History in the Hills: Snowy and frozen
We have had some cold weather here lately. I am not sure how it stacks up with cold weather here in the past, but it certainly gets your attention if you have to be out in it. We have had many cold days recently. At the Visitor Center in Steubenville over Christmas, this past season was especially cold, and on some of those nights, not many folks were out. So far, this new year, the weather has not quite let up just yet, either.
I can deal with the cold, but the snow is another thing all together. As long as I don’t need to drive or go out in it, I am OK. Snow can be fun, too. The kids have gone out a few times to sled ride near our house, and boy is it fun. We have two Flexible Flyers and when the snow is not too deep, wow, can those move. Something about the metal rails gliding through the snow, makes it a great ride. Me and two of my kids can fit on ours and with all that weight, due to yours truly, we fly. It’s walking back up the hill that is the problem. My daughter, Stella, who is 5, is the only one that gets a free ride back up to the top.
Sledding in the past was just as popular as it is today. My grandmother would tell me about her sledding trips down Pennsylvania Avenue in Weirton all the way from the sheltered workshop today, to Crawford Avenue at the very bottom of the hill.
She said that someone in her neighborhood around Pikeview Road, where she lived in the 1930s, had a large toboggan sled and that 12 kids would pile on. They would start sliding down the hill and nearing the curve by the bus garage, would all have to lean together to turn the thing. When they reached the bottom, a truck would pull them back up the hill.
In the Feb. 21, 1955, edition of the Weirton Daily Times, Earle Wittpenn wrote a delightful article about snowy days in 1925 in the Weirton area. He recalls that back in the 1920s and 1930s, kids enjoyed making their own sleds that could hold 10 or 12 sledders at one time. He writes, “Taylor Ave used to be the favorite sledding spot for hundreds of youths because of the incline. In fact, ordinary sledding trips would start some distance up the hill west of Elm Street. In order to ensure a safe trip, we would station youngsters at each intersection and they would hold up traffic until after a sledding trip was concluded somewhere near Main Street.”
That wasn’t the only place to sled — or ski for that matter — in Weirton in the past. Wittpenn continues, “The Power House Road (South 11th Street) which rounds the hillside on the south end of what is known as Calico of College Hill, also was a favorite sledding spot. In this instance, the road was often used as a ski shoot because traffic in the winter was virtually non-existent.”
I can imagine that Power House would be a fun skiing spot to be sure, providing you didn’t go over the hill.
Skiing and sledding were fun, but ice skating was a popular pastime in these cold days as well.
Driving over the bridge on my way to work during these last few days, I have noticed on a few mornings there has been ice on the river. As a historian in our area, I have heard so many fond memories from locals about their parents and grandparents walking across the frozen river. Certainly, it was a savings if you were going or coming from Weirton to Steubenville. In the 1930s, the toll to cross the Fort Steuben Bridge by car was 10 cents and to walk was 5 cents.
My grandfather used to say he would swim over to Steubenville on summer days to save that nickel for more fun in Steubenville. But in the 1930s, the river froze over more than a few times and locals from both sides of the river would be able to walk across it and ice skate. When the river was frozen, especially during those early years, navigation grinded to a standstill. In December 1909, the river was frozen and there was good ice skating at Browns Island and above the Panhandle Railroad Bridge. In January 1920, for the ferry between Mingo Junction and Follansbee, ice in the river virtually stopped the enterprise all together. A small boat conveyed passengers across the river between floating ice.
The Fort Steuben Bridge would not be built until 1928. During that same cold snap in January 1920, the city flooded the park called Carnegie Field in the North End. This park, I believe, is the North End field today. In July 1919, the park’s name was changed to Carnegie Field since Carnegie Steel owned and maintained the park. That winter in 1920, the city flooded the area with five layers of thin ice that was as smooth as glass. The pond was 150 feet square, and that year hosted a reported 1,000 skaters. The YMCA of Steubenville was financing the site and it allowed many on the ice.
Some did venture down to the river as it was frozen, but soon they were reported to have returned to the North End Park. For many years the city flooded the area of the North End Park to make a skating rink. My grandmother, who often visited her grandmother, my great-great grandmother who lived on Sycamore Street in the North End in the 1930s, remembered skating at this park in cold weather. The tradition continued but not always at the North End Field. In 1968, the city constructed a skating rink in January in Belleview Park on the Little League field. That winter, some 500 visitors took advantage of the frozen field.
Going back to January 1920, it was not all fun and games in Steubenville. Because the river was frozen, so were the intake pipes to the city’s water works. Because of this, the water entering the filtration plant was greatly reduced, which disabled one of the city’s 6-million gallon pumps which supplied the city with water. A mandatory water conservation effort was enacted to save the city’s water supply. The biggest concern was fighting a fire in the city. Although the situation is a bit different, reading about the water issues of that time reminds me of the issues we have had in Weirton recently regarding water. This goes to show that nothing is new.
All in all, winter in our area is a beautiful time to take part in winter events such as sledding, skiing and ice skating. In our area in the past, one could skate at the North End Park in Steubenville, sled or ski down the main throughfare in Weirton or skate on the frozen Ohio River. Was the past more fun? Maybe in the winter it truly was.
(Zuro is executive director of Historic Fort Steuben)