George Campbell's User Page

Articles Which I've Initiated

I live in Central Ohio and am interested in local history. Sometimes my interests wander to railroads as well.

• Black Hand Gorge - scenic area was exploited during the early industrial revolution. Now the only employer out there makes baskets, and that fad is fading. Visit this park, and you'll enjoy beauty and solitude.
• Camp Chase - Confederate soldiers took ill in Columbus' 1860's POW camp.
• Central Ohio Railroad
• Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad
• Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis Railroad
• Colonial Hills - the subdivision where my home is located.
• Columbus and Xenia Railroad - first railroad in Columbus. Can you imagine that people in Columbus actually bought tickets to ride to West Jefferson or Alton?
• Defense Homes Corporation - somebody had to build the house I now live in, and who had money for that in 1942? Thanks Uncle Sam, We love our house!
• Fairlington, Virginia - I started this page and it really took off. A sister project to Colonial Hills.
• Ralston Steel Car Company - A major employer in Columbus, Ohio from 1905-1953. Located adjacent to the Defense Finance and Warehousing Operations out on the east side. The buildings still serve as warehouse space.
• Rogers E. M. Whitaker - aka E.M. Frimbo. Gourmond and train buff who wrote for the New Yorker.
• Rowlee Steiner - Columbus railroad historian. This page was removed in November, 2006 by the Wiki community who deemed the topic "unencyclopedic" and indeed declared it to be dull and "crufty", whatever that means. After disposing of my article the community turned its efforts towards adding another 16,000 words to Brittany Spear's article. If only Rowlee had bared his midriff...
• Todd Tibbals - the architect who designed my house. They'll probably go after this article next, if only they could tear themselves away from summarizing the third season of Scooby Doo.
• Top20online - A description of the top20 family of web directories, founded by Dr. James Rutherford.
• Union Station (Columbus, Ohio) - remember trains? Your grandparents may have actually ridden on one to go someplace. Thank God we got rid of all those passenger cars and spent our money on off ramps, radar guns and stop sticks.

Articles I've made substantial contributions to

• Alum Creek Lake - I've always liked this dam. It has a great retro 1970's playground for the kids with a real live steel merry-go-round that must weigh five hundred pounds. This dam is also fascinating in that it is one of the few that the Army Corps has gotten cold feet over after construction was complete. Read about the extensive retrofit they performed...
• Ameriflora - came up with some slides on E-Bay. Wish I had gone but I didn't care about flowers back in 1992. My loss. In fact, nobody in Columbus cared either. Hence, Ameriflora's loss (of money). I don't think high culture works in a city that thinks "Earl Pitts" on WTVN 610 is the funniest thing they've ever heard. Pitts off.
• Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad - 70 years after it was abandoned you still can't travel to Cincinnati on the ground at 105 mph.
• Columbus Dispatch - Used to get up at 5am every morning from 1977-79 delivering the Citizen Journal, which was published at the Dispatch printing plant. The Dispatch back then was the afternoon paper. The Dispatch killed off the CJ in the 80's and switched to a morning format. Now they don't even let kids deliver newspapers anymore only adults.
• Jeffrey Frankel - I could care less but someone put this article up as a "one sentence wonder" which I can't stand. If you care enough to start an article, I think you could at least muster a paragraph or two. Apparently this guy is some sort of superstar economist who can mathematically prove that if you let people buy real estate with no money down balloon loans then something bad will eventually happen. He's paid millions for these insights...
• Interstate 270 (Ohio) - I want to add a map showing when each section was built. This project was perhaps the only visionary accomplishment Columbus, Ohio ever undertook. It led to 40 years of non-stop economic growth. Let's build another one.
• Lead Paint - "refresh your home with White Lead paint!" I love it.
• Little Miami Railroad
• Ohio and Erie Canal - I came across a book from the early 1900's that gave a great history. Kiddies writing book reports couldn't do better than consult this article.
• Ohio State Fair - This article is a hopeless mess and needs a total rewrite. I tried to fix it once but you know what - you can't polish a turd. Its a great topic near and dear to my heart, so I hope to return to it soon.
• Ohio Statehouse - I live in a house with a crawlspace. Whenever I dream of adding a basement, I am inspired by the 1962 Ohio State Legislature, who did just that to the State House. Its the world's largest Greek Revival building with a parking garage underneath. Last year they spent 50% of the legislative session to insure "With God, All Things are Possible" stayed the state's motto. Having beaten off the godless ACLU, they then reported that funding Ohio's schools was indeed not possible.
• Toledo, Port Clinton and Lakeside Railway
• USS Ohio (BB-12) - there I was at the Ohio Historical Society and what did I behold, but the very bell from this very ship. A digital pic was promptly added to the article.
• Westgate, Columbus, Ohio - my wife grew up here. I actually haven't contributed much to it ... yet.
• Wills Creek (Ohio) - how about that 2005 flood? Since the Huntington District of the Army Corps of Engineers built the flood control projects starting in 1938 (in reaction to the mighty 1913 floods), Ohio has never come closer to losing one or more dams than they did on January 14th, 2005.
• Worthington, Ohio - I wrote all of the history section. Basically it's 200 years of generally polite people going along and getting along. It might make dull history, but its a great way to live your life!
• Xenia, Ohio

Other useful links

• My personal web page.