April 4, 2019

THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019

Southeast Ohio’s news deserts P9

Coal towns rise from the ashes P12

Chillicothe’s 7 Miles Smokehouse P14

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

Finding a balance when covering our region

LAUREN FISHER EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Sometimes, when the weight of class, work, job hunting and everything else starts to eat at me, I like to hop in my little black Nissan and take a ride outside the Athens city limits.

This year, I’ve particularly become a fan of throwing a book in my backpack and making the drive out to Strouds Run State Park. It’s not a long drive by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s just enough to get the feeling that you’re far enough away from the monotonous loop of classroom, office, home. Living in a region so rich in beauty as this one, we’d be remiss not to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

My aimless drives have reminded me that my curiosity about this region will never cease. One February trip, just after a week of heavy rain, yielded flooded fields as far as the eye could see — fields that backed up to coal mines, coal mines that ran up against trailer parks. There was a strange beauty to it all.

But then I remembered that sometimes we have to stop ourselves short of that kind

of idealism. It can be a dangerous mindset to romanticize Appalachia, especially when you weren’t raised in the region, or when you know you’re likely going to be leaving it behind after graduation day.

There’s a delicate balance that must be struck when reporting on a region like Appalachia. For one, the region itself is much larger than you might think. The Appalachian Regional Commission, which is largely responsible for defining Appalachian boundaries, has Appalachian counties stretching into at least a dozen states.

We know that the region is rich in culture and far more diverse than one might think. But we also know it suffers from its fair share of problems, from environmental degradation due to mining and fracking to unemployment, food insecurity and addiction.

Those are issues that can seem far away when we’re living in this little bubble of ours, shuffling between residence halls, classrooms and dining halls where there’s

always more than enough to eat.

When creating the “Beyond the Bubble” edition, we in no way wanted to be “parachute reporters” who drop into a community for a day, get what we need and leave having never truly attempted to understand the people or the problems at hand. Many of us are only passing through.

We’ve tried our best to make this issue a celebration of the region while also addressing some of the very real issues its residents and land face. And at the end of the day, we’re grateful for everyone who has let us into their lives to make these stories possible.

Lauren Fisher is a senior studying journalism at Ohio University and the editorin-chief of The Post. Have questions? Email Lauren at lf966614@ohio.edu or tweet her @ Lauren__Fisher.

Cover illustration by Riley Scott

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LAUREN FISHER MANAGING EDITOR Maddie Capron DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR Alex McCann ASST. MANAGING EDITOR Jessica Hill CREATIVE DIRECTOR Abby Gordon EDITORIAL NEWS EDITORS Sarah M. Penix, Ellen Wagner INVESTIGATIVE EDITOR Bailey Gallion SPORTS EDITOR Spencer Holbrook CULTURE EDITOR Alexis Eichelberger OPINION EDITOR Chuck Greenlee COPY CHIEF Laila Riaz ART ART DIRECTOR Abbey Phillips GRAPHICS EDITOR Riley Scott DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Meagan Hall DIGITAL DIGITAL PRODUCTION EDITOR Megan Knapp SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR Kate Ansel THE BEAT EDITOR Georgia Davis DIRECTOR OF MULTIMEDIA Alex Penrose DIRECTOR OF PODCASTS Cal Gunderson STUDENT MEDIA SALES INTERNSHIP MANAGER Andrea Lewis 2 / MARCH 28, 2019

POST THE

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EDITORIAL

Why we decided to go ‘beyond the bubble’ As students in a small yet lively college town, we sometimes forget what is around us. It is hard to imagine a world beyond Gran Ranchero, the Hocking River and McHappy’s. But the reality is that communities and counties surrounding Athens are overflowing with untold stories and experiences of which the majority of students are unaware.

Don’t get us wrong, we love Ohio University and Uptown Athens. But we wanted to take the opportunity to try and understand more about the area that we call home. As many of us at The Post will soon be graduating in just a month, we thought now would be one of our last chance to delve into what has been all around us during our college experience.

Some stories have already been told about Appalachian Ohio and southeast Ohio. But often themes of poverty and isolation are present in those stories. We

hoped to challenge this dialogue to celebrate the region instead.

In the past few weeks, reporters and photographers have traveled between 10 and 50 miles to places like McConnelsville, Chillicothe and Marietta to explore the Appalachian Ohio region and the interesting people, businesses and histories that make those areas unique.

Many students at OU have no way to experience what is outside of Athens, as the majority of underclassmen do not have cars on campus and public transportation only takes you so far. Sometimes, it is physically impossible to explore the corners of southeast Ohio, and we understand. With the stories featured within these pages, we hope to relay what we have discovered to those who are not able to travel to those areas themselves.

In this issue, you’ll find a story about an opera house with a purportedly

haunted past. You’ll be transported to a family-owned smokehouse with homemade barbecue. You’ll also explore New Straitsville, a coal town that is finding new ways to adapt to the demands of the 21st century, and learn about the news deserts that exist beyond the city of Athens. You’ll read about the small-town community radio stations that have filled the airwaves and hills with rich music through the decades. We also tell the story of a family that keeps bees and the different challenges that have come up in recent years. We hope these stories tell a broad range of topics that celebrate the people within southeast Ohio while also addressing certain problems they face.

We realize, however, that we are just skimming the surface of the areas around us.

Southeast Ohio’s counties span more than 500 square miles, each county with dozens of features that make each one unique.

We know coverage of the surrounding communities can’t be restricted to just one issue. There are countless stories out there still waiting to be told and issues that deserve our attention and our reporting. We hope that in the future, we’ll be able to allocate additional resources and manpower to covering those stories.

Hopefully, at the end of the day, you’ll learn just as we have some of what Appalachia has to offer. And perhaps it will make you want to explore more beyond the bubble.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors: Editor-in-Chief Lauren Fisher, Managing Editor Maddie Capron, Digital Managing Editor Alex McCann, Assistant Managing Editor Jessica Hill and Creative Director Abby Gordon. Post editorials are independent of the publication’s news coverage.

Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) is a confidential place for students who seek mental health services. Drop-in or walk-in hours are offered Monday through Friday from 9:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on the third floor of Hudson Health Center. Students may also talk to a counselor during Let’s Talk hours at the Living Learning Center, room 160, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Friday. Individual counseling, group counseling, crisis interventions, coping clinic and psychiatry are some of the services offered by CPS. www.ohio.edu/student-affairs/counseling | 740.593.1616 THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 3

JACK OF ALL TRADES

Reddit’s new community event, Sequence, captures the true spirit of the internet On April Fools’ Day, Reddit unveiled something new to its community. It wasn’t a prank — it was a community event called Sequence in which the goal is to form a short film using nothing but text blocks and GIFs chosen by the community. The selected files then get compiled into a short film, and as of now the film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

To users new to the yearly April Fools’ projects and those more accustomed to the shenanigans, no one can form a cohesive idea of what’s going on.

There have been lengthy and confusing posts trying to piece together a coherent story from the mess, and even the formal explanation on the main hub for Sequence says little more other than saying it’s forming a short film using user-submitted content.

Reddit isn’t new to unexplained community events: A new one pops up every year on April Fools’, and they almost always go off the wall in terms of how bizarre they can become. In 2017, a similar group project called Place began with similar confusion and curiosity. However, by the

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end of the experiment, the end result was a mosaic worked on by more than 1 million people and containing hidden pixel artworks from people all over the internet.

Perhaps leaving Sequence unexplained is what it makes it, and Place before it, so intriguing. Giving the users complete freedom to make whatever they wanted is like sitting 150,000 monkeys down at typewriters and hoping they produce a work of art.

It may make little sense, but for having thousands people working on one short film, Sequence has an aspect of chaotic beauty.

The end result so far is beginning to form some semblance of cohesion as efforts have become more coordinated, and users are pulling material from everything source imaginable. From Star Wars to Family Guy to Anchorman, Reddit is looking to make a short film so abstract it can give an artsy European film a run for its money.

Sequence has within one day of its launch captured the spirit of the Internet. There is an

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ungodly amount of people all pushed into one place with different interests and goals, then told to play nice and create something with what they’ve been given. And while there were speed bumps in the beginning, the community has formed a symbiotic relationship where the users work together to make a work of art. An insanely stupid work of art.

When the project is done and over, the entire Sequence will be pooled together into a video roughly 10 minutes long and three days in the making. It may not make much sense, but what matters is how it came to be. 150,000 random strangers voting on short clips from every corner of pop culture can pump out something beautiful.

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Climate change shouldn’t be partisan Climate change is happening. It’s undeniable. The general temperature of the earth has jumped 0.7 degrees Celsius in the past cenMIKAYLA tury. While this may not ROCHELLE seem significant, the is a freshman Earth warmed only 4 to studying 7 degrees Celsius over journalism about 5,000 years comat Ohio ing out of its last ice age.

University.

It’s true that we must consider the fact that the earth has gone through several periods of global change in the climate, but never at this fast pace.

We can’t deny that humans have had a huge impact on the climate in the emissions we have produced and our general carbon footprint as a species.

The consequences that our planet will face are scary. Melting ice caps, rising sea levels, heat waves, heavy rainfall, droughts and floods are just some of the byproducts of climate change we will see likely within the next 100 years.

Humans have been a large part of causing climate change. We need to be part of the cause of stopping it. The problem is, like most issues, our government is divided on what to do. But with the U.S. ranking as the second largest global emissions producer in the world, our government should be taking the most reasonable action possible to lower our carbon dioxide emissions given the foreseeable consequences.

This can no longer be a partisan issue.

We need to start recognizing the damaging impact we have had on this planet. We can’t just push climate change out of the way as an issue that we can worry about

when the time comes — because it will be here before we know it. It’s time to start being proactive, regardless of what the party lines say we should think.

A big reason why a lot of people are against making any official changes in the laws regarding climate change is the effect that it will have on businesses. Implementing laws that will create significant changes in slowing down climate change, like lowering our use of fossil fuels and producing less waste, will have large negative affects on big businesses and corporations.

But just 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of the global emissions on Earth. It isn’t just our actions as individuals — it is the actions of businesses that are out of the general public’s control.

When it comes to corporations, generally I understand why people believe they should be able to do what they feel is right for their business to prosper. But no businesses are going to be able to prosper in a few hundred years on a planet that can no longer sustain us.

It’s time to put this planet before our ideals. Sometimes the most important step to reaching a solution is admitting we are wrong. For the past three decades, we have put dealing with climate change on hold because we don’t want to deal with the notion that we have maybe been handling this wrong. As of now, it’s not too late. We can start trying to stop the predicted changes and implement ways to better take care of the earth.

We only have one planet. Let’s make sure we don’t take it for granted.

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NEWS BRIEFS

Student Senate elections; OU observes ‘Earth Hour’ SARAH M. PENIX NEWS EDITOR STUDENT SENATE: UNOPPOSED TICKET WINS OFFICE Student Senate election results were announced Tuesday night. The new executive office holders are President Lydia Ramlo, Vice President Alicia Lundy-Morse and Treasurer Jayden McAdams.

The ticket ran unopposed for the elections. Ramlo received 646 votes, Lundy-Morse received 651 votes and McAdams received 655 votes.

“I am very happy,” Ramlo, who currently serves as treasurer, said. “I’m excited to work with such an amazing team.”

The team plans to initiate their campaign plan surrounding the mental health of students and creating new and easier ways to receive mental health services.

CITY COUNCIL: SMART PARKING METERS APPROVED FOR PURCHASE Athens City Council approved two ordinances that would allow for the city to purchase smart parking meters during the Monday meeting.

The first ordinance approved the issuing of $460,000 in notes. Those notes will be used for bonds that will cover the cost of the new smart parking meters.

The second ordinance approved allows for Athens Service-Safety Director Andy Stone to purchase the meters.

Originally, the city was going to lease a series of meters uptown so citizens would have more options; however, the city discovered that doing so would be too expensive.

OHIO UNIVERSITY’S LGBTQ-INCLUSIVE RANKING TO BE EXAMINED Ohio University has four out of five stars on the Campus Pride Index, an indicator of institutional commitment to LGBTQ-inclusive policy, program and practice. The ranking could be impacted, however, after the removal of delfin bautista, the former LGBT Center director.

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OU has been working with Campus Pride for about 10 years. bautista, who uses they/them pronouns and does not capitalize their name, has volunteered with Campus Pride. LGBTQ and ally students have also been sent to the annual Campus Pride Summer Leadership Academy.

The OU LGBT Center has also worked with Campus Pride annually to asses and improve LGBTQ-inclusive policies, programs and practices for the index.

OU OBSERVES “EARTH HOUR” BY SWITCHING OFF LIGHTS It was lights out for parts of campus Saturday evening as the university participated in “Earth Hour,” an international initiative by the World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, that promotes climate change awareness and energy conservation by turning off lights.

Various nonessential lights on campus, such as those on the exterior of Walter Hall and Baker Center Cupola, were switched off from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. to generate sustainability and reduce the university’s energy consumption.

The initiative was supported within the university by Facilities Management and Safety, or FMS, and Student Senate.

This was Ohio University’s first time taking part in the event, which originated in Australia in 2007.

ARC ANNOUNCES GRANT TO REPURPOSE PRISON Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) officials announced Wednesday more than $1 million in grant funding that would go towards an addiction recovery center for women near Nelsonville.

ARC Federal Co-Chair Tim Thomas said the commission’s top priority is fighting the opioid epidemic, which claims the lives of thousands of Ohioans and Appalachians each year.

The grant specifically funds the treatment side of the Appalachian Recovery Project.

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POLICE BLOTTER

Local home ransacked; thief takes garbage MEGAN CARLSON FOR THE POST Most people would prefer sleeping in their bed, but sometimes you have to use your surroundings to your advantage.

The Ohio University Police Department received a call about an intoxicated man sleeping in the Grover Center lobby Saturday.

Upon arriving, the man — an Ohio University student — was unsteady on his feet, had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol. He was taken into custody for underage consumption by intoxication and was transported to Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail pending his sobriety.

I’M ON A NEW LEVEL OUPD responded to Wilson Hall on Saturday for a report of an intoxicated woman.

The woman, an OU student, smelled strongly of alcohol and was unable to speak “due to her level of intoxication,” according to the report. She was transported to OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital for treatment and charged with disorderly conduct by intoxication.

STUDENT STUMBLE On Saturday at about midnight, OUPD officers observed a man stumbling into the road on Mill Street near Hocking Street.

The man, an OU student, was unable to stand on his own and did not know where he was. Since he was unable to care for himself, he was arrested for disorderly conduct by intoxication and transported to Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail, pending his sobriety.

STOPPING FOR DINNER The Athens County Sheriff’s Office responded to State Route 691 for a burglary Monday.

The caller claimed her home has been entered without permission and food was missing. The console of her vehicle had also been broken.

(NO) FAKE FRIENDS The sheriff’s office responded to Strouds Run Road for a burglary report March 27.

The caller said she had returned home after a few days of being out of town to

find her home ransacked. The woman said friends were supposedly housesitting. The incident is under further investigation.

DOGS GONE WILD On Sunday, the sheriff’s office responded to Pleasanton Road in reference to dogs running loose.

The caller said he went to get his mail.

When he walked back in his yard, a black dog was growling at him. Contact was made with the owners, who were told to keep the dog on their property. The case was forwarded to the dog warden for a follow-up.

HOT GARBAGE The sheriff’s office took a report by phone for a theft complaint on Friday.

The caller said he had a brown trash can that belongs to Rumpke Waste and Recycling stolen from his residence. This case is pending further investigation.

NOSY NEIGHBORS The sheriff’s office received a report of a suspicious person and trespassing complaint on Truetown Road on Saturday.

Deputies met with the caller, who said they noticed a person on their porch shining a light inside the window. The suspect left in a small car that was parked nearby. Deputies patrolled the area but did not find any further suspicious activity.

JUST KID-DING The sheriff’s office responded to Mill Street in Chauncey in reference to a 911 call on Saturday.

Upon making contact at the residence, it was determined to be juveniles playing with a phone.

GET OFF MY LAWN The sheriff’s office took a trespass complaint from Beech Road on Thursday.

The caller said a young man repeatedly came to the residence looking for someone and was told to leave the property. A notrespass form was completed and will be held until the man is located.

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ILLUSTRATION BY RILEY SCOTT

News deserts plague southeast Ohio JILLIAN CRAIG FOR THE POST In many ways, plants and news deserts share similar structures.

News deserts have multiple root causes that contribute to the problem, stems that grow from those problems and leaves that only reveal the surface issue.

Within southeast Ohio, journalists and lawmakers are trying to eradicate “news deserts,” but despite their efforts, the roots of the problem run deep and more work must be done.

News deserts are areas that contain few or no reliable news sources. Some areas that are considered news deserts have internet access, so residents are able to read national news but lack a local news sources. Others living in news deserts don’t have internet access available at home or a local news source, essentially lacking access to news altogether. Ironically, news deserts are becoming more prevalent as technology continues to develop.

In southeast Ohio, news deserts are not uncommon. Matt Morris, an Ohio University alumnus and a liaison for OU’s Media Seeds Project, a group dedicated to combating news deserts, said each county has at least one daily newspaper.

Marietta, located in Washington County, has one newspaper. Athens County has three outlets that publish print editions weekly. Morgan County has one newspaper, as does Perry County. Cambridge, located in Guernsey County, has a media conglomerate of a news website and local radio stations.

Morris, a former Post staffer, said residents who don’t access local sources of news choose not to either because they prefer not to consume news, or they self-select to follow conservative news sources such as Fox News.

The declining demand for local news is a contributing factor to news deserts in southeast Ohio. “(People) are fixated on national news,” Morris said.

Interest isn’t the only factor that plays into the development of news deserts. Morris said individuals who are forced to focus primarily on making a living are not as concerned with receiving local news.

“There are people who are concentrating on their own lives, trying to make ends meet,” Morris said. “They really don’t want to hear what’s going on in the news.

They’ve got their hands full with their own lives.”

The bigger issue, however, is a lack of connectivity in southeast

Ohio. Because of the natural terrain of southeast Ohio, home internet access for residents can be limited or nonexistent. Broadband, as defined by an Ohio State University article, is an internet service with a download speed of at least four megabits per second. In the same article, the researchers found that “more than 1 million Ohioans still lack the access to fast, reliable broadband services in their homes.”

Journalists are continuously attempting to fight news deserts by publishing content online. It’s challenging, however, to deliver news to readers who can’t receive news online.

“It’s easy to make online news.

It’s easy to make that be the way you address news deserts,” said Carrie Gloeckner, owner and editor-in-chief of the Meigs Independent Press. “But we also have to have that connectivity. And that’s still an issue for a lot of people.”

Most residents in north and central Meigs County don’t have internet access at home. Those same residents can only check the news online if they’re at work or in another area with broadband access.

“Cell service in itself is an issue,” Gloeckner said.

To attempt to address the issue of broadband access in Ohio, state

representatives Jack Cera and Ryan Smith proposed House Bill 378 in 2017. The bill would establish a grant program for broadband development, with all governmental entities smaller than a state qualifying for funding. That includes municipal corporations, townships, counties, school districts and other corporate and political entities.

The proposed bill was approved by the Ohio House of Representatives but did not make it through the Ohio Senate.

In his testimony on behalf of House Bill 378 presented to the Ohio House Finance Committee on Nov. 28, 2017, Ohio’s 96th District Rep. Jack Cera said some areas of the state still do not have broadband service at all, and other counties have only 40 to 60 percent connectivity to broadband.

“Ensuring high-speed broadband capability will help our region and the entire state remain competitive nationally and continue to be a desirable place to live, work and visit,” Cera stated in a news release following the passing of the bill by the House.

For journalists such as Gloeckner, broadband access is important for people who live in one of the many news deserts in southeast Ohio.

“It’s a difficult thing, but it has to be addressed from multiple layers, because you’ve got to have the local backing from your community, but you also have to have the infrastructure,” Gloeckner said.

Callie Lyons is the writer, publisher and editor for the River City News Network. The small outlet is dedicated to telling “the untold stories” of the Mid-Ohio Valley and is based in Belpre.

Lyons said that often in rural areas there isn’t any competition from other outlets. She even believes people want local news, but they have no way of regularly receiving it, and they often times do not appreciate the way in which it’s presented.

With organizations such as the River City News Network and the Meigs Independent Press, however, there is hope that southeast Ohio residents can receive local news and information in some form when they do have access to WiFi outside of their home.

“There are some very small news entities that are trying very hard, and so we need to throw our support behind those,” Lyons said.

@JILLIANCRAIG18 EJC986517@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 9

Chords and Camaraderie Cutler Station’s distinct sound emanates eccentricity and passion

I

BRE OFFENBERGER | FOR THE POST n the small city of Vincent lies Cutler Station, a band of four best friends who were born destined to be heard and loved through the music

they make together.

The band’s formation process, though, was not entirely cohesive. It took years for brothers John and Kirby Evans, and their longtime friends Steve Lipscomb and Jason Swiger to get to where Cutler Station is now. Despite the long process, all four guys, who have been together now for two decades, had nothing but smiles when reflecting on their journey.

The story begins with Lipscomb and the Evans brothers playing in Columbus as Cutler Station, John said. John moved to the area once he secured a job in Parkersburg, and Lipscomb moved six months later. Kirby stayed in Columbus until summer 2018.

“We had played in bands prior to that in high school and college and stuff,” John said. “So as soon as we got back, we were like, ‘Let’s start it up like this.’ ” Swiger, who had moved back here after finishing up at Marshall University in Huntington, had been following the band on social media.

“I was kind of following along because I liked what I had heard,” Swiger said.

The band is inspired by influential bands of the early ‘90s and early 2000s, especially Weezer.

“Green Day, too,” John offered.

“Weezer,” Kirby said. “No thanks.”

And the other guys agreed.

“We all really liked Weezer, so we were like, ‘Hey, we would like to make music like that,’ ” Swiger said.

All four men had different beginnings of how they decided to pursue music, though all members, except Swiger, were in choir. John received a guitar for his birthday when he was in eighth grade, and once

Cutler Station’s Kirby Evans plays guitar alongside the band during its performance at The Adelphia Music Hall in Marietta on Feb. 16. (PROVIDED via John Evans)

10 / APRIL 4, 2019

his older brother stole it and learned how to play, Kirby, the younger brother, asked for a guitar that Christmas.

“They got me a guitar from Sam’s Club,” Kirby said, as the group all chuckled. “We had our cousin in the first version, and we just had 5-gallon buckets that we would play the drums on. That’s kind of how (the Evans brothers) started playing music. It just kind of evolved from there.”

Lipscomb started playing trombone in fifth grade but chose to learn even more than that during high school.

“Some of these guys that are our friends were in a band in high school, and I kind of envied the thing they were doing,” Lipscomb said. “They were having fun, and I had to work through high school, so I learned how to play guitar and drums.”

Swiger’s dad was a fan of metal music, so he had grown up listening to hair bands all his life. However, he became a drummer through a trip he made to Hard Rock Cafe.

“I started playing drums because I went to a Hard Rock Cafe and wanted souvenir drum sticks,” Swiger said. “I got them but didn’t keep them as a souvenir. I air drummed to all my favorite bands. My dad thought, ‘Well, I should buy you a set of drums if you’re gonna do that.’ All the noise started from there.”

Cutler Station released its self-titled album Jan. 18. The album tackles different issues prevalent in Appalachia, especially drug problems, but is surrounded by feelgood riffs and eccentricity. The band knows it manufactures its own distinct sound that can’t be compared to anyone else — and with that, each member is always willing to try anything. No one ever says no.

“I don’t think we have good enough vocals to just rock the Americana singer-songwriting thing, so we kind of have to lean on being creative,” Kirby said.

“Then hope that the conglomerate of the song is good and not just someone who can sing really good. I think we’re trying to find more ways to connect with people — finding those things that most people don’t write about but still relate to people.”

The track “Southeast Ohio Speedster” is inspired by an ex-marine Lipscomb hired to work at his and his dad’s construction company. He was a drug addict and went to jail, but he had straightened himself up.

“In modern Appalachia, it’s really hard to find help in any business, really — qualified people who are willing to help,” Lipscomb said. “In the construction side of things, it’s even harder because it’s a physically demanding job, and it doesn’t pay very well so you get a lot of unsavory characters.”

That guy eventually quit and later left Lipscomb a voicemail. John came up with the hook for the song based on him and that message: “You’re a southeast Ohio speedster — higher than the minimum wage.” “(The ex-marine) quits, leaves one day

Cutler Station performs at the Adelphia Music Hall on Feb. 16. (PROVIDED via John Evans)

“

Cutler Station is something the Mid-Ohio Valley has needed now for a long time, from their original signature sound to their bizarre props and exploding energy they pour out to the audience.”

- Jimmy Roux, a recording artist

and doesn’t come back to work, and I get a voicemail where he butt-dialed me,” Lipscomb said. “It’s a 4-minute long conversation he’s having with someone in his car about doing drugs and getting high and money. In that song, we took snippets of that voicemail underneath the track.

John took the idea of that guy and made a character that resembles him but also some other Appalachia things like stirtrack racing.”

The track “Appalachian Highway” started off as a bluesy, slower song, but it never felt right to the group. That was the song when the band really shifted gears and decided it wanted to play live shows.

“It was a turning point,” Swiger said.

“Our point shifted as a band a little over a year ago. If you go back and listen to our first album (Happy Campers), it’s a lot different. We wanted to make an album where we could go on the road and replicate and play.”

Cutler Station is not interested in making songs for radio play — rather, the band members prefer to create music they like and will constitute happiness for them.

“We do this for enjoyment. It takes away the stress,” Swiger said. “To me, it seems so ingenuine when you’re writing a song

that’s like, ‘OK, what would they like?’ ” Lipscomb agreed but also included a humorous moment that got the whole band to form a smile.

“There really is not a radio (station) for the kind of music that we like,” Lipscomb said. “Maybe we are trying to be on the radio, but we’re just not good enough.”

Cutler Station finds it is very different from the artists with which they perform.

“The local bands we play with are normally driven by one singer-songwriter, one main person of the band,” Lipscomb said. “We come from a unit perspective of it. I think that makes us different.”

Jimmy Roux, a recording artist who performed with Cutler Station at a show in Belpre in October 2018, loves the band’s style.

“Cutler Station is something the MidOhio Valley has needed now for a long time, from their original signature sound to their bizarre props and exploding energy they pour out to the audience,” Roux said.

The band prides itself on having no one leader of the group.

“Anyone can do anything in the band,” Lipscomb said. “If you wanted to play drums on a song, you can play drums. If you wanted to play guitar and

John Evans plays at the Adelphia Music Hall on Feb. 16. (PROVIDED via John Evans)

you wrote a song, it’s your song. And we’ll accompany it the best we can.

There’s no lead person.”

The band collectively agreed it’s easier to make music together being the best friends they are. Lipscomb added it’s always been that way, that they’ve always gravitated toward each other.

“You get a certain level of comfort when you’re playing with someone you know really well but also played with a long time,” Swiger agreed. “I guess it’s not something you can really replicate.”

Cutler Station will be playing at Smiling Skull Saloon, 108 W. Union St., on May 10 at 10 p.m. Adrienne Whitney, the owner and booking manager of Smiling Skull Saloon, loves to book bands that fit the exciting atmosphere of the venue — and Cutler Station meets those requirements.

“Cutler Station looked like a good fit for our venue — fun and funky,” Whitney said in an email. “The local music scene in Athens is part of what makes our town great, and we enjoy hosting bands from around the region as well as touring acts from as far as California or Maine and all points in between.”

The members of Cutler Station find it important to let people know they don’t have to listen to the band’s music, but they hope they do.

“We offer a different pallet but still in a package that’s listenable,” Lipscomb said.

“It’s not hard to dig into. ... This first and foremost is our hobby. This is the truest representation of our personalities in music.”

@BRE_OFFENBERGER BO844517@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 11

BENNETT LECKRONE SENIOR WRITER ILLUSTRATIONS BY RILEY SCOTT

From a little concrete block building on the main street of New Straitsville, Joe Maroon works tirelessly to keep his community together. // Maroon’s life revolves around the little Perry County village, located just 24 miles north of Athens.

His building is located directly underneath “Inspiration Hill,” a Christian monument he calls his “baby,” located right in the heart of New Straitsville. // “The community itself is a good community,” Maroon said from behind his desk, flanked by Saint Patrick’s Day and Valentine’s Day decorations.

“We’re all striving to make our community better.”

12 / APRIL 4, 2019

Inspiration Hill is just one of Maroon’s many community-inspired projects: Inside his workshop, bundles of Christmas lights and a full nativity scene lie in wait for next year’s holidays beside tools for the community garden and maintenance. Maroon said he’s been working to better the community for nearly 40 years.

“It gives a lot of pride,” Maroon said.

Pride is a desperate commodity in New Straitsville. Once a thriving mining town with more than 5,000 residents, the village now houses just over 700 residents, Maroon said, alluding to the city’s long and hard decline over the course of the 20th century.

A HISTORY OF DECLINE The village, and many others like it across southeast Ohio, has been trapped in a cycle of decline ever since coal began to diminish as a source of jobs and income in the region. In New Straitsville’s case, that decline began more than a century ago when a group of striking miners sent a cart of flaming coal into a mine, igniting the coal deposits deep underneath the town.

While the fire was started back in 1884, it supposedly rages on to this day, according to Ohio History Central. Maroon said there are places on the road between New Straitsville and neighboring Murray City where snow doesn’t stick due to the smoldering coals beneath the surface.

Cheryl Blosser, a local historian with the Little Cities of Black Diamonds, a coalition dedicated to preserving the history of coal towns in local counties, said the mine fire was an act of retaliation, as historical mining companies often controlled every aspect of a miner’s life.

From issuing currency that could only be spent locally, to buying elected officials’ loyalty, historical mining companies exerted control over their miners.

The unionization of miners brought about many modern workplace staples like semi-monthly pay and an 8-hour workday, Blosser said.

Miners’ retaliation, however, took a toll on the little Perry County village and others like it. The burning mine, combined with the advent of fossil fuels and a finite amount of easily accessible coal in the hills, made coal begin to “lose it,” in New Straitsville, Maroon said.

“When the coal mine closes, for the employee it’s not only the loss of income,” John Carey, the director of the Ohio Governor’s Office of Appalachia, said. “It’s also the loss of their identity.

It’s their way of life.”

“

It’s hard to watch a building fall down because the owner doesn’t want to fix it. I see things like that happen, but there’s all kinds of people in the world. Everybody values different things and what they want.”

- Cheryl Blosser, a local historian with the Little Cities of Black Diamonds CHANGING WITH THE TIMES While mines continued to operate locally, they would dwindle across the area over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, leading former miners and prospective workers trying to find new jobs.

Blosser remembered that her husband worked in some of the last now-defunct coal mines during high school.

After that, he went to work in the oil fields, Blosser said. Maroon said that, at one point, the oil drills were so numerous around New Straitsville that it was difficult to count them. They pumped out precious crude oil and began pumping money into the local economy. The center cross on Inspiration Hill is supported on the foundation of an old oil well, Maroon said.

By the middle of the 20th century, however, even the oil wells were on the decline in New Straitsville. As massive reservoirs of coal smoldered beneath the hills, the land was being sucked dry of fossil fuels. For the first time, Maroon said, New Straitsville residents started commuting to work.

“How they survived was factories,” Maroon recalled. “They’d go to Columbus.

They’d go to Logan.”

In Maroon’s case, that meant working at Carborundum, a grindstone wheel factory in Logan. Other residents went on to various factories in outlying towns. Some still commute to Columbus today, longtime Buchtel resident and local historian Rodney Galentin said.

Like New Straitsville, Buchtel was once surrounded by mines, Galentin said.

When the mining companies left, residents of company towns were faced with a decision to either remain and look for other work or move along with the mines.

“Lots of families from this area, the coal mining area, left and went to Akron, Cleveland, Detroit, Toledo, wherever the work was,” Galentin said.

Many of Galentin’s friends and acquaintances worked in lumber yards as far north as Columbus, Galentin said.

Commuting to work continues to this day.

“There are people that drive to Colum-

bus every day from here,” He said. “Many of them work down in Athens at OU.”

NEW LIFE While some residents of New Straitsville still have to commute elsewhere for jobs, new life is breathing into the region, Blosser said. In New Straitsville, rows of cabins and a large campsite have cropped up around the trails that bring cyclists, hikers and ATV users through the town.

Blosser said the trails don’t just bring more commerce and a wider variety of people through the town — they also give travelers an opportunity to experience the region’s history.

“The trails are starting to bring in more people, and you’re starting to see more activity,” Blosser said. “Some of our history sites aren’t on Main Street, they’re out in those woods.”

The trails and the scenery of the Hocking Hills bring in new campers every weekend, Maroon said. Sometimes he walks around the campsite and talks to the travelers.

Another source of culture and income in the town is its moonshine. The town has been dubbed the “moonshine capital of the world,” owing some of its success to the great mine fire underneath its hills.

The rising smoke served as the perfect cover for hidden distilleries in the area.

Carey said he hopes to see more development in towns like New Straitsville.

Expanding access to high speed internet and wireless connections, which the town and some others like it lack, could improve job access. Various grants, like the POWER grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, is one example of ways new technologies are being developed in the area.

That could also mean training in new fields like welding, technology and sourcing jobs locally, Carey said. As coal continues to dwindle in areas where it is still a source of jobs, Carey hopes to encourage residents to invest locally and stay in their hometowns.

Carey said towns where coal has declined as a source of income continue to export one of their most important resources — talent.

For Sam Brady, the executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development Partnership, that talent could be a means of drawing new companies to the area.

“Much of our growth is going to come from within,” Carey said. “We tend to export a lot of our talent.”

While coal is a part of Jackson County’s history, some jobs in that industry remain to this day, Brady said. He added that they are “scaled back” from what they once were but said that the land is still rich in natural resources.

“This is the area of opportunity,” he said.

To Carey, Appalachian Ohio already has all of the resources it needs to move forward.

SURVIVING LEGACY Not every mining town found new sources of income after coal. Galentin noted that, while many former miners and succeeding generations commuted to jobs in Columbus, many left forever.

There was also the issue of property ownership, Galentin said. Many of the coal companies owned every building in town and rented to miners. In Buchtel’s case, families continued to live in and own their own houses after the company left, Galentin said – but other times, towns were completely razed and consumed by the forest.

“That’s partly what kept the towns alive,” Galentin said. “If people could keep the houses they were living in, that made a difference.”

Not all coal companies left the region: coal remains a source of jobs and income in some areas of Ohio. Along the Ohio River, several coal-fired power plants still churn out steam and power every day – although some plants are gradually being decommissioned.

In other places in Appalachian Ohio, new sources of energy are being sought.

In Highland County, there are tentative plans for massive solar fields.

In New Straitsville and throughout Athens, Hocking and Perry counties, memories of the once-thriving local coal industry still exist. Some former company stores, like the Eclipse Company Store in The Plains, have been remodeled and repurposed. Others, like the once massive opera house in Buchtel, have been wiped away with little evidence that they ever existed.

“It’s hard to watch a building fall down because the owner doesn’t want to fix it,” Blosser said. “I see things like that happen, but there’s all kinds of people in the world. Everybody values different things and what they want.”

While the region has been through many cycles of jobs, from coal to oil to developing recreational activities and the exporting to talent to other communities, Brady said the identity of the people there has remained the same.

“The deep roots felt by those who have lived here generationally have really determined the identity,” Brady said. “Coal, iron ore, iron furnaces, … those are all boom-bust cycles, and those don’t determine our identity. The work ethic, the devotion to family, the devotion to community, devotion to your neighbor, that’s what determines the identity of a community.”

@LECKRONEBENNETT BL646915@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 13

Chillicothe smokehouse attracts customers with barbecue, hospitality BAYLEE DEMUTH STAFF WRITER Greg Miles had no experience in the restaurant business when he decided to open his own barbecue restaurant almost eight years ago. Today, 7 Miles Smokehouse, 285 E. 7th St. in Chillicothe, is a thriving business that serves competition-worthy barbecue enjoyed by many.

Miles, the owner of 7 Miles Smokehouse, started grilling for his family when he was 12 years old. Miles named his barbecue restaurant after him, his wife and their five children. Over the years, he barbecued for all occasions, from charity and church events to family and friends’ weddings. It wasn’t long until people started telling Miles he had missed his calling.

“People had been telling me for more than 30 years I should open a restaurant,” Miles said.

Originally, 7 Miles Smokehouse opened up in Circleville, where Miles worked in a bank at the time. In the beginning, Miles would work Monday through Thursday at the bank and barbecue Friday and Saturday, until he eventually left the bank to work on his restaurant full time.

“When I started out, I had no idea what I was doing,” Miles said.

“I was the pit master, the cook, the cashier, the server and the dishwasher. I ran the whole place by myself.”

Miles always knew how to cook and barbecue, but there was still plenty to learn about the food he takes pride in today.

“It took me almost four years to learn how to properly hold meat and to maintain moisture and temperature without it drying out so that it seems as fresh in the evening as it did when it first came off the smoker,” Miles said.

Starting a business was no small feat for Miles, but luckily, he had his family to help him get the restaurant on its feet.

“My wife would come up on the weekends and help me clean, and my youngest daughter started helping me by serving at the restau14 / APRIL 4, 2019

“

I love working here, it’s a great environment.

They make it feel like you want to be here. You’re not dreading to go to work, it’s more like, ‘I get to go to work, I get to hang out and meet new people.’ ” - Catherine Smith, 7 Miles Smokehouse employee

rant when she was in college,” Miles said. “Her and my other daughter were my first two employees.”

When 7 Miles Smokehouse had been in business for about nine months, Miles’ son left his job at Chipotle Mexican Grill and came to work for his dad as well.

“He and I really built it up in Circleville,” Miles said.

Word of 7 Miles Smokehouse traveled fast, and soon, many people from Chillicothe were making the commute to Circleville to taste some of Miles’ barbecue. After the continued flow of customers from Chillicothe, Miles decided to open up 7 Miles Smokehouse in Chillicothe in December 2012.

Since then, business has never been better for Miles and his family. Not only does 7 Miles Smokehouse serve fresh food daily in the restaurant; it also caters a variety of events that keep them booked up all year long.

“I have weddings booked for next year starting March 30 through Dec. 7,” Miles said. “So business is good, and we’ve been really blessed.”

Running his own business has helped Miles realize how much he enjoys managing his own time and doing what he likes best — creating new menu options for customers.

“Our newest thing is going to be a smoked bourbon chicken,” Miles said. “We tested that the last couple of weeks, and we’ve had great reviews. Next, we might try smoked orange chicken.”

The 7 Miles Smokehouse restaurant specializes in smoked meats and scratch-made southern-style sides.

(MEAGAN HALL / DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY)

The work never stops for Miles, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve always been a workaholic,” Miles said. “Always up before the sun comes up and out the door, and then I don’t come home until the sun has gone down. It’s worth it when people keep coming back every year. It’s a real pat on the back.”

Roger Rhodes is one of the loyal customers that 7 Miles Smokehouse encounters from time to time. When Rhodes was a truck driver, he would stop in almost three times a week, and he’s still eager to make it out whenever he can.

“Whenever I come to Chillicothe, I stop in usually during the day,” Rhodes said. “It’s peaceful here, easygoing and, of course, the food is good.”

Catherine Smith has been employed at 7 Miles Smokehouse for only a little more than month, but she believes she has found an establishment that treats her like family.

“I feel like I’ve worked in different places before where I guess

7 Miles Smokehouse located at 285 E. 7th St. in Chillicothe.

(MEAGAN HALL/ DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY)

if you died tomorrow, they could replace you, but here, they make it feel like home,” Smith said.

Smith enjoys working in the country-like atmosphere of the restaurant, and she is eager to go to work when she has to.

“I love working here. It’s a great environment,” Smith said.

“They make it feel like you want to be here. You’re not dreading to go to work. It’s more like, ‘I get to go to work, I get to hang out and meet new people.’ ”

@BAYLEEDEMUTH BD575016@OHIO.EDU

Radio stations provide service in rural areas KERI JOHNSON FOR THE POST It is no secret that sometimes cell service and internet connection fall short in rural southeast Ohio. But the one medium that holds reliable is radio.

Radio obviously delivers entertainment in the forms of music and sports. With competition from streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, the future of radio may be uncertain.

“I feel that it’s all about Spotify anymore,” Rachel Boyce, a freshman studying wildlife conservation biology, said. “I don’t really listen to the radio.”

Especially in areas that often lack other forms of connectivity, radio can serve an important role as a medium that also delivers pertinent information regarding weather, traffic and news.

One station providing those services is MWOA/WJA in Marietta.

“We try to be a big part of the community,” Ben Marshall, the program director at WMOA/WJAW, said. “We try to service it as much as possible.”

WMOA AM has been on air since 1946. It broadcasts at 1490-AM and 101.3-FM, and

has two affiliated ESPN stations: 100.9-FM 630-AM and 92.9-FM. Settled in 1788, Marietta is the oldest permanent settlement in Ohio. In Washington County, it is located at the confluence of the Muskingum River and Ohio River.

“We like to call ourselves ‘the first city’s first radio station,’ ” Marshall said.

Sports are important to the Marietta area, Marshall said. With both Marietta College and Marietta High School in the area, sports are what bring people together. WMOA AM covers both the college’s and high school’s football, basketball and baseball teams.

WMOA serves southeast Ohio and parts of West Virginia by broadcasting more than sports too.

“We do it all — sports, music and news,” Marshall said. “We pride ourselves in local programming. We have lots of local coverage.”

WMOA AM also has a traditional morning show, Marshall said. The morning show consists of news, local programming and interviews with “local people of influence from around town.”

WKOV FM is deeply involved in its surrounding area too, Rhonda Burtrand, media consultant and traffic director at

WKOV FM, said.

WKOV FM 96.7 is an adult-contemporary radio station based in Jackson County.

“We do PSAs and tell what’s going on around town,” Burtrand said. “We try to keep up with the fire departments, help charity groups and schools with that.”

WKOV FM has a Mix Morning Cafe show that also does giveaways and birthday announcements. Listeners can call in between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. for a chance to win tickets to local events or receive extra birthday wishes.

A smaller station in the region is WEAK FM. WEAK FM is an Athens County staple.

A brief drive up State Route 32 will send listeners into a world of rare oldies.

WEAK FM started off as a radio show about hobbies, Richard Whitmore, president of Hobby Radio Inc., said. But that didn’t really take, so Whitmore made the move to become an oldies station.

“Most of the start-off was personal records,” Whitmore said. “Then we made hard drives of other low-power radio stations to get more variety.”

WEAK comes out of Whitmore’s garage, perhaps something that adds to its personal

feel. It may be small, but with its vast collection of oldies, WEAK leaves an impression.

As a low-power radio station, WEAK FM broadcasts at 100 watts, Whitmore said. That means WEAK FM’s reach isn’t as large as other stations and is limited mostly to its nearby surroundings.

“We reach mostly all of Athens County in a vehicle,” Whitmore said.

WEAK is located off State Route 56, in an unincorporated community called Union. Sometimes WEAK is referred to as Union Station, Whitmore said.

WEAK FM doesn’t broadcast online because it can be quite costly, Whitmore said. WEAK is funded through donations, which can be sent by mail.

Though WEAK FM is an oldies station, that doesn’t discourage younger listeners from tuning in and enjoying the locally provided radio entertainment.

“We thought that most of our audience was over 50, but we’re finding that the young crowd enjoys our music, too,” Whitmore said.

@_KERIJOHNSON KJ153517@OHIO.EDU

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86 North Court Street THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 15

The haunting of the Twin City Opera House A place that has fascinated the public and paranormal enthusiasts for more than 100 years STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ASHTON NICHOLS | SENIOR WRITER

A

n hour northeast of Athens sits an old building. It rests in the middle of McConnelsville, casting eerie shadows over the square below. From its first days as an opera house, it has been a place of cultural events for the city.

The Twin City Opera House was built in 1892 and was meant to serve as a theater and government offices, such as the mayor’s office. Today, it still serves the same purpose.

In 1879, there was a fire that burned down the northwest corner of McConnelsville. The area sat vacant for nearly 10 years, Adam Shriver, executive director of the opera house, said.

The city council decided it wanted to build something to function as a community center for government, entertainment and culture of the city. In the space that burned down, people decided to build the opera house.

It was originally built as a vaudeville house, a theater used for comedy and dance performances. Once silent films became popular in the 1930s, the opera house underwent a major reno-

16 / APRIL 4, 2019

vation in 1936 to have full projection equipment.

“It’s kind of interesting, I think, because that would have been during the Depression, and to make an investment like they did, they would have totally renovated (everything), and it was kind of a leap of faith to do that at its time,” Shriver said.

Through different phases of technology and change, the opera house has never closed its doors since opening, Shriver said. It has withstood television, automobiles and now online streaming services.

After about a year of working at the opera house, Shriver met Eric Glosser, a ghost hunter who came to go on a hunt at the building.

Glosser experienced so much paranormal activity from the building that he told Shriver he should consider making a business out of the paranormalities of the opera house.

Glosser, who is a team member of the United Paranormal Project, now has handled the paranormal business for the opera house for about 12 years.

He’s always been fascinated with the paranormal, he said, and wanted to be a parapsychologist growing up. Glosser became a cop, but when he retired, he decided to join a ghost team.

He said that once shows like Ghost Hunters came on TV, it opened a door to talk about the supernatural.

“I did have a lot of things that happened when I was a police officer,” Glosser said.

“Back then, you didn’t go to the station and say you saw stuff happened.”

After Glosser retired, he joined a paranormal team. His leader was looking for places to go, and the two came across the Twin City Opera House.

“We came down and investigated, and it was just off the charts,” Glosser said. “We came back a second time, and it was just as crazy.”

Seven years ago, Glosser was featured on the show My Ghost Story. In May, the opera house will be featured on the Travel Channel’s Portals to Hell.

The halls of the Twin City Opera House roam with various spirits, most of them friendly, Glosser said.

Robert Lowery, for example, lives in the catwalk. He was supposedly a stage hand during the 20th century. Glosser said that after about a year of working at the opera house, he first met Robert. He asked the spirit if it could drop the temperature in the room, which it did from 80 degrees to 65 degrees, Glosser said.

At first, Glosser said he didn’t know if he had captured a ghost, but when he was listening to his audio, he found a voice that sounded like a man who was half-drunk and said “I’ve got red wine.” Glosser nicknamed him Red Wine Robert.

“It’s really a strange thing because people who don’t believe in the paranormal think, ‘This guy’s wacky,’ but I have a friend that’s a ghost,” Glosser said.

That voice came through what Glosser said is an EVP, or electronic voice phenomenon. Someone may not hear the voice, but when they listen to the audio, it may come through. He has more than 5,000 EVPs. “We have hundreds of hours of video of stuff that is paranormal that is not possible,” Glosser said.

There are two types of EVPs, Glosser said. Residual EVPs are like a “frozen section of time on repeat” where the spirit is unaware humans are there. Intelligent spirits are able to respond to humans and answer questions. He said most are intelligent.

Robert told Glosser there are 14 spirits living in the opera house. Glosser said he knows of 10 for sure but doesn’t know all of their names yet. It’s taken him 12 years.

“It’s kind of a slow process,” Glosser said. “It’s not like we’re having a talk and I’m answering all of your questions. Sometimes you’re not getting as much informa-

tion as others.”

He said the spirits are mostly friendly, but the opera house does have a darker side.

“We call it Charlie,” Glosser said. “We don’t know what Charlie is. We don’t know if it’s a demon or an evil spirit. I always thought it was kind of demonic.”

The opera house has a basement where the cast and crew would get ready for a performance. Below that is a sub-basement, which is nicknamed the black hole. A tunnel system runs underneath the opera house that goes throughout the town. Now, those tunnels remain unused. That is where Charlie is most often experienced.

“But when you get like TV shows that want to come in, the most fascinating spirit here is Robert, hands down,” Glosser said. “But they all want to lock on Charlie because he’s dark.”

Glosser said he’s

“

It’s really a strange thing because people who don’t believe in the paranomal think, ‘This guy’s wacky,’ but I have a friend that’s a ghost.”

- Eric Glosser, a paranormal investigator

had several encounters with Charlie, none pleasant. The worst came when a private team rented out the building and Glosser was giving them a tour.

“I’m over by the tunnel and talking about it. We’ve got weird stuff growling and stuff says “get the f--- out” and really creepy stuff, and I’m standing there. I didn’t see anything, didn’t hear anything,” Glosser said. “Something invisible grabs my arms and moves me back like I’m a ragdoll. I’m a 300-pound man. My legs were not bending. They were straight. It was like defying gravity.”

It felt like an hour to Glosser, but it was only a few seconds. When he was a foot off the ground, it dropped him. Glosser said someone in the group said, “Dude! How did you do that?” but Glosser can’t explain it.

Charlie is known to target women, who will leave with scratches or light headedness.

Glosser said he’s seen more than a dozen women start throwing up in the basement.

“When he is present, there is a strong electrical charge,” Glosser said. “You’ll get the hair raised on your arm, and you’ll get

nauseous.”

Robert does not like Charlie, Glosser said. When Charlie is present, Robert told Glosser that Charlie is the one in control.

“I don’t know if I believe in portals or not, but according to Robert there are portals,” Glosser said. “He said the tunnel system is a portal that Charlie will travel through. There’s one in the catwalk that he goes through. Robert says he can open it and close it.”

Ouija boards are not allowed on the property as Glosser strictly does not allow it.

“You might use it 100 times and nothing will happen,” Glosser said. “All it takes is that one time and something comes through and if it’s demonic, it’s bad news.”

Demonic activity is typically viewed through a religious framework and paranormal activity could be perceived differently from person to person, Brian Collins said. Collins is an OU professor of the global occult: ghosts, demonology, and the paranormal in the study of religion.

“Other people might experience it as a ghostly presence or an alien presence

or something else entirely,” Collins said in an email. “In short, I am not willing to say what is real and what is not real. But I can confirm that a lot of people experience things like this, and I do not think that they are all lying.”

He said he’s pretty skeptical about things like demons and ghosts, but that doesn’t mean others are not.

Shriver said, however, he hasn’t seen much paranormal activity from the building, but more so weird occurrences like sounds or smells that are unexplainable.

“I’m there at weird hours of the night enough,” Shriver said. “I don’t have a lot of interest in seeing things or being exposed.”

Glosser said spirits can drain energy from electrical devices — phones, laptops, cameras, etc. — and there is nothing a living person can do. Some spirits do not like to be photographed or recorded and will purposely drain batteries or knock over cameras, Glosser said.

He said he’s had groups go other places in the opera house and come back to find their cameras face down on the floor and unplugged.

Elizabeth is a 10-year-old female spirit who also lives in the opera house, Glosser said. Her mom was a performer named Victoria.

“We wondered why Elizabeth was in the catwalk with Robert,” Glosser said.

“Robert was married but not to Victoria.

When she was here, they did some hanky panky, and Elizabeth was the result.”

Elizabeth died from a heavy fever one night while her mom was performing.

Glosser said he caught an EVP of a woman saying “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” and he wondered if she was a performer or in distress. He later found out that the woman was Elizabeth’s mom talking about being sorry for her death. Recently, he had an EVP of what sounded like Elizabeth saying “I forgive.”

“It was like everything, somehow in death they were separated and now they’re together,” Glosser said. “I have no idea. It’s beyond me.”

Glosser has been all over the country to some of America’s most haunted locations — Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, the USS North Carolina — but he still can’t seem to understand why the Twin City Opera House is the most haunted of all of them.

“This place consistently has more activity than any of them,” Glosser said. “It’s just really crazy.”

Post reporters did not capture any EVPs through their audio devices. The reporter did, however, feel an unexplained tug on her arm while in the basement.

@ASHTONNICHOLS_ AN614816@OHIO.EDU

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 17

Charlie Haskins, a fourth-generation artist, likes to tell a story through his art (PROVIDED via Charlie Haskins).

The eccentric works of one Portsmouth artist OPEN TO ANYONE (STUDENT OR STAFF) WHO PREFERS TO RUN WITH OTHERS RATHER THAN ALONE

A 1-3 mile run to foster community & empowerment

Weekly GrOUp Run Hosted by the Survivor Advocacy Program

Thursdays at 4:30 pm beginning 2/21/19 Meet outside of Ping Center Dress for the weather!

Email mb135409@ohio.edu with questions or for more information This event has received an exemption from Mandatory Reporting Procedures by ECRC

18 / APRIL 4, 2019

MAISIE FITZMAURICE FOR THE POST Southern Ohio native Charlie Haskins has been sharing his colorful and eccentric art skills in the Portsmouth area for years.

Haskins was raised in South Webster, about a 30-minute drive northeast of Portsmouth.

Last year, Haskins had an exhibit at Ohio University Southern Campus located in Irontown.

“It was possibly my favorite exhibit I’ve done. I took it as an opportunity to show off my weirder stuff,” Haskins said. “In the show, I had paintings, sculptures and even made some puppets that hung from the gallery’s ceiling.”

Haskins’ art style consists of creating a story.

“Someone once told me that my painting looked like what Dr. Seuss would make if he had taken a little too much cough syrup, and I tend to agree,” he said.

Haskins is a fourth-generation artist.

He said art is his “obsession” and that he is always working on different sketches and drawings — sometimes even on napkins and scrap paper.

“I think I keep making things because it’s how I learn and explore new ideas,” Haskins said.

While folklore legends such as Bigfoot,

mermaids and the man in the moon have a large influence on Haskins’ work, he is also really influenced by his mother.

“She has always encouraged me to try new media and to keep the act of art making in my day-to-day life,” he said.

Haskins’ work has been displayed at the Geer Museum and Southern Ohio Museum, as well as events like Comic Con, Nelsonville Music Festival and the Irving Halloween Festival.

One of Haskins’ favorite parts about events, such as festivals and conventions, is setting up the exhibits.

He has been awarded with the Outstanding Individual Artist award from the Portsmouth Area Arts Council.

Haskins believes the role of an artist is a big responsibility in the community.

“They can preserve the past with their work. They improve upon the past. They can make new works. But for me, I think the biggest role as an artist is to take invisible things, like ideas and feelings, and make them tangible,” Haskins said.

In the future, Haskins plans to publish a book filled with a collection of “ghost paintings.” He has been working on that series for a couple of years.

“I hope to continue to create books,” Haskins said.

@MTFITZMAURICE MF241017@OHIO.EDU

Preserving the Past

Heartland Earthworks Conservancy of Ohio works toward preserving the earthen mounds made by prehistoric Native American groups SOPHIA ENGLEHART FOR THE POST Architecture of ancient civilizations are still present, influencing rising societies, giving a feeling of power and speaking to the way of life embodied in its arches and etchings. It is a piece of history forever etched in stone, or in the case of ancient Native Americans, in the earth.

Ohio is home to many Native American earthen mounds, located primarily in Newark, The Plains and other towns in the Ohio River Valley area. Those mounds, while thought to primarily have a purpose as an ancient entombment site, are thought to have served a variety of purposes. Archaeologists speculate some of the mounds served as a place of ritual ceremony, while others were used as a tool for time or astrology.

Because of Ohio’s heavy association with agriculture and technological advancements, the cost of time and progress has led to the destruction of many of the mounds.

“There are 10,000 mounds in Ohio, with 600 being earthen enclosure sites,” Jarrod Burks, the director of Archaeological Geo-

physics at Heartland Earthworks Conservatory, said. “Many didn’t survive because of their lack of size and shape or were erased by modern agriculture, road, railroad and gravel mining.”

Heartland Earthworks Conservatory is a historical preservation society focused on protecting earthen mounds in Ohio.

“We try to increase awareness of these places and help preserve some selection for burial or earthen mounds,” Burks said. “Like any ancient monument, when you see it, you are instantly transported into the past, and you can kind of see the lives of the ancients all around you.”

Of the many earthen mounds in Ohio, probably the most famous is the Serpent Mound in Adams County. Built by the Fort Ancient society in 1070 C.E., the serpentine shape of the mound winds throughout the countryside and is truly an architectural feat.

Work to preserve cultures left behind by prehistoric societies is a focus for other government sanctioned groups such as the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, 16062 State Route 104 in Chillicothe. It is dedicated to discovering and recording the find-

ings of the Hopewell Native American culture, which existed from 200 BC to 500 AD. The Hopewell society is considered to be one of the primary prehistoric groups in Ohio. They were responsible for many of the earthen mounds that were built almost 2,000 years ago. The mounds were used for feasts, funerals and rites of passage, according to the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.

Certain sites are incorporated into modern day real estate and business sites, the most vivid example being the Moundbuilders Country Club in Newark. Built in 1910, the club merges the existing earthen mounds on the property with their golf course, simultaneously preserving and using the lay of the land to their advantage. However, the commercial use for the mounds is not the best way to keep them intact.

“It is not the best way to preserve the mounds, since golf courses can do a lot of damage and the ground is modified,” Burks said. “The argument among archaeologists is the earthworks are preserved, because there was something like the country club or an amusement park stopped the mounds from

being damaged. Otherwise, the mounds most likely would have been razed for housing.”

The difficulty of preservation lies in navigating the man-made structures of the past and the future. Due to suburban expansion, the effort to conserve burial sites and mounds can sometimes be overshadowed by the continuance of modern day society.

“Some historians were concerned that industry was moving over the top of these sites,” Franklin Robertson, a journalism professor at South Dakota State University said. “But because the Native Americans tribes of Ohio were pushed out (in 1843), there wasn’t a significant population to champion their cause.”

The lasting impact of ancient Native American cultures is present throughout Ohio, left behind in the earthen monuments they constructed. Organizations like HEC are vital to maintaining this legacy and for helping to learn and write history properly.

“Thinking about the past enriches the present,” Burks said.

@ENGLEHARTSOPHIA SE269217@OHIO.EDU

OUTDOOR PURSUITS

MEDICINAL PLANT HIKE APRIL 20, 2019 | 11 A.M. – 4 P.M. | ATHENS, OHIO | $12 REGISTER AT WWW.RECSHOP.OHIO.EDU

THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 19

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: David Huffer lifts up a honeycomb frame to check on one of his many hives to make sure they are healthy and have survived the winter.

A bee crawls on the outside of a bee box owned by David Huffer.

David and Teresa Huffer look for the queen bee on one of the honeycomb frames.

David Huffer brushes out bees from the top layer of a bee box before removing a honeycomb frame.

HONEY

FROM THE

HIVE

One family of beekeepers has enjoyed its hobby even in a challenging time for bees JESSICA HILL ASST. MANAGING EDITOR PHOTOS BY MEAGAN HALL DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY 20 / APRIL 4, 2019

A

white-veiled man carrying a smoking box and what appears to be a crowbar approaches a wooden-layered stand and begins to meticulously separate the layers, like unraveling a Russian doll.

David Huffer checks on his bees almost weekly before spring officially starts. He’ll zip up his veil-vented jacket and start a smoking box that will calm and confuse his bees, making them less aggressive. He goes to inspect his hives, checking to see if they are healthy, if eggs are being laid and if they’re making enough honey. He’ll carefully pull up the honeycombed frames, packed with buzzing, vibrating creatures.

Six minutes away from downtown Marietta, David and his wife, Teresa, operate the Bee Barn of Southeast Ohio. Located at 450 Coffman Road, Marietta, the Bee Barn is a small bee supply store about the size of a one-door garage that sits in their gravel driveway next to their house.

David and Teresa have kept bees for seven years after being inspired by a road trip to Amish Country with a friend who kept bees. They talked about bees all throughout their journey there and back, and soon thereafter, they bought their first colony.

“We’ve always had an interest in the environment and ecology,” David said. “We, like everybody else, heard that the bees were in trouble.”

David, a retired criminal division lieutenant for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, started building his own beekeeping equipment because the hobby is expensive to start. He began to make extra to sell and realized there was a demand for more equipment in the area after the only nearby supply store closed. Teresa, who retired from the Washington County Local Emergency Planning Committee, primarily runs the business side of the Bee Barn, while David puts together different hive stands and other beekeeping supplies.

Since opening their supply store three years ago, people have driven up to two hours to visit not only for the supplies, but for the expertise. Customers who are interested in potentially keeping bees want someone they can talk to and ask for advice, David said. Over the years, David and Teresa have found themselves mentoring new beekeepers. David’s phone seems to be constantly buzzing with photos from other beekeepers asking, “What’s that?”

SUITING UP In the winter, a beekeeper’s job is to make sure their bees have enough food to last until spring, to check the bees for any pests and to make sure the queen is still in the hive. The family loses a large portion of their colony each winter as forage options dissipate and disease spreads.

Sometimes up to 43 percent of their honeybees die, David said.

“

We tell every new beekeeper that you’ll never taste any honey as good as the first honey you take off because it’s just amazing, the difference between store honey.”

- David Huffer, beekeeper

“I tell everybody the two constants of beekeeping: You’re going to have bee colonies die, and you’re going to get stung,” David said. “That’s the constants.”

David, however, doesn’t get stung very often on the job. It’s mostly when he’s mowing or doing something else around the property. Beekeepers have gotten used to the stings — one even said mosquito bites seem worse.

“Bees know that they’re going to perish once they sting you, so it’s a last resort to protect their colony,” David said.

David will add supplemental feeding to the top of each hive to ensure that the bees make it to spring.

Early signs of spring start to appear in late March, as silver maple trees begin budding outside the Huffers’ house. But once the dandelions and the red maple leaves bloom in May, bees start to get busier — and so do David and Teresa.

Although the bees do most of the work collecting the honey, beekeeping is also very labor-intensive, David said. About twice a year, they lightly brush the bees off a frame and “uncap” the honey. Then they put it through an extractor, which spins the honey from the combs, and into a holding tank, where it is then sent through a filter and later bottled. Their honey sells for about $9, David said — more expensive than a regular grocery store’s “funny honey,” which is what he calls honey that is usually mixed with high fructose corn syrup.

As a beekeeper, David and his son-inlaw occasionally collect bees that have swarmed around town and bring them back as “free bees.” Once, at a courthouse in Marietta, a woman’s car was covered in honeybees. David and his sonin-law brushed them into a box. The bees wouldn’t stay in the box, though. Someone had pushed the bees, including the queen, off the windshield with windshield wipers.

The bees kept swarming to the car, thinking she was still there.

Honeybees follow the queen, and so do beekeepers to make sure their colonies are thriving and multiplying. The usual tasks of beekeeping has evolved, however, as the environment changes.

CRISES IN THE COLONIES Within the last few decades, keeping bees has become more difficult, said Parry Kietzman, an entomologist who works with the Appalachian Beekeeping Collec-

tive, a nonprofit organization that trains people to keep bees.

Dick Mullet, a beekeeper in Warsaw, said when he was a child, his grandpa raised bees and didn’t have to do anything.

He would simply go to the hives and collect honey without putting in much effort.

Now, everything is different.

“It’s challenging keeping them alive,” Mullet, a retired engineer who has been beekeeping since about 2004, said. “If you’re not right on top of it, you lose the bees. A lot of people (who) get into it don’t know what to do, and they whine when their bees die.”

Different challenges face bees and beekeepers that simply did not exist before. Habitat loss, for example, has been increasing in Appalachia as more fields with different plants and flowers are cut down for developing roads, commercial areas and homes.

Terry Lieberman-Smith, president of the Ohio State Beekeepers Association, said bees are experiencing their own “food desert.”

“While a honey bee can fly up to a 2.5mile radius, just like with us it’s much more energy-efficient to shop nearby,” Lieberman-Smith said. “The further out we go, the more energy we have to expend.”

Even perfectly manicured lawns mean less food for the bees, David said. People also spray a variety of pesticides on plants that bees will visit. They then carry that chemical back to the colonies.

David and Teresa have had entire hives wiped out by pesticides. They have walked to the bee boxes to find the bottom board full of dead bees.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Teresa said.

One pest that has recently wreaked havoc on honey bees is the varroa mite.

David compares it to a tick the size of one’s fist stuck to the human body. The parasite latches onto bees, sometimes sucking the fat out of their bodies and spreading diseases. A significant infestation can cause a whole honeybee colony to die.

Beekeepers can control the mites through different techniques such as natural acids, Mullet said. But it takes much more care to treat them.

Currently, honeybees are not on the endangered species list. However, other bee species, such as the rusty patched bumblebee, have made the list. The honeybee population has also been in decline in recent years.

To help with this, David and Teresa don’t mow their lawn for some months in the summer to help give the bees more foraging options.

Luckily, the colony seems to improve in numbers during the height of summer; David said he’ll typically have about 2 million bees.

David estimates one out of every three bites of food someone takes has been pollinated by a species of bee. Some say that if bees die out, humankind will go shortly thereafter.

“Without bees, we’d have much less diverse landscape in terms of what plants are out there and less accessible systems of agriculture,” Kietzman said.

It also seems that bees are producing less honey than they used to. Several years ago, it wasn’t uncommon to take about 100 pounds of honey off a hive, David said. Now, beekeepers are happy if they get half that.

Still, twice a year, when it’s time to collect honey, the whole family gathers for the experience.

“We tell every new beekeeper that you’ll never taste any honey as good as the first honey you take off because it’s just amazing, the difference between store honey,” David said.

PASSING DOWN THE PASSION David and Teresa didn’t come from a family of beekeepers. David’s father worked in the military; Teresa’s was a union worker. Their friend who introduced them to the hobby is a second-generation beekeeper, but the Huffers have started their own family line.

Their son-in-law helps manage the hives and maintain their other apiaries, and their daughter has also suited up on occasion. Now their 6-year-old granddaughter, Kyrian, has gotten passionate about bees, too.

Since she was 3, Kyrian has been working with bees. She’ll help take off honey from the hives and “play customer” at the Bee Barn while wearing her beekeeper uniform, Teresa said. Once, when a 4-year-old Kyrian was at the pool, her mother caught her trying to feed a bee part of her lollipop, remembering that bees eat sugar.

“Maybe she’ll be a future entomologist,” David predicts.

David and Teresa also welcomed another grandson and hope to one day teach him about bees and get him interested in the hobby.

“It’s a learning experience. You’re always learning something about the bees.

They’re fascinating insects,” David said.

“Who would’ve thought eight, nine years ago that I would be playing with 60,000 to 80,000 bees at a time?”

@JESS_HILLYEAH JH240314@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 21

the weekender OU to celebrate Moms Weekend indoors and out HANNAH BURKHART FOR THE POST Ohio University has taken pride in providing fun opportunities for families to spend time with their students for years. With Moms Weekend approaching, it is no surprise that exciting activities are in store.

“Moms Weekend seems to be a little bit busier than other family weekends,” said Judd Walker, assistant director of OU Outdoor Pursuits. “For whatever reason, whenever the moms come to town, they sign up for more events.”

The same outdoor pursuit programs are offered for all family weekends: stargazing and zip lining at The Ridges and hiking at Conkles Hollow. However, there is a twist to Moms Weekend this year because a tree fell on a zip line support cable during a storm recently, causing reconstruction that will take time.

Instead, Outdoor Pursuits is offering rappelling, where people can climb up a tower and rappel down the side. People were already signed up to go zip lining, but Walker said they have been informed of the change, and about two-thirds of the people dropped the activity and were refunded.

“We are always excited to let families do things that aren’t in their typical dayto-day schedule, whether that’s repelling or going on a hike to a place that’s not far from campus,” Walker said. “We are excited to provide some of those pieces and parts that make Ohio University unique that aren’t like your typical walk up and down Court Street.”

Alden Library will host a book-making activity for moms and students to do as a bonding experience.

Michele Jennings, art librarian at Alden, said a few different bookbinding styles will be offered at varying difficulty levels.

All crafting supplies required to make the books will be provided.

“What gets put into the book is, of course, up to whatever mom and child makes the book,” Jennings said. “It’s kind of just a DIY experience.”

22 / APRIL 4, 2019

Danielle Geiser climbs up the rope ladder that leads to the zip line during the Moms Weekend Zipline Adventure at The Ridges.

(BLAKE NISSEN / FILE)

So many families signed up for the book-making activity that registration occupancy doubled from 25 to 50 participants.

Alden will also host an herbalist from Herbal Sage Tea Co., who will allow moms and students to choose a custom tea to enjoy.

“She’ll talk participants through ingredients … Say you want bedtime tea, so you put chamomile in it,” Jennings said. “So that you walk away with your perfect tea blend.”

The herbalist will talk to participants about the different properties of herbal teas. Attendees can participate in both the book-making and tea tasting events at the same time, if they choose.

“We planned the event to be relaxing and low-key, so you can be doing something while actually having time for con-

versation and quality time,” Jennings said.

“A lot of the other events are super fun but this, we hope, will be a chance to catch a breath.”

The goal of the activity is to allow mothers and their students to bond in a quiet place while doing something creative.

“When we do events like this, our hope is for people to experience the library in a way that they maybe have not necessarily before,” Jen Harvey, library events coordinator, said. “We want people to be able to experience the library as kind of a fun place to do something relaxing.”

The Black Student Cultural Programming Board will host a Moms Expo in the second floor atrium of Baker Center on Saturday.

“We will be inside the whole Multicultural Center, and span out to the atrium,”

said Janetta Edwards, public relations organizer for BSCPB and a sophomore studying biology.

Activities will include massages, arts and crafts, henna, mom trivia and more.

During mom trivia, the moms and their kids are asked questions about each other, and if they win, they get a gift basket.

T-shirts will be available for free, first come first serve.

“Mothers love doing this for us, BSCPB is one of our biggest organizations, so we usually have a lot of people here,” Edwards said. “Moms are very particular about their massages, so make sure you do apply for a massage.”

@HANNAHNOELBURK HB239417@OHIO.EDU

WHAT’S GOING ON? MEGAN GORDIN FOR THE POST FRIDAY

at 6 p.m. at Donkey Coffee and Espresso, 17 1/2 W. Washington St. Enjoy diverse acoustic sets performed by musicians from all over the world. Admission: Free International

Acoustic

Night

Moms Weekend Paint Night with The Clever Canvas at 6 p.m. at Athens

ing this early morning yoga session hosted by the OU Yoga Club.

Admission: $15 for one person; $25 for a pair International Street Fair at 11 a.m.

on East Union Street. Participate in cultural activities hosted by multiple student organizations and see the flag parade. Music will be performed by The Larger Sound and The Ark Band.

Admission: Free Book Making Workshop and Tea Blending at noon at Alden Library.

Spend some quality time with your mom by creating a small book and blending and tasting Herbal Sage teas.

Admission: $10 Demetri Martin at 8 p.m. at Me-

Uncorked, 14 Station St. Show off your skills by painting your own cherry blossoms while sipping on your favorite wine with your mom.

Admission: $30

mAud. Laugh your socks off and enjoy this stand-up comedy show by Demetri Martin, a comedian from New York. Admission: $20

World Music & Dance Concert at 7:30

Any Colour: Celebrating the Music of Pink Floyd at 9 p.m. at The Union

p.m. at Templeton-Blackburn Alumni Memorial Auditorium.

Hosted by the OU Performing Arts Series and more as part of a week of international arts exhibitions, which will celebrate diversity at OU and beyond. Admission: Free with OU ID; $12 general admission and $9 for other students Romeo and Juliet at 8 p.m. in the

Forum Theater in the Radio Television Building. Kick off Moms Weekend by taking her to see a William Shakespeare classic performed by students in the School of Theater Friday and Saturday.

Admission: Free with OU ID; $10 for adults and $7 for other students/seniors SATURDAY

Moms Weekend Beginner Yoga at 9:30 a.m. at the Research and Technology Center. Try something new with your mom by attend-

Bar and Grill, 18 W. Union St. Jam out to your favorite Pink Floyd tunes from this tribute band — and take your mom if she’s into that, too. Admission: $10 SUNDAY

April Contra Dance at 6:30 p.m. at ARTS/West, 132 W. State St. Dance along to the music of The Brickersons. All dances will be called, all experience levels are welcome, and no partner is needed. Admission: $10 suggested donation The Lone Bellow and more at 7 p.m. at MemAud. Enjoy performances by The Lone Bellow, Over the Rhine, Scott Mulvahill, Anna Tivel and Adam Remnant as the 941st episode of the music radio show Mountain Stage is filmed. Admission: $12-20 @GORDINMEGAN MG525717@OHIO.EDU THEPOSTATHENS.COM / 23

“Demetri Martin’s one-liners will leave you laughing and thinking” - Cleveland Plain Dealer