Found: One Furnace, Not Far from Spruce Creek

My husband wanted to take one of the cars for a spin, and it was a nice afternoon, so we did just that. We drove all around on the back roads and ended up along Spruce Creek, below Colerain, at a place we used to hang out at a lot back in the early years.

I could swear we used to be able to sit and wade in the creek by the parking lot, but all of the pretty views of the creek are marred by the huge number of No Trespassing signs along its banks now. You may look at the water, my sweets, from a distance, but in no instance are you actually allowed to WADE in it. No touchie!

Access . . . DENIED!!! Well, you can only imagine my thoughts on such a situation. As a former Manager of Access, signs proclaiming No Access loudly and proudly do not do a darn thing for me. Well, actually, they do: They tick me off. Access denied, is it!??!! How about . . . Bite Me???*

But enough about that, and enough about me. From the parking lot by the creek, we walked up a little bit of the Yellow Arrow Trail, which eventually (according to the sign) goes to Indian Overlook, and the Mid-State Trail (or as my husband has always called the Mid-State: Boot Killer).

We were walking along the hillside well above the stream, listening to two or three fishermen shouting at each other below. They must have been local landowners to have achieved such coveted spots of glory, is all I can say, based on the signage I had seen. (Oh, and here's a quick historical sidebar: President Jimmy Carter used to go fishing on this stream!)

But then we came across this little . . . well, I believe it to be a furnace of some kind, but small. I do love to stumble upon old things made of bricks or stones, and this sure fits the bill. It had interesting colors and I added a filter to give it more of a weird blue tinge, just for fun. You may catch a glimpse of Spruce Creek in the upper right, behind the furnace. Yes, a look. But no touchie!

The furnace included in this shot gives me blanket permission to use a fabulous Springsteen tune. Here is Youngstown, the best version ever, from Madison Square Garden in the year 2000, which was the same tour I saw Springsteen on for the first time. Ladies and gents, here are “the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, love-making, legendary E Street Band!"


P.S. Pay heed to the signs about logging trucks, for they do come up and down that hill on Colerain Road very fast, raising huge clouds of dust.

P.P.S. I believe this to be the remains of one of the forges or charcoal furnaces mentioned in this historical article.

*Photographer's note: I may b*tch and whine and complain about such notices, but I DO obey posted property boundaries, and I encourage all other photographers to do the same. In Pennsylvania, purple paint also signifies No Trespassing.