After visiting the Big Muskie Bucket, I continued to ride to the Southwest to the town of McConnelsville. At McConnelsville, I paralleled the Muskingum River and rode into Zanesville toward my parent’s house.

I did take a quick detour to the Y-Bridge Overlook Park on the side of the river that is opposite to downtown.

Full Albums
Ride to Alledonia, Ohio
Best Western Caldwell Inn
Shenandoah Airship Wreckage Site
Big Muskie Bucket
Ride from McConnelsville to Zanesville
LCC’s Rides Collection

When I was growing up, we used to drive down into Noble County to go fishing in the ponds that were created by reclaiming the land that had been strip mined for coal. The ponds were all stocked with fish by American Electric Power as part of the reclamation process.

From time to time, we would drive past the Big Muskie. When it was built, the Big Muskie was the world’s largest earth moving machine. It was considered to be one of the “Seven Engineering Wonders of the World.”

The behemoth dragline became too expensive to operate in the early 1990′s and was finally dismantled in 1999.

AEP created the Miner’s Memorial Park on a rise above a valley that had been reclaimed and placed the Big Muskie’s 220-cubic-yard bucket there.

Their intention was to preserve the bucket “as a monument to the men and women who worked the mines of southeastern Ohio. The bucket will become the centerpiece of a display that will tell visitors about the Big Muskie, surface mining and reclamation in the area.”

This thing is huge! The amazing thing is that even the bucket looks tiny when compared to the entire machine. Take a look at this photo to see what I mean.

For more information, visit: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2184 and http://www.aep.com/newsroom/newsreleases/?id=572

Full Albums
Ride to Alledonia, Ohio
Best Western Caldwell Inn
Shenandoah Airship Wreckage Site
Big Muskie Bucket
Ride from McConnelsville to Zanesville
LCC’s Rides Collection

The United States once had four zeppelins in its arsenal. To brag about it’s state of the art flying machines, the Navy sent the USS Shenandoah to fly across the midwest to state fairs.

Less than a day after it started it’s trek, it flew into a thunderstorm and crashed. Wreckage was spread across much of Noble County. Unbelievably, a majority of those on the airship survived the crash.

The areas where the wreckage landed have been made into roadside parks.

I didn’t know that Wreckage Site 3 was along the route that I was taking until I passed it. I did a quick U-turn and rode back to the memorial.

Wreckage Site 3 was were the bow section of the USS Shenandoah came to rest.

For more information, visit: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10432

Full Albums
Ride to Alledonia, Ohio
Best Western Caldwell Inn
Shenandoah Airship Wreckage Site
Big Muskie Bucket
Ride from McConnelsville to Zanesville
LCC’s Rides Collection