years. In Stuart we did a few more things in the condo to make it feel more like our home than a vacation stop. Nanc's sister, Michelle, came down from DC for a visit and we enjoyed the pool, beach and music, all very close to home.

At the end of May we left Stuart heading north. Our first stop was St. Augustine, a place we have been before and really like. It was super hot, nearly 100, so we did not spend much time outside. We did tour Flagler College where the main building was once one of Flagler's hotels for rich Northerners who wanted to escape winter. Next stop was another hot one, in Georgia, to visit Cumberland Island National Seashore. To escape the heat we did a two day run to Asheville in the North Carolina mountains where we checked out a couple of their famous breweries. Crossing the Smokys we spent a week at the Escapee's park near Knoxville. While there we gave Opus a good cleaning and drove to Gatlinburg to try out the new Skybridge. Next stop was just up the road in Berea for a week of fun and the Hoard-Santek wedding. We had a great time with many friends and family.

From there we stopped in Charleston to add the West Virginia capitol, our fourth this year and 38^th overall, to our list. We then moved to Marietta where we spent time with Nanc'c sister Judy and her family. Another short drive and we stopped at Seneca Lake to visit Jimmy and Darlene Brown. While there Georgie drove out from WashPA for a couple days. For the week of the Fourth of July we stayed in Amish country in Berlin, Ohio. We were very busy there going to the Football Hall of Fame and President McKinley sites in Canton. We toured the Warther Museum in Dover and the Age of Steam exhibit in Sugarcreek, all while taking in the Amish attractions. Our last stop before returning to WashPA was a whole week of fishing on Pymatuning Lake with Mike and Sherri. We returned to WashPA on July 15^th just in time for some super hot weather. Unfortunately, the hot humid weather got to me and I ended up in Washington Hospital overnight with dehydration. I was thoroughly poked, jabbed and scoped and they found no other issues. While we were only on the road for 292 days traveling 5458 miles, we still had a wonderful year of exploring the USA and seeing many friends and family all over the East.

We are starting year 13 with another three month stay in WashPA. We will be doing all the usual stuff we do here every time we return. The difference is, we are planning to set in motion what we need to do to move our medical records to Florida. One big exception to the usual, in September we are going to Europe for eleven days to do a Rhine River Cruise. When we leave in October we will be going to Hatteras Island where we will be celebrating our 50^th anniversary with a few friends and family. When we leave there we are heading to Stuart where we will stay until late spring. As I said, we are not giving up our spot in the Keys so we will be going there in January. In the spring we plan to head to New England to explore and check a few more state capitols off our list. At some point we will be back in WashPA but for a shorter stay because by then we hope to have all our medical appointments moved to Florida. So while we now own a piece of property, we do plan on continuing our RV adventure for a while longer.

Life is Good!!!!

Family - Friends - Blennerhassett

We left Charleston and headed to Ohio to spend some time with family and friends. Our first stop was Marietta to see Nanc's sister Judy, along with Judy's daughter Betsy and her family. Next we moved fifty miles up I-77 to Seneca Lake to see our friends Jim and Darlene. While there we had a personal mail delivery from Georgie.

We got to spend some time with Emma, Besty, Lou and Jackie. The girls have really grown up since the last time we were here.

Lou and Betsy have a lot on the Muskingum River where we enjoyed an afternoon getting caught up while soaking up the warm sun.

We went with Judy to Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park near Parkersburg, WV. Access to the island requires a trip aboard the Island Belle, a real stern wheeler.

Nanc and Judy soaking up the sun on the Ohio River.

The river was up with all the recent rain, but there was still plenty of barge traffic. The current was so strong the boat in the foreground turned around and backed up so it could get into the Little Kanawha River. 

The island was the site of a plantation owned by Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett. The house was built in 1798 and was the center of social life in what was then the edge of the wilderness. The original house burned down in 1811 and was rebuilt in the 1980's.

Margaret and Harman. Harman was born into a wealthy family in England in 1765 and in 1794 he married Margaret. He was a member of the secret Society of United Irishmen, a group that planned to rebel against the British crown. Because of that threat, he fled to the United States and built their home on the island.

We opted to take a ride in the covered wagon to see more of the island. 

There are other houses on the island. This is the Putnam-Houser House that was built on the mainland in the 1800's. It was moved to the island on a barge in 1986. There is also an 1860's log house that is the home of the island caretaker.

The Neal House was built on the island in 1833 and was occupied until the 1930's. This house was visited by poet Walt Whitman.

The new house was reconstructed on the original stone foundation. The right wing is a den and and wine cellar. On the left is the kitchen.

Harman's desk in the den. Some of the furnishings were owned by the family while others are from that time period.

The dining room was the social center. Among the visitors were Henry Clay, Johnny Appleseed and Vice President Aaron Burr, who visited three times. Burr and Harman were later charged with treason. Burr thought the US would go to war with Spain so he put together a small band of 80 farmers who he planned to use to capture and claim land for himself. They were both acquitted, but they lost their wealth which they never reclaimed. Harman and his family moved back to Europe in 1824 and he died there in 1831.

The game room on the second floor. It is easy to see Harman and Margaret entertaining the many people who stopped on their way down the Ohio River.

The kitchen had many period items that would have been common in homes of the period. To me the Blennerhassett House is unique as it was such a grand home located on the edge of civilization. 

Margaret died in poverty in New York in 1846 and was buried in the Sisters of Charity cemetery in New York. In 1996 the bodies of her and her son, Harman Jr., were reburied on Blennerhassett Island.  

Looking down the Ohio River at Blennerhassett Island. When they lived there the water would get so low people could walk to the island.

The headquarters of the park, where you buy tickets to tour the island, is in Parkersburg. There is a museum that traces the history of the area from the first native inhabitants through the steamboat period. They have an excellent collection of arrowheads.

Old gas pumps and three old Fords; a Model A, Model T and a truck.

There is a extensive collection of steamboat models, pictures and artifacts of that period. The island, house and museum give an interesting look at history along the Ohio River that played such a huge role in the opening of the west.

On our last day in Marietta we had dinner with Judy, Emma, Jackie, Lou, and Betsy, along with Betsy's daughter and son-in law, Morgan and Matt. It was great seeing them all and checking out some new things in the area.

Our next stop was only fifty miles up the road in Senecaville where Jim and Darlene live. We even had a personal mail delivery by Georgie (middle) who drove out from WashPA. 

We had a fun time visiting with them. Here is master griller Joe, Jim and Darlene's son, cooking some salmon and steaks for all of us. I did fail to get a picture of Steve and Kristin, Jim and Darlene's daughter and son-in-law.

Nanc and Georgie getting caught up while playing games. Here they are playing Upwards where Georgie ruled the day. It was great having her as a guest.

We even celebrated Georgie's birthday. Unfortunately, Darlene was not feeling well and missed the dinner. It has been a great trip north getting to see so many friends and family along the way.

We are now settled in for our three month stay at Pine Cove near WashPA. We do have two or three more posts about our stops after we left Senecaville on the way to WashPA.