The quest to add new Ohio spots to my county counting list continued, padding my efforts from earlier in the day. The wide arc I took around the perimeter of Columbus swung from north, clockwise, now approaching due-east. The route now led into Licking County.
Getting Licked
Licking wasn’t completely unfamiliar because I’d been there before. However, I’ve never actually stopped within its borders. That’s because Licking is an “interstate county“, and by definition easily accessible and navigated. Anyone driving on Interstate 70 can slice through the bottom of Licking from side-to-side (map). I’ve probably spent a half-hour in Licking County on several occasions but only on the highway. This time would be different. I cut through the northeast corner and stopped multiple times.
The name seemed unusual, and I wondered if matched a familiar Appalachian / Midwestern pattern. Numerous place names throughout the wider area reference salt licks. Bison once congregated at the licks until people of European descent decimated them. My search found that the county name may indeed reference a salt lick, derived from the Licking River. So I’ll call that a win.
Shoults Bridge
Eventually nearly every one of my county counting adventures leaves a paved roadway and winds up on a gravel path. Often the story involves the hunt for a remote covered bridge. Case in point, I couldn’t see Shoults Covered Bridge (map) without driving on gravel.
It’s also called the Girl Scout Camp Covered Bridge because it takes Girl Scout Camp Road across Wakatomika Creek. There may or may not be an actual Girl Scout camp nearby; I didn’t see one. To add to the confusion, the nearest settlement is Fallsburg and it falls within Fallsbury Township, and it’s postal address is Frazeysburg, which is actually in Muskingum County. Anyway, the bridge dates to 1879 and it’s pretty.
Gregg Mill Bridge
I could have backtracked to the welcoming pavement of Route 586 (Pleasant Valley Road), gone south a couple of miles, and then cut over to the Gregg Mill Bridge (map). That probably made sense. But I was committed to the gravel path and it took about the same time. In return, I followed the rim of a deep hollow through dense forest. Sometimes I passed a driveway or a mailbox but otherwise it felt like a lost world. I wondered if this is what Hull had to clear on his march to Detroit in 1812.
Gregg Mill Bridge also crossed Wakatomika Creek, pretty close to Shoults Bridge as the crow flies. However there’s no direct path between the two unless someone wants to float down the creek. It’s also a slightly newer bridge, dating to 1881, and reconstructed in 1992.
Old Fool Brewery
We’d driven about five hours already, done a ton of exploring, and still had about an hour to go. It felt like time for a little break. So we stopped at Old Fool Brewery (map) which somehow emerged along our obscure route through Licking County. The mailing address is Newark, Ohio, but it’s not really there. Newark is like a half-hour away. Actually the brewery isn’t near anything. I don’t even know how it can exist but I was happy to add it to my list. The gravel driveway led up a steep slope that didn’t offer a lot of confidence but it terminated at a surprisingly nice place.
It was doing good business to, with a bunch of regulars who obviously enjoyed hanging out there. It was a nice crowd for a Sunday afternoon. I guess the location made more sense than I thought. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long so we split a flight of small pours, went on our way, and left Licking County behind.
McConnelsville
We made overnight reservations in McConnelsville, Ohio. My criteria were pretty simple: McConnelsville was about halfway home and it looked cute. Later I found out that Ohio Magazine honored McConnelsville as one of its five Best Hometowns for 2024. By sheer coincidence it also honored Millersburg, my overnight stop during the earlier drive in May. Maybe I just have an affinity for stumbling upon quaint rural towns?
Morgan County Dungeon
McConnelsville is the seat of local government for Morgan County, and anchors its population along with Malta, a sister town directly across the Muskingum River.
We stopped briefly in Malta to see the Morgan County Dungeon (map). It’s not much but it’s worth a thirty second photo shoot in an area with few competing attractions. I didn’t even stop long enough to turn off the car. I wouldn’t change plans to see the dungeon but it was here and I didn’t have anything better to do. So why not?
I’m feeling lazy so I’ll borrow directly from the nearby historical marker.
“Prisoners convicted of rioting, larceny and adultery in Morgan County between 1833 and 1839 were confined in a dungeon near the Court House in McConnelsville. This stone vault, 11 feet high, 5 feet wide and 12 feet long, was discovered in 1964 and is believed to have been used as the county dungeon.”
And from there we drove across the river and entered McConnelsville.
Walking in Town
We stayed at an Airbnb property above a store near the center of town, on Main Street. McConnelsville isn’t large although it has a nice, walkable historic district with a variety of shops and restaurants. Some of the buildings date to the early days of Ohio, as far back as the 1830’s. I’ll bet McConnelsville is one of those romantic weekend getaway destinations for people living in Columbus, or maybe even Dayton or Pittsburgh. They’re not that far away and the town sort-of had that vibe. Even so, it was quiet on a Sunday evening; the sidewalks rolled up pretty early.
Old Bridge Brewing
A lot of the places were closed by the time we arrived but the brewery was open! Who am I kidding? I already knew that McConnelsville had a brewery and I’d already checked the hours. We would probably eat here even if nothing was closed.
So we walked a couple of blocks down to Old Bridge Brewing, which was indeed set by an old bridge (photo), the same one we crossed after seeing the dungeon. The brewery had a surprisingly nice Italian menu in addition to its beers.
Big Muskie
Then, stuffed with pasta, we slept soundly in our perch above Main Street, and woke up for the final push home. I had two more quick stops planned before the interstate. The first one brought us to Miners Memorial Park a few miles east of McConnelsville, the home of Big Muskie (map). I didn’t realize Ohio had a coal industry but apparently it’s a thing.
The Big Muskie isn’t a fish, although typically Muskie is a nickname for Muskellunge, a freshwater pike native to the area. Rather it was a massive dragline excavator twenty-two stories tall used for open pit mining. Most of the rig sold for scrap in the 1990’s but the bucket remains. Notice the stairs leading into the bucket for a sense of its enormous scale, and imagine the crane that swung it. I don’t think they have to worry about anyone trying to steal it.
I’m a sucker for these oddball attractions.
U.S.S. Shenandoah
The Hindenburg takes the prize for aviation disasters involving lighter-than-air vessels. However, the United States had an earlier catastrophe in 1925 with the destruction of the U.S. Navy airship Shenandoah.
The Shenandoah was on a nationwide promotional tour when a line of thunderstorms ripped it into three large chunks outside of Caldwell, Ohio. It was filled with helium rather than hydrogen so at least it didn’t go down in flames. Nonetheless, fourteen members of the crew died. A small memorial marks Wreckage site 3 — the Ernest Nichols Farm — along the roadside on our path (map).
We finally reached Interstate 77 a few minutes later and continued onward towards home. We’d crammed quite a bit of sightseeing into the first part of our trip, and this one too. Now I have only six Ohio counties remaining, all clustered tightly together near the northwest corner of the state. I should be able to knock them out in a single swipe and finish the state on my next trip.
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