User:Georgeccampbell

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 whole basket party thing is so over. Visit this park, and you'll enjoy beauty and solitude.
• Camp Chase - Confederate soldiers died like flies in Columbus' 1860's POW camp.
• Central Ohio Railroad
• Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad - they never made it to Cleveland. Now they want to spend $800,000,000 per mile to put a high speed train on the same route. I estimate about 10 passengers per day.
• 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? Now you blow through there at 90 mph thanking God that 20/20's expose on New Rome, Ohio's speed trap resulted in their unincorporation.
• Defense Homes Corporation - somebody had to build the house I now live in, and who had money for that in 1942? Thanks Uncle Sam, I love my house.
• Fairlington, Virginia - I started this page and it really took off. A sister project to Colonial Hills.
• 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 generating lauditory prose for Kurt Cobaine.
• 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 instead.

Articles I've made substantial contributions to

• Alum Creek - Added the section about potential dam failure that was discovered in 1975 and rectified over the next five years with a complex and expensive retrofit. I know the Army Corps said they fixed it, but I can't understand how those people in the particle board palaces just downstream sleep at night.
• 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 predict that 80,000,000 people will buy real estate with no money down and believe that it will appreciate at 20% per year until they are all trillionaires. Not.
• 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 only Doric ediface with a parking garage underneath.
• 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. This article needs lots of work. So does the area surrounding the neighborhood, for that matter. ¡Demandamos la tapa de la colina para México!
• Wills Creek (Ohio) - how about that 2005 flood? Since they built the flood control projects starting in 1938, 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 its 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.