CHRIST OF THE OHIO

On this Labor Day, Don, his brother, Bob, and I set off for a cemetery adventure, looking for their descendants in a place called Troy, Indiana.  Somehow, after the cemetery walk, and it was great and there is a whole new picture blog of it ready to post as soon as I have time, I told them I was up to driving around there along the Ohio River as long as they wanted, but they had to feed me first.  So after a refreshing half-hour or so at a McDonald's in Tell City, Indiana, off we went again, this time to find a sculpture those two remembered from their childhoods, a huge statue that sat way up above the highway between those two little rural Indiana towns, that they had never seen up close.  

I doubted them, okay?  Surely, if there had been a huge sculpture up there, something that obviously was awe-inspiring to see, thirty miles from my house, I would have, after thirty or so years here, surely heard of it.  

Suddenly, though, they were like a couple of kids yelling, "I see it, I see it!!" and shouting directions to me about a possible road to it.  I did not see it from the road, of course, I was driving, and I was quite skeptical that these two guys were taking me anywhere but on a wild goose chase as we climbed higher and higher on a dirt road, but imagine my surprise when suddenly, I saw the statue, myself!  

They had never known what it was, had always assumed it was an angel sculpture, but to everyone's surprise, it was a gigantic sculpting of Christ and even had a name:  Christ On the Ohio.

We drove as far as we could, then hiked the rest of the way up a steep hill.  As we came up on the statue, we also came up on a gorgeous view of the Ohio River.  About half an hour and forty photos later, we hiked down, pretty much in awe, and I am going to share a few pictures with you here.

This is the Ohio River and what we saw as we topped the ridge.

Unexpected gem at the top of the ridge in Troy, IN.

The blue sky made the Christ sculpture even more fantastic.

Just an idea how massive this was.  We learned that a German immigrant who was an artist, was commissioned to build this on the property of a physician from Tell City, IN.  He completed it in 1956.

Let there be light, and there was light.