Sunday, June 8, 2008

last saturday in athens

It was hot and humid yesterday so instead of hiding in the apartement with the AC, Lily, Aaron and I decided to go for a drive through Hocking County. We stopped at a place called Hope Furnace. In 1854 Hope Furnace was built to produce iron, and it remained in operation until 1875. Civil War weapons were made from the iron that came from the furnace. The Hope Furnace operated 24 hours a day when in use, but shortly after the end of the Civil War the furnaces were abandoned.


I found this on a website about the furnace:

“The Hope Furnace is supposedly haunted by one of the company’s watchmen. On a dark, stormy night in 1870 one of the watchmen was blinded by some lightning that struck close by. He couldn’t see where he was walking, and he fell into one of the large iron furnaces. The hot, molten iron ore burned through his body and he literally melted! Today people claim to see his ghost walking around the remaining furnace carrying a lantern on stormy nights.”


We saw more bikers, bugs and mud than ghosts. The furnace is really big and the home to tiny blue-tailed lizards.

On the way back to Athens, we stopped in a video store that was going out of business. I was strange to see the shelves of a movie rental place so bare. My favorite part of this shop was the faux walk of fame that went through the middle of the store. Aaron and Lily both left with a movie in hand. For keeps.

The rest of the night was spent with friends. We all went over to South Green to check out this years Lobster Fest, the music festival that is put on by ACRN, the student run radio station. Andrew W K was headlinging but he failed to bring the party. We watched his first three songs then decided to skip out and take a trip to Taco Bell. Soft tacos and air conditioned cars beat out Andrew W K any day.

Posted by Elisha Lynn at 22:25:20 | Permalink | No Comments »