XOBA

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BL4nsjVT4/ We road this stretch last week on the way to Newark. Amazing how fast things can change!

Lancaster Ohio

XOBA has been Outdoor Pursuits best-kept-secret for decades: a full-service, border-to-border experience that changes routes/regions every year. The mileage and terrain is reasonable, usually about 65 miles/day. The 2025 route will go from Ironton, OH to Powhatan Point, OH (south of Wheeling). Host communities will include - Waverly, Wilmington, Circleville, Newark, New Concord, and Woodsfield. Find out more at https://outdoor-pursuits.org/xoba/.

Out route checking today. It will be a lovely ride. These will be even prettier once the trees green up again! I wanted to take a picture of the Knockemstiff sign just for Leon (who wouldn't see it anyways because he is not on Facebook), but there was no sign,

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1117239961643788&set=a.1083419241692527

The Bellaire, Zanesville, and Cincinnati Railroad

SIDE 1:

While it served a vital role in the Monroe County life, by 1886 the BZ&C had defaulted on its construction bonds and entered the first of many receiverships. Its 300 trestles and bridges were expensive to maintain; frequent landslides added to operating costs. Only the coal and oil booms of the 1890s, along with convoluted financing schemes, kept the railroad operating into the 20th century; a benefit for the people of Monroe County if not its stockholders. Reborn as the Ohio River and Western (locally called the "Old, Rusty, and Wobbly" in 1902, it continued to operate at a loss until the Great Depression. Hundreds turned out in Woodsfield on Memorial Day 1931 for the final run. Ohio's longest-lived narrow gauge railroad, it had lasted 52 years. This is the site of the former BZ&C rail yards.

SIDE 2:

Monroe County's rugged terrain hindered commerce and communication during the 1800s. In the early 1870s Woodsfield businessmen, led by banker Samuel L. Mooney, promoted a narrow-gauge railroad to connect to the Baltimore and Ohio at Bellaire. Narrow gauge railroads were popular during this boom era because they cost less to build and operate than standard-gauge lines and could traverse sharp curves and steep terrain. The Bellaire and Southwestern Railway was completed through Armstrong's Mills and Beallsville to Woodsfield in December 1879, giving Monroe County a welcome modern link to the rest of the country. Its initial success prompted its extension westward, and it was soon renamed the Bellaire, Zanesville, and Cincinnati Railway, reaching Zanesville via Caldwell in late 1883.