OHIO

The Eco-Camp, Swanton

The Eco Camp, a solar-powered yurt encampment, is a magical place invented and presided over by Alexander, a lovely man from a small town near Hamburg, in Northern Germany. The clear dome to the left below was a Covid-necessary measure: There is a communal cooking and hanging-out area (there are many of the latter, actually), but social distancing rules prevented that, so Alexander these installed individual tents at each campsite.

Above: My very own Rainbow Lounge. The table is a gas stove & grill! Right: My yurt. So comfortable, I spent most of my two days here, away from the 98-degree heat.

Yep, I mostly stayed in here, so here’s another shot. Or made silly selfies in my Rainbow Lounge. What else was there to do: the place was deserted, save for the charming host, Alex, and the air outside was stifling.

Scene: Exterior, path to shower building, located in the adjacent campground: mostly RVs, a few tents).

Me (to myself, observing the sign above): What the??

Scene: Exterior, Eco Camp, later that day.

Me: So, did you see that sign, “We’ve found Jesus. Go away.”? I mean, what the hell? For one thing, what is it about ‘Love they neighbor as thyself’ that they don’t get?

Alex (gently): I think you should read it again.

Me: Huh?

Alex: This is for the people selling magazines, or trying to get them to vote for this person or that person, or to pledge their lives to Jesus. They’re saying, We’re good. Leave us alone.

Me (chastened, deflated): Oh. Oops. I guess I assumed this was a bunch of intolerant right-wingers.

Alex: No! Not at all. That place is gay-owned. This place is gay-owned.

Me (shrinking further): Ah

Alex: There was only one guy — he lives right over there. He was flying an American flag, an Ohio flag, and a Confederate flag. I asked him, Why are you flying the American flag and the Confederate flag?

(aside) I can get away with those questions, because I’m a foreigner.

He said, ‘Well, cause I’m just a hick. I guess that’s just what you’d call the hick flag around here.’ But I said, ‘No. The Confederates were against the United States. They were the enemy. You’re flying the American flag and the enemy flag. It doesn’t make sense.

Me: What did he say?

Alex: He didn’t say much at the time. But a few days later, he took it down.

A far more professional video of the camp, from TheEcoCamp.com. Worth the trip!

Grand Rapids

The rich river land along the Maumee River between Swanton and Grand Rapids was the home of what are now known as Western Basin Early Woodland people; the Ottawa people moved here from Ontario and Quebec in the mid-1700s, in part to trade furs with the British. The British, of course, wanted to move in permanently, and in 1863, Pontiac led a rebellion to drive them out. After a year-long seige, the British forced the Ottawa to sign a peace treaty. “During the American Revolution, the Ottawa fought for the British against the Americans. When the British surrendered to the Americans, the British turned their backs on their American Indian allies. The Ottawas continued to fight the Americans” (ohiohistorycentral.org). Three more treaties forced them to give up huge areas of Michigan and Ohio until, in 1833, they were forced to give up all their lands in Ohio, and were sent to a reservation (“Indian Country”) in Kansas. The Ojibwe people, closely allied with the Ottawa, were also involved in the fur trade; they joined Pontiac’s army in its attempt to push out British settlers, and fought in the Revolutionary War on the British side. They also were forced to give up their lands in the Ohio Country, but retained some lands to around the Great Lakes in the present U.S. and Canada. See this link for the official website of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota: https://millelacsband.com/the town now known as Grand Rapids originated as Gilead in 1833.

Sunset on the Maumee River (Shawnee: Hotaawathiipi; Miami-Illinois: Taawaawa siipiiwi).

The couple above was having the most stilted conversation imaginable. This was either their first date or they were in the middle of a fight. Below: A barn across the street

Above left: Your basic contemporary ranch house; Above right: The barn across the street; Below: A painted (?) tree in a field — a rather grim version of about what you’d expect in Ohio. It’s not all this, though: cf. The Eco-Camp.

Council Bluffs

“Council Bluffs is much the smaller city [compared to Omaha] and the Bluffs from which it takes its name are not steep river embankments as we had supposed, but a high residence-crowned hill behind and above its innumerable railroad stations. Nothing, by the way, seems more typical of American towns than to have a “residential district” on the “heights.”

— Emily Post, By Motor to the Golden Gate (1916)

Several fine 19th-century homes still stand on “The Heights,” including the 1869 Grenville Dodge House (above), originally the home a Union Army general, politician, and railroad entrepreneur/robber baron. I spent two lovely nights at the 1888 Martin Hughes House, built by a wealthy brick merchant who built the house to display his handiwork; each face of the exterior (below left) [is built with a different brick style or pattern.] The interior includes original stained glass (below right). Bottom left, the house in the 1920s. For more on the Martin Hughes House, check out https://martinhugheshouse.org/

Downtown Council Bluffs, struggling during the pandemic (and likely before), but scrappy.

Along the Missouri

“Omaha … is divided from Council Bluffs by the coffee--colored Missouri. How can as much mud as that be carried down current all the time and leave any land above, or any river below!” — Emily Post, 1916