This September we climbed aboard The Col. James M. Schoonmaker. The ship was built at the Great Lakes Engineering Works of Ecorse, Michigan and launched on July 1, 1911. In 1987 the city of Toledo purchased the ship to become a museum ship tourist attraction and that is how we came to be aboard it.
We stopped to visit American sharpshooter Annie Oakley’s grave. Oakley starred in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show where she shot holes in playing cards that had been thrown in the air before they touched the ground. One of her most famous tricks was looking in a mirror to shoot distant targets behind her.
We went to Bear's Mill. Built in 1849 by Gabriel Baer it is still one of the few operating water-powered mills left in Ohio. We received a guided tour from their apprentice and then stopped and purchased some yellow cornmeal and Rye flour on the way out.
We toured the property of author Gene Stratton Porter, known as the Cabin at Wildflower Woods and the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site. I have a large collection of Porter's books. The cabin was designed by her and completed in 1914.
My grandparents had a windmill on their farm which I always looked for as we approached the property. We learned about the history of windmills and wind power at The Mid American America Windmill Museum.
I reviewed one book during the month OM for the HOME - by Carrie Leskowitz
and posted an interview with Allen Wolfe.