Bill Moose Crowfoot and Flat Stanley

This Memorial sits on 3.5 acres of land at 2875 Lane Road in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The land originally donated by the city of Columbus is comprised of 39 granite boulders taken from The Scioto Riverbed and stands just over 9 feet tall. The tower of granite boulders resembles a TeePee. The memorial sits on a rise a short distance from Scioto River Road which follows The Scioto River. A fitting location since Bill Moose Crowfoot often walked these grounds, fished and hunted these grounds. He lived on the land as he learned from his father.
A short bio of Bill Moose under glass stands at the park entrance. (click to enlarge). Bill lived to be almost 100 years old, as did both his parents. His father died in 1871 at 100 years of age, his mother the following year in 1872 at the age of 106. Both are buried in The Indiana Cemetery in Upper Sandusky.
This small photo (original housed at The Ohio Historical Society) is curled and faded over time is visible beside the above bio of Bill Moose. The fancy headdress and beads were worn when people wanted a photograph. These were given to Bill during the 9 years he was employed by The Sells Brothers Circus as an Indian Rider in The Wild West Act. Beyond living off the land, Bill's income consisted of having his photo taken, selling postcards and trinkets and teaching children Indian Crafts.
The park is pretty with wild flowers covering his grave and walled in with The TeePee Memorial facing The Scioto River and Scioto River Road. A paved walking path, small picnic area, and bench provide a peaceful spot to reflect on Bill's life.

Bill here telling stories to a group of young boys, an apparent common sight at his shack. I've read accounts of Bill having lunch at The Wyandot Country Club (where the blind and deaf school now are located), the Railroad allowed him to continue living on land they owned. This area is now Clintonville; even though the residences of Dublin want to claim him as their own. Bill and his family stayed in Ohio, one of only 12 families to do so when the tribe moved west to Kansas and Oklahoma.
As the tribe moved westward and inter-married with other tribes there were no longer full blooded Wyandots, except those few left here in Ohio. One by one they perished. Bill outlived his tribe and was the last known living Full Bloodied Wyandot Indian in the state and the territory. He died just 2 months short of turning 100. The last 7 years of his life he lived in the Franklin County Home, too aged to continue living off the land. His shack became a children's playhouse.

His funeral was attended by thousands who lined The Scioto River Bank to witness his full ceremonial burial, the largest funeral on record for The Rutherford Funeral Home. He layed in state for 5 days from July 13th through the 18th in 1937. In a short bio Bill mentioned he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and was a republican. Bill never married but lived a long and very full life. He was well liked and respected by thousands. The two hands in friendship on his memorial seem most fitting.

Activities the kids could enjoy and help them remember and learn from this adventure:

1. go to a stream, riverbed, creek and let the kids collect rocks. Get some glue and let them building their own teepee style memorial
2. color pictures
3. make word puzzles
4. make vocabulary lists of new words from the adventure
5. paint rocks with a design, shaking hands for example
6. string beads and make a necklace or bracelet
   

As always if you missed any of Flat Stanley's adventures, now's the time to catch up:

• April 23, 2010 Books and Parks (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• April 30, 2010 Traitor or Hero (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 7, 2010 Flat Stanley and his friend Captain Pinney (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 14, 2010 First Flight and Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 21, 2010 Up The Indian Mound with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• May 28, 2010 Flat Stanley goes to Camp (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• May 31, 2010 Honoring Those who Served on Memorial Day (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• June 12, 2010 Signs and Flat Stanley, (Worthington, Ohio)
• June 18, 2010 Breathe Easy with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• June 25, 2010 Stanley at The Masonic Museum (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 2, 2010 Special 4th of July with Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 9, 2010 Free Seats Available (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 16, 2010 Corn on the Cob and Flat Stanley (Dublin, Ohio)

See you next week, Friday August 6th for another Flat Stanley Adventure, bring the kids! Stay tuned, Flat Stanley has a cousin, Flat Bob who will be visiting in the next couple of weeks. You don't want to miss that.

Traveling Blog to Blog Business

I've not posted a new blog post for awhile purposely. I've been spending some time wedding out, cleaning up and trying to find a decent way to eliminate spam. I've deleted (almost all still working on it) comments that have nothing to do with the post at hand be they Chinese or Japanese ? characters, or non comments like visit my blog. Yes we all hope for blog walkers to take time and travel from one blog to another, to visit and read and make comments. We all love the interaction. Yes, the more people visit the more encouraged one is to visit their page so it's a two way street. All this internet travel is good, it's fun, and I encourage it. But....I will not visit your page when you leave a comment that says visit my page without taking the time to read or post anything appropriate to the blog post I made here. So, please if you're visiting make your comment (at least part of it) related to the blog post.

I've also been busy deleting lots of blogs on the DoFollow list. Some don't allow comments on their blogs which defeats the give and go spirit of being a Do Follow Blog, others have their blogs set to subscribe only--again that defeats the give and go spirt and they are also being deleted. Additionally blogs that have clearly not been updated are being deleted. I like giving the links, but only to real bloggers; not webpages, not dead end type blogs.

Flat Stanley will be back tomorrow as schedule with an adventure. And stay tuned in a couple of weeks, one of his cousin's is coming for a special visit. You'll not want to miss Flat Stanley's cousin, Flat Bob's visit.

As you make blog walk abouts, please pop into The Bridge and Beyond. A blog dedicated to knitting and crocheting for homeless is having a blog contest. You can win FREE yarn. The Bridge and Beyond is approaching a blogging milestone, 200 blog posts and is having the contest as a means of celebrating the milestone.

I never pack to travel without giving some thought to what yarn to pack, what yarn to accompanying me on the trip. With that said you might have noticed a new badge on my blog, The Hive. If not, do take a look. It's a wonderful new forum where creative people can get together, have fun, share ideas and learn from each other. I highly recommend it. It's easy, quick and very user friendly. Click here, or my cute little Bee in the sidebar.

Corn on the Cob and Flat Stanley, Dublin Ohio

This should start off your Friday with a laugh or at least a smile. Flat Stanley here next to 6 foot tall cement ears of corn. Don't rub your eyes you really are seeing lots and lots of these tall cement ears of corn. This is real, there are 109 such ears. I don't know why there are 109 to be exact. This "art"/joke can be seen at the corner of Frantz and Rings Roads in Dublin Ohio.

This is the first piece of public art The Dublin Arts Council paid for (with tax dollars mind you) and it got very mixed reviews. Many thought it was silly, some thought it was art, and to a few who knew why it was planted there it was historical. I've driven by the field of corn many times and wondered. I finally decided it was time to find out what the silly cement corn was all about. Sam Frantz used to farm here, (1935-1963) thus the name of the road. He was supposedly well known for his work with hybrid corns. I say supposedly, because living here some 50 years I've never heard this or run into anyone who knew this. Well known/famous I think perhaps only in very small circles of previous farmers? This location was a test field. The cement corn we see was made from 3 different molds by Malcolm Cochran in 1994 and is Corn Belt Dent Corn Hybrid.

Sam and his wife Eulalia donated this land after Sam retired from working with Ohio State University on hybridization projects. The Park is so named for them. I say park with tongue in cheek though, as I saw no sign indicating this was The Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, nor have I ever heard it referred to by that name. This 1/2 acre field does have a few benches and a row of Osage Orange Trees off to the very end of the corn art with plagues talking about hybridization; but I've never seen people using the area as a park. There's no parking lot, so it's not inviting to say take the family, play, and have a picnic. I left my car on the road that leads to lots of industrial business buildings.

The various information I found about the Corn Art indicated this was to remind people of the rich agriculture heritage of the area. I even found that a little odd, as Hilliard not Dublin has always and still is to some degree known for wonderful sweet corn. People would go driving in the country to buy fresh corn right off the farmers truck was common place up until a few years ago in Hilliard. In fact there are still stores that proudly display a big sign so locals will known when the fresh Hilliard Corn arrives. In all my years I've never seen a sign indicating there was fresh Dublin Corn. Dublin has become well known in the golf circles because of Jack Nicholas and The Muirfield Golf Tournment; but I always thought the corn field was misplaced when I drove by.

Going farther back in history, to times of Indians in the area though corn would indeed play a part, so perhaps those who spent public money on these giant ears of corn had the right idea after all. I ran into 2 young women on a road trip when I was there with Flat Stanley, they too left their car on the road as they took their photo's. They said they saw a funny picture and thought they'd come to check it out. Parking on the road ties up traffic, so it's hard to come and spend anytime exploring. Perhaps if you drive all the way to the back of the Industrial Parkway to leave your car and walk back to the field, you could spend time. I think kids and their furry friends might really enjoy running among the ears to burn up some energy. The plagues are flat to the ground and not really visible, and I only found them as I walked back to my car after the girls left. That too was probably because I was searching for a sign, it seemed odd to me there wasn't something posted to explain what the corn was all about; so I spent time to search it out; though I think it would and probably is easily missed the bulk of the time.

Ask the kids to make a list of all the things they can where corn comes into play. Draw corn, color corn (don't forget candy corn and Indian corn with the pretty colors). Measure the kids, cut string to represent their height and do the same for the 6 foot tall corn so they can see the relationship of size. Can they count to 109? For those that counting to 109 is easy for try having them count backwards. All of these fun activities help kids learn, and remember. Give them a calendar, have them mark on the calendar how many times in a given period of time you eat corn.

Until next week, Flat Stanley out.

Going to the Dogs, Breckenridge Colorado

Breckenridge Colorado is an active outdoor community with much to offer. I'll post about many activities in Breckenridge like skiing, kayaking, hiking etc; but this post is for all my friends with pets. With as much traveling as I do this is the first time I've seen a "special area like this". Look at that marvelous view of the mountains. You can enjoy beautiful blue skies, snow capped mountains while your dog can run, jump and chase in their very own very special Dog Park.

This park has more to offer then dogs catching flying freebies. There's a pavilion, tennis courts, picnic tables and more. There's nearly a full acre of land here at the park. Off on the edge of the park I noticed a trailhead for hikers.

This fabulous and very unique park is located just 4 blocks East of Main Street at the south end of High Street, super accessible. When I visited, it seemed visitors and locals alike were enjoying the area.

Free Seats available, Worthington Ohio

Flat Stanleys here with another Fun Friday with Flat Stanley adventure. St. John's Church was formed way back on Feb. 6th 1804. Can someone please do the math and tell me how old this church is? It indicates it's the First Episcopal Church established in the Northwest Territory. The sign tells us the church was completed in 1831. And that the historic graveyard in it's backyard was established with the burial of Captain Abner Pinney. You might know him, since he's a friend Stanley talked about before HERE.
This is the flip side of the sign Flat Stanley is showing you. The alter was brought with the original settlers and is still in use inside this historic little church on the corner of High Street and State Route 161 in Worthington, Ohio. The graveyard has 317 documented burials of which 5 are Revolutionary War Veterans and 7 are veterans of The War of 1812.
The church is The Gothic Revival Style. I've attended a wedding in this beautiful little church. Stanley wanted to show you the sign here beside the door. SEATS FREE! Anyone ever seen that listed outside a church before?
The bell for the church was also brought here by the first settlers and served the community well since it was used for more then church; but school as well. That same bell is perched high across the street from the church in the bell tower of the community's school.

Flat Stanley suggest the kids look for corner stones, and signs at churches near them to see how they are. Do they have a bell in the bell tower? Does the church have a small cemetery associated with it? Have the kids draw a church, discuss why in years past a cemetery was often associated with the church. How the church was used for community events, community meetings and the center of the community.

Kids love blocks, maybe they could build a church with their blocks. As you look for churches you can walk or ride your bikes too point out the various architectural styles.

As always doing activities with kids helps them learn and remember a location or event. Math, coloring, block building and discussion can be done to enhance to experience with so many of Flat Stanley's adventures.

If you missed any, catch up here:

• April 23, 2010 Books and Parks (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• April 30, 2010 Traitor or Hero (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 7, 2010 Flat Stanley and his friend Captain Pinney (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 14, 2010 First Flight and Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 21, 2010 Up The Indian Mound with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• May 28, 2010 Flat Stanley goes to Camp (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• May 31, 2010 Honoring Those who Served on Memorial Day (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• June 12, 2010 Signs and Flat Stanley, (Worthington, Ohio)
• June 18, 2010 Breathe Easy with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• June 25, 2010 Stanley at The Masonic Museum (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 2, 2010 Special 4th of July with Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)