eBay

Excellent condition or better.

Front cover-The peaceful fishing in

Starved Rock State Park, Illinois, is in

marked contrast to the Indian wars that

gave the place its name. Paintings by

Cecile Johnson illustrate Edward Barry's

story of the park, starting on page 30.

FORD TIMES comes to you through the

courtesy of your local dealer to add to

your motoring pleasure and information.

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VOL. 49 NO. 10

OCTOBER 1957

FORD TIMES

Contents

"The Day" in Chester County

The Skirmish Line Extends

Arizona's Double Autumn

Kentucky's Fossil Falls.

Church from a Pack Saddle

JAY DUGAN

BURGESS H. SCOTT

OREN ARNOLD

KENT PREVIETTE

RAFE GIBBS

The Saguenay's Color Spectacle.

West Virginia's Covered Bridges.

GAYLE JAXON SURFACE

The Peace of Starved Rock.

EDWARD BARRY

Let the Chill Breezes Blow.

Lancaster, Ohio-My County Fair... 38

Car Tests for Home Owners.

ANNE ZIMMER

Modern Link with Virginia's Past..

MARSHALL FISHWICK

JENNIE LEE MARLING

GRACE BILGER

Olathe-Mother of the Huddle.

Favorite Recipes of Famous Taverns...

Seat Belt Report-8; Hangman's Tree-9; Custom

Conversions-16; Roving Editor's Page-34; October

in Wisconsin's Dells-35; Gadgetry for Gadgeteers-42;

One-Picture Story-43; Americamera-55;

Game Section-62; Letters-64.

The Ford Times is published monthly by

Ford Motor Co., The American Road, Dearborn, Michigan

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Pennsylvania Turnpike

CHESTER COUNTY

Philadelphia

"The Day" in Chester County

by Jay Dugan

paintings by Ben Eisenstat

THE FIRST SATURDAY in October strange and wondrous

things occur in Pennsylvania's Chester County. More

than 2,500 visitors, white tags dangling from their lapels, hap-

pily explore some forty grand old homes, many of Revolution-

ary vintage. The owners of these homes stand politely aside

while perfect strangers troop through their living rooms,

kitchens and bedrooms, peer at family heirlooms, and ask

questions about their ancestors!

This planned invasion of local privacy, called "Chester

County Day," has been held annually since 1936, except dur-

ing the war years. The proceeds from the sale of its white tags

are used for the benefit of Chester County Hospital. The tags ad-

mit the bearers to half a hundred sites along a suggested route.

Annual estate, garden and old home excursions are not

uncommon. But Chester County Day, in some ways, is unique.

For example, the "tour" is different each year. Within a few

miles of West Chester, county seat and perennial starting

point, there are dozens of old homes, schools and churches

preserved virtually intact since early American times. This

permits diversity.

What guests of "The Day" see is a rather select segment of

Above right: Interior of "Waynesborough"-built in 1722 by Isaac Wayne.

Below right: "Bellevue Farm"-the original farmhouse was built in 1720.

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California-

Hangman's Tree

by Arthur T. Bawden... painting by Richard Yip

T THE SUMMIT of impressive Priest's Grade on California

Highway 120, which is the short-cut route from Stockton

to Yosemite Park, you come to the early gold digging com-

munity of Big Oak Flat. A few miles up the road is Groveland,

known in the old days as Garrote, meaning "to strangle."

Here the vigilantes hanged a number of law breakers. The

gallows tree has disappeared, but a few miles farther on, at

Second Garrote, the famous hangman's tree still stands, as

pictured above. A nearby cottage, now a museum, is all that

remains of the old gold settlement. Francis Bret Harte once

lived in this cottage-so it is said.

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The Skirmish Line Extends

by Burgess H. Scott

PRES

RECISION FIRING of muzzle loading rifles, muskets, and pistols

is a sport of long standing in this country, and its adherents

number well toward ten thousand men and women. Of more

recent and surprising growth, however, is the branch of this

of Civil War arms.

pastime devoting itself exclusively to the collecting and firing

Groups participating in this friendly revival of the War

Between the States are Northern and Southern marksmen

groups known as skirmish teams and bearing unit names that

hark back to the grim 1860's: among them, the 1st Virginia

Greys, the 1st New Jersey Volunteers, the 1st Richmond

Rifles, the 81st Pennsylvania Infantry. (See "North-South

Rifle Reunion," FORD TIMES, APRIL, 1954.)

After six years of North-South Skirmishes conducted by

individual teams, members representing twenty-one shooting

groups organized, in the fall of 1956, the North-South Skirmish

Association. Now this parent body includes thirty skirmish

teams with a total membership of about a thousand men.

The accompanying photographs indicate the widespread

interest in these colorful Skirmishes. Those on the opposite page

were taken last October at the 14th North-South Skirmish at

Camp A. P. Hill on the A. P. Hill Military Reservation at

Bowling Green, Virginia, between Fredericksburg and Rich-

mond. The scenes on page 13 are from an unrelated shoot held

the same month at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michig

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FALLS OF THE OHIO

Louisville

Kentucky's Fossil Falls

by Kent Previette

photographs by Billy Davis

NOLONIES of coral that lived a quarter of a billion years ago

can be seen in fossil form today near Louisville, Kentucky,

during periods when the Ohio River is at low stage.

These creatures, piling up in death in a tropical sea,

created a reef across the bed of the Ohio River which causes

the rapids known as the Falls of the Ohio. Early-day boat-

men, pausing there to figure out the task of getting their

craft over the falls, founded the settlement that later became

the city of Louisville.

Tourists today who make the fast and comfortable crossing

of the Ohio on U.S. Highway 31E over the George Rogers

Clark Memorial Bridge are less than a mile upstream from

these falls where history, both geologic and American, was

made. The American history came from the men who, in the

late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, faced danger

and even death in passing their keelboats, flatboats, and arks

over these treacherous rapids to transport goods from Pitts-

burgh to New Orleans.

The geologic history was made by the varied marine life

which formed the rocky obstruction to the waters of the Ohio.

Now there is little or no trace of the boatmen-save in history

books-but the fossilized remains of the creatures are there for

the looking in late summer and early fall when the big dam

Above left: The falls area is a favorite of birdwatchers.

Below left: Potholes below the dam fascinate all ages.

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PHILIPPL WA

SCENE OF EAST LANG BACTE

West Virginia's Covered Bridges

story and painting by Gayle Jaxon Surface

HE COVERED WOODEN BRIDGES of the horse and buggy days

Tare rapidly giving way to the march of time and progress.

Modern methods of bridge and road building are steadily

taking their toll of these ancient landmarks.

The majority of these historic structures date back to ante

bellum days and have woven about them many tales of witches,

ghosts and legends that would put an old English castle to

shame. One such bridge is located at Philippi, West Virginia,

over the Tygart River on U.S. Route 250, near the scene of the

first land battle of the War Between the States. It was used by

both the Confederate and Union troops; among the latter

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that one band of Indians starved another

there by besieging them. Regardless of

that, the scene is peaceful now. Boys fish

the river bank and tourists saunter at

leisure on paths where violence was bred.

Besides beauty and history, there are

other reasons for visiting Starved Rock

in the fall. A liking for such sciences as

geology and botany, and a fondness for

sports like horseback riding and boat

riding are among them.

Still another is the magnificent lodge

which the state has built. To come into

this lodge just when the evening chill is

creeping up from the river and when

sunset is smoldering in the west is to

experience a delight which seems more

poignant at this than any other season.

Starved Rock is located on State

Route 71 and U. S. 6, between La Salle

and Ottawa, Illinois, about a hundred

miles west-southwest of Chicago and

225 miles north-northeast of St. Louis.

The park entrance is two miles south

of the village of Utica, the site where

Pere Marquette established the first

Catholic church.

Above: Illinois Canyon, one of

the largest canyons in Starved

Rock State Park. Right: Pulpit

Rock, shown here, is seen on the.

frequent and popular launch

trips to Horseshoe Canyon. Be-

cause of a dam, travelers make

the trip in two launches.

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October in Wisconsin's Dells

by Larry Notman... painting by William J. Peterson

RIMITIVE ARTIST William J. Peterson took up painting late

Pin life, a heart condition having retired him from his former

work, and painting now provides him with recreation and

pleasure. He found the inspiration for his fall foliage scene,

above, in Adams County in the vicinity of Wisconsin's Dells, a

favorite area among tourists. You reach it by swinging north

off U.S. Highway 12 onto State 13 at the town of Wisconsin

Dells. Coleridge might have been describing this peaceful land:

"A green and silent spot among the hills, a small and silent

dell." But in October the green is on the pines alone. The hard-

woods blaze with red and yellow and a galaxy of browns,

fringing the lake's unconquerable blue.

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americamera

Lexington's Hunt-Morgan House

photograph by John E. Thierman

NE of the newest attractions in history-rich Lexington,

Kentucky, is the recently opened home of General John

Hunt Morgan, the fabulous Confederate cavalry raider. The

imposing gray brick structure in the Gratz Park area of the

city is formally known as the Hunt-Morgan House and con-

tains furnishings of the storied ante bellum era.

Also on view is a growing array of effects of the colorful

Southern officer who has been called the Thunderbolt of the

Confederacy. His saddle, his sword, his pistol and holster, and

his drum are among the items to be seen. Handbills offering

one thousand dollars for the general's capture after his escape

in Ohio as a Federal prisoner are fastened to cabinet doors.

Another renowned if not as glamorous a personage was

born here. The Foundation which restored the structure

and maintains it as a public shrine points out that the

eral's nephew, Dr. Thomas Hunt Morgan, was in some

respects a much more important resident of the house. The

doctor did monumental research in biology and experimental

zoology, and is Kentucky's only Nobel Prize winner.

gen-

The house was built about 1814 by John Wesley Hunt,

General Morgan's grandfather, who came to Lexington from

New Jersey in 1794, and whose success in pioneer business

ventures gained him the title, "first millionare of the West."

Design of the Hunt-Morgan House, with its unusually

graceful winding stairway, is said to be the work of Benjamin

Henry Latrobe, the architect who introduced the lines of the

Greek Revival into this country.

The Hunt-Morgan House is open to visitors for a small fee

every day including holidays.