20200921: MAGA Protest Against Stupidity, Swanton, Ohio

Looks like this one is west of the mistake on the lake also known as Cleveland.

Wiki is not much help today:

A post office called Swanton has been in operation since 1827.^[6] The village takes its name from nearby Swan Creek.^[7]

In the heyday of steam power, Swanton was home to the A. D. Baker Company, a manufacturer of steam powered traction engines and road contractors’ equipment. It was at the Baker Company that an improved valve gear for steam engines was developed. A Baker employee named Gifford is credited with the initial idea, which was subsequently developed into the Baker valve gear and patented in 1903. Baker valve ear was eventually manufactured by The Pilliod Company, another Swanton business. Baker valve gear from Pilliod saw widespread use on U.S. steam locomotives for railroads in the first half of the 20th century.

On February 15, 1992, Air Transport International Flight 805 crashed in Swanton, killing all four people on board.^[8]

On June 6, 2019, a vehicle left parked on the tracks next to the Main Street railroad crossing resulted in a derailment that knocked out power to the town and much of the surrounding area, and hampered traffic on one of the main rail lines linking the Midwest to the East Coast.^[9]

And, as of this evening, the keepers of the wiki page can make another entry:

On Monday, September 21, 2020, President Donald J. Trump held a Make America Great Again protest against stupidity at the airport.

Swanton does, though, have a unique claim to fame.

Swanton Memorial Park is home to one of E. M. Viquesney‘s “Spirit of the American Doughboy” statues. The sculpture was one of several donated as a gift by France to U.S. cities that had lost many soldiers during World War I. It is described as a “Figure of a World War I infantryman advancing through the stumps and barbed wire of No Man’s Land. He holds a grenade in his raised proper right hand and a rifle in his proper left hand.”^[13] The Smithsonian Institution Research Information System lists the statue as being installed in 1926, “administered by City of Swanton, Parks Division, Swanton, Ohio.”^[14] Also according to the Smithsonian, the inscription on the statue reads as follows: “Spirit of the/American Doughboy”/copyrighted by E. M. Viquesney/Georgia (On stone base:) SWANTON REMEMBERS/TO THE MEMORY/OF THE/VALIANT SONS OF/SWANTON & COMMUNITY/WORLD WAR/1917-1918/THIS MEMORIAL IS/LOVINGLY DEDICATED/WE HOLD THEM IN OUR/GRATEFUL HEARTS WITH/REVERENCE AND HONOR/FOREVER/ERECTED 1926 unsigned.^[13]

I’ll add live links to this post during the late afternoon as they become available.

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In the meantime, please post tweets and videos below of what’s going on in Ohio, and any travel stories you may have of the place.