“Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall….” Daniel 5:5-12
“Everybody’s Leaving Town….”[1]
This old truck is ready to haul one more load of scrap glass down from Pennsylvania or one more truck load of crated marbles to the rail depot.
It was a misty cool morning as we climbed down the ridge where our cabin nestled under the hardwoods. Leaves were just starting to turn. We drove slowly over the bridge across Bonds Creek and looked up and down the stream. There were two doe fording the Creek here a few days before, but it was quiet and still this morning.
It is always sad to leave camp or cabin. Whether we have stayed a few days or weeks, it is never easy for us to leave. Sometimes we have been through storms while in camp; one or both have been sick or hurt while in camp, but still it has never been easy to leave. And it was even more so as we made our way down slope toward Cairo because we knew this would be our last visit to one of our favorite places. And this, my friends, is our final chapter from our Road Trip to West Virginia.
Marbles, Marbles, Marbles!
Cairo & Heaton Agate Co. (1946 – 1971) Site
We visited the Heaton site as we drove through Cairo. In May of 2022 we bought marble seconds and cullet from collectors at the Marbles in the Mountains sale. We believe that this material is from the second sanctioned dig at the site. Groups of collectors paid to dig at the site once the building had been torn down. While visiting in West Virginia we learned that there have now been three such digs and we doubt that there will be any more.
Something New in the Mix
One thing we discovered in the Heaton cullet, which we have not seen at marble dig sites before, is pieces of graduated cylinders, beakers, and test tubes. We don’t know the maker nor whether or not it is borosilicate.
While in Parkersburg we had visited The Oil & Gas Museum (http://www.oilandgasmuseum.org/) and one of their exhibits displays a collection of these laboratory tubes. When we saw the Heaton cullet we realized that the oil and gas industry in West Virginia was more intertwined with the glass and marble industries than we had ever realized. Of course, we had long known that marble companies like Akro Agate located where they did because of the inexpensive price of natural gas. And now we knew that oil and gas supplied the marble makers with glass, too !
We find the history of oil and gas in West Virginia fascinating. This quote is from the paper “History of WV Mineral Industries—Oil and Gas”: “The oil and gas industry in West Virginia actually began as an outgrowth of the salt industry. In the early 1800s, oil and gas had no importance in West Virginia, and though salt makers frequently hit oil or gas in their drilling, they considered it a nuisance. “ This paper is online in PDF format.
This photograph is a section of the cement floor at Heaton. As you can see, the cement floor was poured over a foundation of marbles and cullet!
The bottom of another piece of floor and a brick from one of the kilns. Notice a fairly whole marble stuck to the cement!
“Parting is such sweet sorrow…”[2]
Well, it was past time to roll. We headed west to Parkersburg and then south toward Charleston.
We have never seen anything else even remotely like this window! There are marbles and contemporary art marbles in the little glass fittings. We think that the whole window frame is made of cast iron. But if that’s the case then it must be much older than the marbles. The entire frame is a work of art.
Blenko Glass
We took a break in Milton and spent some time at the Blenko visitor center (https://blenko.com/pages/blenko-history). Blenko is a family company which was started in 1893 and which moved to Milton in 1921.
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Blenko glass colors are electric: “Exquisite color, skilled craftsmen, and imaginative designs have made Blenko famous in the time-honored craft of hand-blown glass.” There is no other glass like it. Big sellers include water bottles, drink glasses and bar-ware, sun catchers, curiosities, and garden glass.
At the visitor’s center we shopped in the showroom, visited the museum, and sat awhile on the observation deck and watched the craftsmen make fall pumpkins. Blenko has never made marbles. But will they? We heard some interesting rumors while in West Virginia about Blenko marbles. But for now just rumors.
Finally west to Barbourville and Huntington and on to Lexington and then south for home. We accomplished all of our goals. It was an excellent trip for us although our service dog Mia picked up a hypersensitivity to something and needed a visit to Urgent Care before we got home.
- Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues.” Song by Danny O’Keefe ↑
- Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet ↑
