Road Trip 2021 - The road home

Having completed what we could on the house it was time to think of the return trip.  Fran wanted to delay a day for a round of golf with her brother and I wanted to delay another day to visit the Carillon.

The Carillon

I got the RV ready while Fran golfed.  The next day we hopped on the bikes for a ride to the Carillon.

John Patterson

The ride through the Hills-n-Dales area is very much park-like with lots of hiking trails.

I blogged the Carillon in detail a few years ago HERE.

But first a correction on that post.  The dog on the carrousel is not Orville Wright’s dog,  Scripio is owned by Deeds and is the mascot during the founding of DELCO.

Scripio

All the rides on the carrousel are related to Dayton's history.

The Pierce Bicycle (no relation) was the first to use shaft drive and full suspension.  Later they made the Pierce-Arrow automobiles.

Pierce Bicycle

New at the Carillon is the Light Tower from NCR’s Old River Park.

Back-in-the-day Fran and I canoed at Old River.  Now to be part of University of Dayton.

The Wright Flyer, the one that actually flew at Kitty Hawk is at the Carillon.  This 1905 Wright Flyer III is considered the world’s first practical airplane, and the only airplane to receive national historic recognition.

There are replicas at the Smithsonian and at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton.  I have blogged the USAF Museum HERE. 

When/if you do visit the USAF Museum, be sure not to miss the only known Wright Brothers Women’s Bicycle.  When I first asked Information Desk where the bicycle was located the response "We're an Air Force Museum, why would we have a bicycle?".  It is now on prominent display in the heritage area.

We’re finally on the road!, we took the central route west on US 40.  Having read “Killers of the Flower Moon” I wanted to visit the Osage Nation. 

The murders of the Osage People for a bit of money is one of the blackest atrocities against Native Americans in the 20th century.

There are videos on YouTube and an upcoming Martin Scorsese movie that will provide more enlightenment.

Bill Hale was edited out of a tribal photo on the wall at the Osage Museum.  I tried as gently as I could to enquire of the docent at the museum of those dark days, and she began to cry.  Memories are still very painful for these people a century later.

After 4 trials Bill Hale was convicted of only one murder, although the BOI (Bureau of Investigation – later to become the FBI) was convinced he was responsible for some 24 murders.

The Osage Nation has well over 100 suspicious deaths during the Reign of Terror.  None of the other deaths have been investigated, let alone prosecuted.

I was asked not to take pictures by a sobbing docent, hence we have only memories of our visit.

But I will show you why the natives were murdered …

money!  Their oil rights.  Getty Oil, Phillips Petroleum and others all made millions on Osage lands.  Phillips Petroleum maintains a large presence there still.  The surface of the reservation is controlled by the US Government, but Osage maintain the rights below the surface.  Making them the only 'underground reservation' in the nation.

We did not stop in the Tribal Capital of Pawhuska (PAW-hus-ka), where more information may have been found.

 

Instead we continued west through the tallgrass prairie.  Didn't see any buffalo.

When we stopped for the night we had these beautiful butterflies visit our site.  They are not swallow tails, know of any other black butterflies?

We made a brief stop at the Bug Ranch in Conway TX to stretch our legs.

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Not really worth the time …

We whipped past the 72 oz. steak at The Big Texan in Amarillo, but did stop at Cadillac Ranch.

There is a vender selling spray paint cans.  We did not buy one as there were quite a few left at the trash cans, where Fran left our mark.

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Passing into New Mexico is Russell's Travel Center.  WOW! now that’s an underrated find.  I did not take a picture of the 50s themed diner, but the FREE museum is just awesome!

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Another day ... and it’s Fran’s birthday!  We did not make it home in time to celebrate.  But I did buy her a Date Shake!

And she could choose her lunch spot, as she drives on the last leg home.

The restaurant at the Golden Acorn was closed. :(

We’re home now and getting settled back into our routine.  We both have books to pick up at the Pacific Beach Library.  We’d like to bike the bay and just check out any changes from our 3 months on the road.
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Carillon Historical Park - The Heritage of Dayton

Over 3 decades ago Fran first took me to Carillon Historical Park.  I thought it was a silly idea to recreate what either already existed, or was given away.  For instance Henry Ford relocated the Wright family home and the brothers original factory to his museum in Dearborn.  The Wright Bicycle Shop was still on W 3rd Street when it was recreated at the Carillon.  OK that was not the best part of town 30 years ago (Fran didn’t get out of the car!), it is now a National Historic Site and restored by the NPS.  You can read about our visit in my blog HERE.

I did not return to the Carillon until 2015.  Now I’d say if you only have one day to ‘discover’ Dayton there’s no better place.  As a museum of local history it has become an outstanding venue.

The carillon was built by the prominent Deeds family, who also donated the land.


The most successful of the early Dayton manufacturing was National Cash Register (NCR).  The NCR’s museum of cash registers was moved to the Carillon as University of Dayton expanded, moving onto the old NCR property.


In 1921 Frigidaire began production in Dayton.  Fran’s dad spent his career there.  Over the years Frigidaire became a household name, until the last unit rolled off the line in late 1970s.  It was signed by the remaining employees as the plant was shut down.


The working carousel features historic items of Dayton’s past and present.  Orville Wright’s dog, Ester Price chocolates, Mike-sells Potato Chips, etc.


Mead Paper, McCall Magazine, Reynolds and Reynolds all got their start in Dayton


Another interesting Dayton startup is the Dayton Computing Scale Company.  In 1911 it merged with 3 other local companies to form Computing-Tabulating-Recording Corporation.  Thomas J. Watson left NCR to become CTR’s first president.  Watson changed the name to International Business Machines (IBM).  IBM’s Jeopardy winning computer Watson is named for its first president.


The Liberty 12 aircraft engine was the workhorse of WWI.  No one facility could keep up with the demand with engines being produced thought the Midwest.


The oldest standing building in Dayton, the Newcom Tavern was moved to the Carillon Museum and is again open to the public.


Dayton once had 14 automobile makers, many are on display, here’s a few of my favorites to drive home.





The year Fran’s mother was born was 1913, the year of the Great Dayton Flood that left much of Dayton under nearly 20 feet of water.



Patterson had NCR shift into support/rescue mode.  The factory floor began to manufacture flat bottom rescue boats.  The cafeteria was staffed 7/24 offering a hot meal to anyone who was hungry.



One building is dedicated to the Huffman Manufacturing Company that made its Huffy bicycles here until 1999, when foreign competition forced them to close.  The Huffy collection is now displayed at the Carillon.



Iron works were a part of Dayton’s past, including the Columbia Bridge Works, where pieces of a bridge were made and then shipped to and assembled on site, now a common engineering design.


The Miami and Erie Canal connected Dayton to Cincinnati in 1829.  A local section of the locks are on display.


In my opinion the gem of the Carillon Park is Wright Hall,


which includes a replica of the cycle shop …

and the brothers efforts at obtaining powered flight …


And Drum-Roll - it also houses the original 1905 Wright Flyer III, the world’s first airplane.  The plane was reassembled under the supervision of Oriville Wright.  A piece of strut and the muslin wing coverings were replaced the remainder of the plane is original.  Take that Smithsonian!, this is the original Wright Flyer III.  Oriville did not live to see his flyer restoration completed, but did oversee the reassembly and design of the display.





If you’ve worked up a thirst or appetite walking the Carillon grounds there’s Carillon Brewing next door with ‘Hearty Fare’ and historical beers.


I went for a sampler flight, which comes with raspberry syrup – the beers are strong and hoppy.  The sampler is heavy on German fare, but it does have vegies too – look close there’s a bit of pickled beet and a few midget pickles.



Another fun fact:  The Dayton Triangles won what is considered the first NFL game, October 3 1920 on their home field at Triangle Park, defeating the Columbus Panhandles 14-0.