Europe and the Steelworker
 The “Steelworker” stands guard in front of Niles Iron and Metal Company in Niles, Ohio.
Let’s recap.
So far I have told you of my visits to the Carter Family Fold, the
Crabapple Museum, the Tamarack arts and crafts emporium, Grave Creek
Indian Mound, Mount Pleasant Meetinghouse, Old Fort Steuben, and the
murals of Steubenville.
After leaving Steubenville, I continued north on Ohio Route 7, my next intended stop being the Morgan surrender monument, which was listed on my atlas as being on Route 518.
As I headed north I saw a sign that read, “Toronto, Next 3 Exits.” What?! Had I been mysteriously teleported to Canada? Was I in the Twilight Zone? Had space aliens kidnapped me, put me to sleep, operated on me and then, forgetting where they had captured me, set me back down on a highway in Canada? Eh?
Nah, I was just driving by the small town of Toronto, Ohio. As I write this, I am reminded of my 1994 trip, when I passed through the burg of Louisiana, Missouri. This was one of those places that includes the town’s population on the city limits sign. At the time, the town of Louisiana had a population of 4,000. I decided to take a picture of the sign to show to people as a joke.
Well, I showed it to someone and, as comedian Dave Barry would say, “I am not making this up,” this individual replied in all seriousness, “I thought there were more people than that in Louisiana.”
Well, shortly after I was reasonably assured that I was, in fact, still in Ohio and not Canada, lo and behold, I got off the main highway and saw a directional sign pointing to Lisbon to the right and Liverpool to the left. By the way, this was just after I had passed through the town of Glasgow.
Just imagine, from Canada to Europe in 20 minutes. Not even the Concorde was that fast.
Now back to the Morgan surrender monument. From what I had read on the Internet, this was the spot where Confederate cavalryman and raider John Hunt Morgan was captured by Union forces in 1863.
Last year I wrote about my visit to the Lexington, Kentucky cemetery, where Morgan is buried. I also wrote about his famous cavalry raid into the north, so I won’t go into details here.
I searched for the monument but, even a seasoned traveler can’t find everything, and, after a fruitless search along several miles of Route 518,1 turned around in defeat and went back the way I came, back to the main highway. Unlike in 1863, this time Morgan got away.
Despite all of my planning and preparation for a trip, there are some things, like the surrender monument, that I end up not getting to visit. By the same token, sometimes I come across an unusual piece of Americana that 1 never knew existed.
Such was the case just north of Europe. My next stop after giving up the hunt for John Hunt was the small city of Niles, a suburb of the larger industrial city of Youngstown. As I neared the birthplace of William McKinley, our 25th president, a giant of a man appeared to my left.
This was one of those turn-around-to-get-a-closer-look moments. So, what do you think I did? I turned around to get a closer look.
The giant man turned out to be an iron statue standing guard in front of the Niles Iron and Metal Company. The nameplate on the base of the statue says, “Steelworker.” The whole sculpture is made of what looks to be old tire rims. It stands about 10 to 12 feet tall.
The Steelworker is like the Gaffney Peachoid in the sense that you cannot help but notice it. I left the Steelworker to drive the mile or so to the birthplace of McKinley, who was president during the Age of Steel.
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Next Installment - William McKinley
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