Dubbed as the “Wizard of Scenic Creation”, John Rettig was best known for his set designs, creating many open-air pageants in Cincinnati, North Africa, and Mexico. The son of a German beer brewer, John was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He took an interest in art at an early age, beginning to paint frescos when he was just fifteen. He studied at the McMicken School of Drawing and Design (a division of the University of Cincinnati) and graduated in 1881. He later studied at the Art Academy of Cincinnati under Frank Duveneck and Henry Potthast before traveling to Europe to study in Paris with Collin and Courtois. As an artist, he was a painter, sculptor, muralist, and theatrical set designer. With his younger brother and fellow artist, Martin, he decorated and modeled Rookwood Pottery.  In 1903, he traveled back to Europe and spent most of his time in Northern Holland, in a fishing village named Volendam, which later became his second home. John was the president of the Cincinnati Art Club from 1890 to 1892 and again from 1908 to 1910. He passed away, in Cincinnati, at the age of 75. His paintings are on display in private and public collections around the world.

In continuing with the family tradition, Zach Lykins joined the Armed Forces. He chose the Marine Corps and was immediatly sent to Afghanistan right out of high school. Listen to his oral history in the interview below.

by Dwight Rowe and Ron Hoffmann

     ​On the morning of July 13, 1950, a B-50D Superfortress bomber, tail number 49-0267, from the US Air Force Strategic Air Command (SAC), 97th Bomb Group, took off from Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas and began its long journey in-route to England with a planned stopover at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton Ohio: the aircraft was heavily loaded. It was flying over Warren County, Ohio at around 2:54 in the afternoon when the bomber suddenly fell from the sky and crashed approximately 4 ½ miles north east of Mason Ohio. The crash occurred west of State Route 741 and north of Hamilton Road and was being flown by Captain John Adams Jr who, at the time, had 1020 hours flight time. All sixteen crewmembers on board the aircraft were instantly killed in the crash.
     Clyde Shutts of Lebanon provided eyewitness testimony to the crash and said he was in his barnyard when he heard a racing engine.  He said when he looked up, he saw the plane spiraling, nose down, toward the ground, and it appeared that the plane tried to pull up but then he lost sight of it as it went behind the trees. Mr. Shutts said he then heard a loud explosion.  
     Additional eyewitness said the plane was flying at approximately 7000 feet when it began a fast decent followed by a stall at approximately 4000 feet where it began a spiral and nosedive and hit the ground. The Air Force Crash Report stated the B-50D created a crater in the ground that was approximately 125 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. Upon impact, the explosion it created was deafening. Jerry Hoffmann of Clearcreek Township, Warren County, Ohio was 12 years old at the time of the crash and remembers hearing the explosion almost 11 miles away in Ridgeville. The loud explosion was caused by the fuel the plane carried for its 4 Pratt & Whitney R-4360 prop-driven engines and the deadly cargo it carried in its bomb bay: a Mark-4 nuclear bomb.  
     The Mark-4 nuclear bomb, in use from 1949-1953, was based on the earlier Mark-3 Fat Man bomb design that was used on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945. Luckily for Warren County on that overcast and drizzly day, the bomb did not have its physics-package installed at the time of the crash.
     ​The physics-package is the part of a nuclear bomb that carries the fissile material which is imploded or exploded (depending on nuclear bomb design) to cause the nuclear reaction. The Mark-4 weapon on the B-50D that crashed in Warren County did have its high explosives installed though causing the exceptionally loud explosion. The high explosives are used to detonate the physics-package of the atomic bomb.  
  Almost immediately after the crash, spectators began to arrive at the crash scene, and it was a gruesome sight as there were body parts hanging from the trees and on the ground. The local fire department arrived to extinguish the fire, and began putting up barricades to control the spectators. All highways leading to the crash site were jammed due to spectators trying to get a peek and figure out what was going on.  It was estimated that 5000 people came to view the crash site that day. United States Air Force officers from Wright Patterson Air Force Base began arriving shortly afterwards. They took charge of the crash site and brought in bulldozers and clamshell diggers. They were searching for the nuclear bomb but did not tell anyone what they were looking for.
  Today, after almost 68 years and the loss of 16 lives on that fateful day in Warren County, there are no visible signs to remind us of that horrendous crash and the nuclear bomb that exploded in Warren County. Representatives of the Auto Pilot Branch, Aircraft Laboratory, HQ AMC were at the scene also to aid in the finding of parts of the auto pilot equipment and conduct further investigation into the possibility that the auto pilot may have caused the accident; the only identifiable part of the auto pilot found was an aileron servo motor.
After a lengthy investigation by the US Air Force, Boeing, the aircraft manufacturer, and Pratt & Whitney, the engine manufacturer, the cause of the crash could not be determined because, as the crash report states: “ Due to the lack of information regarding the flight during which the accident occurred, and the almost complete disintegration of the airplane upon impact, it has been impossible to determine what part, or parts, of the airplane failed or malfunctioned, or any other cause factors to which the accident can be attributed.”

*This article first appeared in the HistoricaLog for Summer/Fall 2018 as "B-50D Plabe Crashes with Nuclear Bomb Onboard in Warren County, Ohio"

The annual Civil War Encampment at Glendower Historic Mansion is seeking  sponsorship! Sponsors will have their logos printed in our program and as well on signage at the event. If you would like to be a sponsor, please fill out the application form and return it to Harmon Museum 105 S. Broadway, Lebanon, Ohio.
Entertainment Sponsor ($300) - This year, the lovely ladies of Lafferty Pike will be entertaining guests with music, song and dance.
Education Sponsor ($250) - Guests will get the opportunity to experience close quarter drill, learn campfire cooking, learn about period firearms first hand and more!  
Gunpowder Sponsor ($250) - Gunpowder is expensive. Who doesn't like to hear things go boom?

If you have any questions, please contact Vicky at 513 9320-1817 by email at wchs@wchsmuseum.org.

​Beedle Station was the first settlement in Warren County and consisted of three buildings. Two were lost to time long ago, but the last had been converted into a Victorian home and lived in until the 1970s! An order for demolition was put in for the removal of the building but our mission to preserve and present history led our director to intercede. Now, with the help of a team of volunteers, the cabin is being cleared of debris and will be moved to its new home in the park next to Harmon Museum. Learn more about the recovery/renovation project on the Dayton Daily News page.

C.F. Payne is an artist-illustrator whose artwork has graced the covers of Time Magazine, Readers Digest, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times Book Review and Sunday Magazine, MAD Magazine, der Spiegel, U.S. News and World Report, The Atlantic Monthly, Texas Monthly, Boys Life and more. He has been commissioned to paint countless politicians, authors and entertainers. He has illustrated ten children’s picture books, including The Remarkable Farkle McBride and Micawber, written by John Lithgow.
His artwork has been exhibited at The Cincinnati Art Museum, The National Portrait Gallery, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration, The Selby Gallery at Ringling College of Art and Design and numerous college and university galleries.

​Internationally recognized artist, John Vakaleris, recently wrapped a month long show of his work, that was on display in the Mote Gallery, at Harmon Museum. To show his appreciation, the artist has donated his work, Vakaleris Vacation, to Harmon Museum, with the intent that the piece be sold and proceeds used to benefit the museum. The work is oil on canvas and measures 30" x 30". The painting is currently up for sale at the artist's suggested price of $3,600.

This morning (June 21st), the sun rose on summer and the longest day of the year. Solstice is Latin for "sun standing still," which references the sun's placement in the sky, in this case, at it's highest point of the year.
This day has been celebrated for thousands of years and is one of the first astronomical observations of humankind.
Long thought to be an ancient site for such observation, Stonehenge (5,000 years old) is visited each year by thousands to view this morning's sunrise. You can too with the new 360 degree camera they recently installed; just turn the clock back to sunrise by clocking the blocks at the top (23:54 our time and has a yellow box around it).
Happy Solstice and happy Summer!

-From the desk of John Zimkus-
​
"Today, the world honors and remembers that 50 years ago Apollo XI astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man ever to step foot on the moon. Neil, however, would want to be remembered for more than that lunar walk five decades ago. Neil was a more than that. He was more than a Korean War Naval fighter pilot who flew 78 combat missions, or the civilian test pilot of the X-15 rocket/jet. He was more than an aerospace engineer and a university professor.
He was a husband and a father. Neil Armstrong was also our neighbor. He was a citizen of Warren County, of Turtlecreek Township and of the Lebanon, Ohio area. For 23 years, Neil Alden Armstrong lived less than two miles from downtown Lebanon. He lived here longer than any other place during his 82 years on this earth.
Many magazine and newspaper articles written about Neil refer to him as a recluse, a person who prized his privacy overall and was reluctant to give interviews. But, as many of you know, Neil did not live a solitary life nor did he withdrawal from society here in Warren County. He helped build the Countryside YMCA by serving on its first board of trustees. He had an office in town for over 20 years. He loved eating at her Village Ice Cream Parlor in Lebanon.
As James R. Hansen author of First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong, an authorized 2005 biography, pointed out in a speech in 2014 at The Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio. “The idea that he was a recluse and wanted to avoid the media was false. He did not want to be rich or famous based on being the first man on the moon alone. He left that part of his life for the history books.”
Perhaps the best way to describe Neil can be found in the statement his family released through NASA after he death on August 25, 2012. “Neil Armstrong was  . . . a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job.”
Neil, being a former Naval Aviator would probably have agreed with Admiral William “Bull” Halsey statement that, “There are no extraordinary men .  .  .  just extraordinary circumstances that ordinary men are forced to deal with.” Neil said multiple times that he was not an explorer. He was simply a pilot doing what he was trained to do.
Another part of the Armstrong family's statement read, “For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty.”
With that understood, I think he would have appreciated, that back on October 7, 2014, the City of Lebanon had a new 3/4 mile roadway dedicated as Neil Armstrong Way. It connects Ohio SR 123 and SR 63. This small but useful stretch of road serves his former neighbors of Warren County, Turtlecreek Township and Lebanon, Ohio. It makes their lives a little easier and safer. That would be The Neil Armstrong Way."