Lake Erie

Ashtabula, Ohio. Taken in 1991, on a day we spent wandering from harbor to harbor on the south shore of Lake Erie. Camera: Chinon Genesis III

Conneaut, Ohio, in 1991. Another photo from the Lake Erie ports excursion I mentioned a couple days back. Camera: Chinon Genesis III

The harbor at Ashtabula, Ohio, on a cloudy but sunlit day in 1991. We'd started the day in Kalamazoo, driven to Erie, Pennsylvania, then began working our way back home with stops at most of Ohio's Lake Erie harbors. Each harbor has its own personality.... The "bridge" is a conveyor between the coal (taconite?) yard/dock (off the screen to your left) and the trains beyond the Coast Guard station. No idea what that ship is. Camera: Chinon Genesis III. Added to Cream of the Crop as my current personal favorite picture.

The Steel Corp's gorgeous Cason J. Callaway takes on coal in 1991. This is what I like about Conneaut.

My favorite harbor: Conneaut, Ohio, as it looked in 1991. This was one of the busiest harbors in the world for much of the twentieth century (it's Lake Erie's nearest port to Pittsburgh), and remains busy enough to be interesting. All packed into a remarkably small area . The harbor's not very wide, and less than a half mile long. The black mechanical thingies are Hulett Unloaders --wonderful and improbable contraptions whose mission in life was unloading iron ore from large ships. They'd already been retired when this photo was taken and have since been removed. Self-unloading ships are doubtless more efficient, and are clearly more versatile, but they're far less interesting to watch.

The replica of Oliver Hazard Perry's relief flagship, Niagara , at Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1991. "Relief" because Perry's original flagship, Lawrence , was rendered inoperable during the Battle of Lake Erie . The replica Niagara , which apparently incorporates some pieces of the original ship, was quite new at the time I took this photo. Shot this one by holding the camera up over a fairly tall fence, then pressing the shutter release. One of the neat things about the Chinon camera is that you've usually got an excellent idea where the thing is pointed, even when you can't look through the viewfinder.

That neat conveyor again, and the Ashtabula Coast Guard Station. The entry to Ashtabula Harbor--or part of the harbor, anyway. 1991. Camera: Chinon Genesis III.

The view into Ashtabula, Ohio, from the edge of the town's big commercial harbor , sometime in 1991. Isn't that bascule bridge across the Ashtabula River just gorgeous? Notice the rail yard in the distance; it's a continuation of the harbor yard shown in the other photo.