The Morgantowner: Carroll County, Ohio

You wouldn't think that Ohio was in Appalachia, but Carroll County, Ohio, seems to be as Appalachian as anyplace in West Virginia or Kentucky. Wikipedia said it is the most polluted county in Ohio. I suggested to the tourist lady that she could edit that out, and apparently she did. Carroll County has more fracking wells than any place in Ohio.

It's 115 miles from Morgantown to Carrollton, the county seat of Carroll County. In my rule book, I would spend one night, but I decided to bend the rules for a county of only 28,000 people, and come home the same day. On the back roads I traveled, there are little towns of maybe twenty buildings, half of them vacant, with people sitting on the porches of the other houses in the middle of a weekday, looking like they have no place to be.

The hills aren't mountains, but steep and forested. The valley floors are used for agriculture and there are immense silver-colored machines off in the fields in places, used for the oil and gas industry.

There are eleven places on The National Register of Historic Places. Two are south of Carrollton, three are in town, and the others are to the north. The first I reached was Kilgore Union Presbyterian Church, just south of the community of Kilgore in Loudon Township, and built around 1828, early for this part of the country. It sits empty and sealed up.

Petersburg Mill is south of Carrollton, and is a museum where they have festivals on some summer weekends. In addition to the mill and outbuildings there is a Victorian farmhouse. I took a picture there, but lately my Samsung Galaxy S7 wants to erase my pictures without my permission. I can't figure it out.

I made it to Carrollton about 12:30. The town lies on Ohio Route 43, between Cleveland on Lake Erie and Steubenville on the Ohio River. Northwest of Carrollton, the closest city is Canton. Public Square is the center of Carrollton, the median of combined Routes 43 and 9. Stores line the streets, and the historic McCook House sits at the south end of the square; Carroll County Courthouse, constructed in 1885, is on the east side. Main Street passes along the north side of the square.

I had lunch at Donna's Deli, on the west side of Public Square. I hopelessly looked for something low-fat on the menu, but gave up and had a smoked turkey and cheddar sandwich on toasted packaged rye with cranberry mayonnaise. They offered homemade potato salad, cole slaw and pea salad, but I went with a bag of chips. The sandwich was yummy, and big enough for at least two more people. The people who worked there were friendly and enthusiastic.

The other restaurant on the square, two doors up, had a sign that welcomed people carrying concealed weapons and said "Thank you for protecting us."

After lunch, I headed to the visitor's bureau on the corner of the square. I chatted with the woman there. She told me there had been no water problems with the fracking in the area. She recommended the stores along Main Street.. There is a Ben Franklin 5 &10, full of sewing things, candy, and lots of patriotic paraphernalia. The bakery next door had pastries and brownies. I went for a raspberry iced chocolate chip brownie, despite being full. Across the street is a farm toy store, selling toy tractors, pick up trucks and farm implements. The woman in the store had a big yellow dog with her. The dog saw the uneaten brownie in my hand, and looked interested. I stuck the brownie in my pocket. The woman thought I would be afraid of the dog or worried about her shedding on me. I told her I wasn't afraid and the dog and I became friends after a time.

Like everyone I met in Carrollton, the store lady was friendly and wanted to talk. We talked about politics. She is conservative, but not happy about the healthcare proposals, and how companies declared bankruptcy, robbed workers of their benefits, and kept going. Anyway, I bought a toy antique tractor to put on my desk, if I can ever clear a spot for it.

Politico says Carroll County voted 70% for Trump, and that combined with the fracking, and the Wikipedia article that used to say it was the most polluted county in the state made me not want to go. Still, people were unfailingly polite, I had a yummy high-calorie sandwich and a brownie at local places. I'm glad I went.

Carrollton is more impacted by truck traffic than Morgantown. A truck stopped traffic for ten minutes as I left the visitor center, trying to make a sharp turn off the square. There is no bypass to the town; there are no four-lane roads in the county.

I drove out Main Street, where there is a gas station and a few exuberant Victorian houses. The chain stores were north on 43, including a full grocery store run by Dollar General. I was going home late in the afternoon, so I thought I would check out the historic train station in Minerva, at the north end of the county. Most of Minerva is in Stark County, where Canton is the main town. I found the train station, now apparently only a drop-off spot for the Salvation Army, then headed a few blocks north to find US 30. From there it was 122 miles home. I arrived just after six P.M.