Of nostalgic
landmarks around the Marblehead Penninsula, two wistful notes come to
mind. One is the larger than life
fiberglass figure setting near the Shell Station (I think) on route 163. He’s in sad need of repair.
Not too
far from there is the former Mystery Hill.
No longer in operation, there’s a cave and an entryway that went to
somewhere long before I came to live in the area. Recently the vendors that were there closed
it down for good. The old fiberglass
dinosaur looks so lonely there. His tail
is all bandaged up and covered in plastic.
Here's where there used to be the only bridge that spanned between the main land and the Marblehead Penninsula. Now it's a state park, and the strangest one I've ever seen. It's easy to find when you take the Bayshore Road exit from Route 2. Turning right a.s.a.p. from the exit, you'll soon see the state park sign a few hundred feet traveling as if to Port Clinton and Portage County. Make a left by the state park sign, (sorry, I can,t think of the name of "park.") And that's probably because, as I said earlier, it's the weirdest park I've ever seen. It's nothing more than a road with rails on either side, and a few dumpsters.
Fishermen and women go across the railing, climb some steep rocks to get close to the water, and they go fishing. For others, it may be a place for lovers to have clandestine, romantic interludes. For high profile people, this could mean trouble if seen there in an embrace with someone who isn't the spouse. This actually happened quite to the embarrassment of a local resort organization situated on Lake Erie. He was high profile enough to come out of it unscathed despite the photos that were shown in the local rags.
As the story goes, the bridge used to lead to Castalia, a tiny, family oriented town. Once the powers that be decided the old bridge was dangerous and had to be demolished, the town of Castalia disallowed it. The citizenry simply wanted a nice place to raise a family. The mayor and chief of police are the same person.
