Cache Owner captphil commissions a new officer in 12/2022, under the direct command of Dollar General. We are ready for a five-star tour.
On our final journey to points north, airplanes have started today’s game of Tic-Tac-Toe across a cerulean Etch-a-Sketch. Wiry godzillas collect detailed agronomic data from those who shepherd this soil, pushing carbon payment programs that will slowly edge out family-scale farms.
Our geodetour takes us to the heart of Mansfield for the last time. In 1888, Frank Black returns to his hometown. He is young and ready to work. With his Irish immigrant father, he opens a brass foundry. They flounder wildly in the panic of 1893, until a New England engineer, who knows how to run a business, moves west.
Over the next 30 years, 290 pages of catalogue and 1,100 Ohio Brass craftsmen will spread trolley cars across the nation. When Frank Black becomes president of OB in 1902, Engineer Charles follows as Vice President. Together they create electrical systems, using words like high tension, voltage transmission, and high capacity, to carry power to the whole nation, and from there, a massive power grid around the world.
Pride in workmanship, sound design, targeted sales, fairness, honesty, and skilled administration write the book for 21st century MBA programs.
In 1928, Charles, now Ohio Brass President, watches Kingwood Hall rise from Mansfield soil. He envisions a grand French châteaux, where music, dancing, flowers, and fine food will entertain European businessmen shopping for brass.
Tall chimneys, steep roofs, and curving walls deliver. Courtly beeches suitably frame a mansion meant to impress.
Fine china, mahogany furniture, devoted domestic staff,
hand-painted wallpaper, Waterford Crystal chandeliers, silver tea sets, bathrooms for each bedroom,
a home office with fresh-cut flowers, two rooms full of books, and tables with French glass legs frame Charles as a billionaire boy of his time and place.
Married first to a board member’s daughter, Charles goes through two divorces, both without children. Partying with young females becomes a public scandal.
When Charles dies in 1952, his will leaves Kingwood to the people of Mansfield. In 1953, it opens as a non-profit educational institution for horticulture and other community enrichment activities.
Today’s volunteers staff the house, work in gardens, host special events, and keep all things green alive in the heart of Mansfield.
Silent staff quarters, butler’s pantry and kitchen echo with whispers of the companies that grew up and moved out of Mansfield, and the brilliant minds behind them.
Kingwood greenhouses blush with color and beauty all year long, inspiring today’s urban gardeners to sprout new ways of bringing nature to the city.
Reluctantly we step from a very fun gift shop, back into quickly falling darkness. Our geotrail turns south from Mansfield, down Route 42, and east toward Clear Fork Reservoir.
Just above the lake, the Ohio Bird Sanctuary tweets an invitation. Blaze the peregrine falcon has a story to tell.
Presiding over this benevolent bird hospital, Mr. Blue Jay happily hosts nature camps and school programs. As long as you bring mealworms.
Even the cedar waxwing isn’t shy. Everyone is on board with helping families enjoy a three-dimensional, fresh air, unscripted reality.
Back on the road, we make our way around the lake. This week’s Saturday night date is cozy, cosmic, and cost-friendly.
Southwest of the reservoir, lemony yellow tells us the General has arrived.
Rations are looking good, and hungry troops are checking it out. Just turning 85 years old, a family-owned business, started by a high school dropout with $10,000, now operates 16,000 stores.
But the General orders us outside. Our Dime Captain is on duty, manning the light post.
Leaving a taffy bracelet for a captain who is still only three months old, we score our smiley.
Finding our way to the interstate, the world of unmarked blacktop and gravel crossroads fades into the rear-view mirror.
While Venus and Jupiter shine above, all around us glows a world of joy, daily work, camaraderie, the feel of the earth beneath one’s feet, the windows of home, and the bounty of hidden treasure.
OH Love Of Geocaching 