Fifty years ago this week Bluffton experienced the sound of “a thousand freight trains.”
That sound was the Palm Sunday, April 11, 1965, tornado.
At 9:45 p.m., it ripped across the rural Richland and Orange Township landscape. It was like no other natural disaster experienced prior or since then in this community.
Had the tornado’s path been one mile north it would have struck the Village of Bluffton. Had it been 600 feet farther north it would have hit 32 planes parked at the Bluffton Airport.
While Bluffton experiences one daily short and slow round trip freight train every day - things are different in Ada.
Ada's rail traffic is now more frequent, with longer trains and traveling at higher speeds than residents are used to. A rebirth of the line through Ada for freight happened this winter.
A report published by the Great Lakes Geological Survey - Eastern Division warns that the National Quarry, bordering Jefferson Street and the Norfolk & Western Railroad, could be empty by 2017.
The cause of the water loss is due to seams discovered in the quarry regolith, which is directly above the bedrock.
The Ohio Northern University student chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) captured seventh place at the SAE Aero Design East competition in Lakeland, Fla., from March 13-15.
The advisor for the group was Dr. Jed E. Marquart, Bluffton, professor of mechanical engineering at ONU.
The ONU team, nicknamed the “Bad News Bears,” participated in the “Regular Class” of the competition and competed among a field of 37 teams in the “Regular Class,” including national championship teams from Brazil, Canada, Puerto Rico, India, and Poland.
Did you catch that Monday night sunset that only one thousands words could describe? How could you not notice.
The Icon staff, on a walk, captured some of the images on a cell phone. We offer a small sliver of the purples, golds, reds, blacks and everything inbetween.
Open the photo attachment below. Can you identify the location of the photos? Photos by Mary Pannabecker Steiner
