Members of the local community were among those who volunteered their time to keep track of the number of birds at their feeders and other locations as part of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.
A special gathering took place this week at Mill Creek MetroParks Ford Nature Center. Emily Greve of Youngstown, a metroparks educator, said the count done Feb. 14 to 17 benefits Cornell University and involves the Audubon Society and other bird organizations globally helping to count the number of birds they see.
“All anyone had to do was for 15 minutes count the number of birds they see in any of the four days and submit the information on e-Bird,” Greve said.
Greve, who spoke to people at the Ford Nature Center on selecting the best binoculars for watching birds, said people can stay inside and watch birds come and go from several feeders filled with sunflower seeds, nuts and dried mealworms.
“People can learn how to identify birds and record the data. For some people, watching birds is a hobby,” Greve said.
Greve said she recorded the birds at her home — as many people do — but they can also record birds at parks and other locations.
“Some people go to birding hot spots where they know there will be a lot of bird species. Many go to the Mill Creek MetroParks bird sanctuary. You can travel wherever you want to count birds whether it is your own backyard or public parks. You can do it by yourself or with a group of friends,” Greve said.
Those helping to record data saw blue jays, goldfinch, black-capped chickadees, blue birds, sparrows,wrens and several species of woodpeckers.
“We had 16 different species of birds in our count. The feeders here help attract more birds because of the source of food,” Greve said.
She said in the winter months birds will come to the feeders because their food elsewhere may be under snow and less accessible.
She said in addition to the regular birds, there are also occasionally hawks that try to get the birds.
“The Great Backyard Bird Count is a really good way to get people who may not normally be interested in birds involved. Birding is very accessible and something everyone can do. You do not even have to go outside if you are unable. This allows people to get involved with nature,” she said.
WHAT PEOPLE SAW
Angel Lempke of Austintown said she comes to Mill Creek Park often to see the birds, and she saw where a group was asking people to watch for bald eagle nests.
She said she saw a nest by Wick Park in Youngstown and actual eagles on Lake Newport at Mill Creek Park. Lempke looked out the windows at Mill Creek Park and saw bluebirds, woodpeckers, starlings and nuthatches.
“I got a bird feeder for Christmas last year, so I do see many types of birds at my house. I love coming to the park too,” she said.
Laura Frost of Boardman, who is a science teacher with the Boardman Local School District, said it is great to be part of the bird count and she has asked her students to participate.
“We have done science projects related to birds,” Frost said.
Frost and her husband James and their son, Theo, 2, were watching the birds at the feeders.
BIRDERS ELSEWHERE
In Trumbull County, bird watchers also were taking part in the Backyard Bird Count.
Amanda and Matt Sloan of Champion said they counted birds not only at their home, but at the north end of Hoagland Blackstub Road, called “The Tubes” at the Mosquito Lake causeway in Mecca.
“People can record individually, as couples or in groups if they want. We recorded data all four days and had 35 checklists,” Amanda Sloan said.
The Sloans also drove to the Marblehead Lighthouse in Ottawa County where they were able to see a rare barrow’s goldeneye duck, which is a Eurasian species that now lives in Ohio.
“There is a common goldeneye but the barrow’s goldeneye is not as common,” Amanda said.
“The causeway was a good spot. The water was open and you could see diving ducks and geese all over. Wherever you go and the water is open is phenomenal for bird watching,” she said.
Amanda said a month ago, the spot would not have been good since there was ice on the lake and there would be few birds, but once the water was exposed, birds came.
The Sloans recorded 70 species of birds and were second place in the state on E-Bird, where people can record data
They also have taken part in the Christmas Bird Count.
“We are glad that the data we record will help science,” Amanda said.
Jason Lee, park naturalist at Mosquito Lake State Park, said he has taken part in and organized events for the Christmas Bird Count in the middle of December in parts of Trumbull County.
Lee said plans are underway for “Big Birding Weekend” over Memorial Day weekend at Mosquito Lake Park with different programs and birding groups.
Jason Short, president of the Audubon Society of the Mahoning Valley, said he encourages people who enjoy bird watching to take part in any bird count event.
“This is a way people can connect with nature and help gather science data. I tell them to watch the feeders in their yards or find other locations,” Short said.
He said there is a variety of birds in the local area since some shore birds leave for the winter migrating south but then come back in the spring.
Like the Sloans, Short also traveled this winter to Marblehead Lighthouse to see the barrow’s goldeneye duck.
He said he also has gone to Meigs County to see the lazuli bunting.
He said the first weekend in May there will be a birding event at Beaver Creek State Park in Columbiana Short said he began bird watching during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has found many people ages 40 and older enjoy the activity, especially those who are retired.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2025-02-24 08:18:502025-02-24 08:19:56Tracking our feathered friends-Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is complete
A sudden blizzard didn’t deter about a dozen people from gathering at Ford Nature Center Saturday morning for a lecture on the history of Lanterman’s Mill by its manager, Eric Simione.
Simione was a Boardman High School teacher for 33 years until he retired in 2023. He loves to research everything from labor history and the Supreme Court to rock ‘n’ roll, as evidenced by his discussion the previous evening about Bruce Springsteen and his song “Youngstown.”
Last year, he became the manager at Lanterman’s Mill, where he maintains the facility, schedules tours and operates the gift shop. Although he grew up in Youngstown and moved to Boardman at age 10, he admitted that as a child he did not know Mill Creek Park intimately so he continues to learn more about the park, including the mill.
He noted the 180-year-old structure is an iconic image. “If you do a Google search of Youngstown one of the first things you come up with is Lanterman’s Mill,” Simione said.
In 1797, Phineas Hill and Isaac Powers surveyed land for owner John Young. When they saw the waterfall, they knew it was valuable property. Young agreed to sell them the acreage under the condition that they set up a grist mill as quickly as possible to feed the growing population.
The “Hill Mill” operated for about 20 years. It was not remarkable considering at the time there were 1,861 water-propelled mills in Ohio and 17 in Mahoning County alone, Simione said.
The second building on the site was the Eli Baldwin Mill, which was erected in 1823. In 1843, it was washed away by a flood.
Two years later, Samuel Kimberly and his brother-in-law, German Lanterman, built the structure that stands today. Simione noted that Kimberly has been mostly lost to local history and joked that he was “the Art Garfunkel” of the partnership.
Because of what happened to the Baldwin Mill, Lanterman and Kimberly used sandstone and limestone walls that are 10 feet thick at the bottom. It is wider at the base to give it more stability.
The mill operated until 1888. It was then used for swimming and sunbathing, complete with a changing room and a hot dog vendor. Eventually it became a nature museum and remained so until the 1980s, when it was restored to serve as a mill.
It was rumored to be a distillery during Prohibition. Although Simione has not found any proof of this, Youngstown City Council outlawed swimming in 1918 — right before the 18th Amendment was ratified — and the nature museum was established in 1933 just as alcohol was again legalized.
Today, Lanterman’s Mill greets 12,000 visitors from May to October plus the annual Christmas at the Mill event. This does not include countless hikers in all seasons who stop to admire the scenery, Simione said.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2025-02-18 10:00:442025-02-18 10:00:44Official unlocks history of Lanterman’s Mill
No one in the Mahoning Valley expected the biggest rock star in the world to be an ally. But that’s what occurred when Bruce Springsteen released “The Ghost of Tom Joad” on Nov. 21, 1995.
Among its dozen tracks was “Youngstown,” which, in less than four minutes, encapsulated the origins, boom and fall of the area’s steel industry.
Eric Simione, manager of Lanterman’s Mill, took a deep historical dive into the lyrics of the song during Mill Creek MetroParks’ “Winter Talks: Youngstown — The Story Behind Bruce Springsteen’s Tale of Our Hometown” Friday at the Ford Nature Center’s Education Building.
“If you go back about a decade before this, you really didn’t get much bigger or more popular than Bruce Springsteen when he was doing ‘Born in the USA.’ So, the idea that he wrote a song about Youngstown was a pretty big deal to a lot of us.”
The lecture combined past events with visuals, including several from the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (aka Steel Museum) and personal anecdotes.
With a printout of the song’s lyrics available for attendees to follow along, Simione went through each verse. It begins by mentioning the Hopewell Furnace — located in Yellow Creek Park in Struthers — which was built in 1803 by James and Dan Heaton.
Later, the track recognizes the area’s contributions such as making cannonballs for the Union Army in the Civil War.
“Sometimes, people overlook the fact that not just Youngstown, but Ohio, in general, played such a huge role in the Civil War and the war effort for the North. The Civil War would have taken place at a time when some of the mills were just getting started. I believe there were 17 mills in Mahoning County alone,” he said.
Moving to the 20th Century, Simione brought up that there were mills running along the Mahoning River for decades until Black Monday began the closures on Sept. 19, 1977.
“Depending on how long you lived in the area, most of us probably had relatives that worked in these facilities at some point in time. They became a very prominent part of life for people in this region,” Simione said.
He referred to his grandfather, who worked at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works and retired shortly before it closed. Showing a photo that reproduced a typical steelworker’s home with a small living room and kitchen downstairs and one bedroom / one bathroom upstairs, Simione mentioned his elder relative lived in a similar residence with four family members.
“It was a very simple and humble experience, but it was something that particular generation took great pride in because they did have shelter, these houses,” he said.
The city’s importance to manufacturing was considered so important that the Soviet Union placed it among its top targets for a nuclear strike.
“By the close of World War II, the United States was producing about two-thirds of the world’s steel supply, which is really quite prominent. Then, within the span of only 40 years we’re down to 11%.
“There’s a drastic shift that takes place that really started in the ’60s, but it was happening so slowly, nobody really noticed it,” Simione said.
He recalled his dad coming home in 1970 after serving in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam.
“Like anyone who grew up in Youngstown he figured he’d get a job at the mill, but when he went down there, he was told, ‘We’re not hiring.’ That was unheard of. So, it started before the real shutdowns.”
Simione concluded by quoting the last line of the song — “I pray the devil comes and takes me to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell” — and then said, “That is a unique line to describe what these workers went through and what they took pride in. It really embodies the spirit of Youngstown. We will do the hard work. We always have and continue to try to in the decades since these mills closed.”
The hourlong talk was bookended with live videos of Springsteen performing the song — a somber, eulogy-like, solo acoustic version taken from the musician’s concert on Jan. 12, 1996, at Stambaugh Auditorium and an emotional, angry version featuring the full E Street band from the “Live in New York City” DVD.
Springsteen continued to make “Youngstown” and the plight of workers a fixture of his setlists. According to setlist.fm, he’s performed the song 318 times around the world, most recently on Nov. 22, 2024, in Vancouver.
Despite the facts within the lyrics specifically geared toward this area, at its core the song deals with displaced workers, which makes it understandable for his international fans.
The Winter Talks lecture series continues this weekend with YSU Ward Beecher Planetarium Engineer Curt Spivey discussing the current winter night sky and recent astronomical events 6 to 7 p.m. Friday and Diana Alexander exploring the geology of Mill Creek Park 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday. For more information, go to www.MillCreekMetroParks.org.
https://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.png00Mill Creek MetroParks Staffhttps://www.millcreekmetroparks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mcmp-header.pngMill Creek MetroParks Staff2025-02-18 09:56:422025-02-18 09:58:28Mill Creek speaker takes deep dive into Springsteen’s ‘Youngstown’
Tracking our feathered friends-Annual Great Backyard Bird Count is complete
/in Media Coverage, Miscellaneous/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffMembers of the local community were among those who volunteered their time to keep track of the number of birds at their feeders and other locations as part of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.
A special gathering took place this week at Mill Creek MetroParks Ford Nature Center. Emily Greve of Youngstown, a metroparks educator, said the count done Feb. 14 to 17 benefits Cornell University and involves the Audubon Society and other bird organizations globally helping to count the number of birds they see.
“All anyone had to do was for 15 minutes count the number of birds they see in any of the four days and submit the information on e-Bird,” Greve said.
Greve, who spoke to people at the Ford Nature Center on selecting the best binoculars for watching birds, said people can stay inside and watch birds come and go from several feeders filled with sunflower seeds, nuts and dried mealworms.
“People can learn how to identify birds and record the data. For some people, watching birds is a hobby,” Greve said.
Greve said she recorded the birds at her home — as many people do — but they can also record birds at parks and other locations.
“Some people go to birding hot spots where they know there will be a lot of bird species. Many go to the Mill Creek MetroParks bird sanctuary. You can travel wherever you want to count birds whether it is your own backyard or public parks. You can do it by yourself or with a group of friends,” Greve said.
Those helping to record data saw blue jays, goldfinch, black-capped chickadees, blue birds, sparrows,wrens and several species of woodpeckers.
“We had 16 different species of birds in our count. The feeders here help attract more birds because of the source of food,” Greve said.
She said in the winter months birds will come to the feeders because their food elsewhere may be under snow and less accessible.
She said in addition to the regular birds, there are also occasionally hawks that try to get the birds.
“The Great Backyard Bird Count is a really good way to get people who may not normally be interested in birds involved. Birding is very accessible and something everyone can do. You do not even have to go outside if you are unable. This allows people to get involved with nature,” she said.
WHAT PEOPLE SAW
Angel Lempke of Austintown said she comes to Mill Creek Park often to see the birds, and she saw where a group was asking people to watch for bald eagle nests.
She said she saw a nest by Wick Park in Youngstown and actual eagles on Lake Newport at Mill Creek Park. Lempke looked out the windows at Mill Creek Park and saw bluebirds, woodpeckers, starlings and nuthatches.
“I got a bird feeder for Christmas last year, so I do see many types of birds at my house. I love coming to the park too,” she said.
Laura Frost of Boardman, who is a science teacher with the Boardman Local School District, said it is great to be part of the bird count and she has asked her students to participate.
“We have done science projects related to birds,” Frost said.
Frost and her husband James and their son, Theo, 2, were watching the birds at the feeders.
BIRDERS ELSEWHERE
In Trumbull County, bird watchers also were taking part in the Backyard Bird Count.
Amanda and Matt Sloan of Champion said they counted birds not only at their home, but at the north end of Hoagland Blackstub Road, called “The Tubes” at the Mosquito Lake causeway in Mecca.
“People can record individually, as couples or in groups if they want. We recorded data all four days and had 35 checklists,” Amanda Sloan said.
The Sloans also drove to the Marblehead Lighthouse in Ottawa County where they were able to see a rare barrow’s goldeneye duck, which is a Eurasian species that now lives in Ohio.
“There is a common goldeneye but the barrow’s goldeneye is not as common,” Amanda said.
“The causeway was a good spot. The water was open and you could see diving ducks and geese all over. Wherever you go and the water is open is phenomenal for bird watching,” she said.
Amanda said a month ago, the spot would not have been good since there was ice on the lake and there would be few birds, but once the water was exposed, birds came.
The Sloans recorded 70 species of birds and were second place in the state on E-Bird, where people can record data
They also have taken part in the Christmas Bird Count.
“We are glad that the data we record will help science,” Amanda said.
Jason Lee, park naturalist at Mosquito Lake State Park, said he has taken part in and organized events for the Christmas Bird Count in the middle of December in parts of Trumbull County.
Lee said plans are underway for “Big Birding Weekend” over Memorial Day weekend at Mosquito Lake Park with different programs and birding groups.
Jason Short, president of the Audubon Society of the Mahoning Valley, said he encourages people who enjoy bird watching to take part in any bird count event.
“This is a way people can connect with nature and help gather science data. I tell them to watch the feeders in their yards or find other locations,” Short said.
He said there is a variety of birds in the local area since some shore birds leave for the winter migrating south but then come back in the spring.
Like the Sloans, Short also traveled this winter to Marblehead Lighthouse to see the barrow’s goldeneye duck.
He said he also has gone to Meigs County to see the lazuli bunting.
He said the first weekend in May there will be a birding event at Beaver Creek State Park in Columbiana Short said he began bird watching during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has found many people ages 40 and older enjoy the activity, especially those who are retired.
Read the original article at The Vindicator.
Official unlocks history of Lanterman’s Mill
/in Media Coverage/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffA sudden blizzard didn’t deter about a dozen people from gathering at Ford Nature Center Saturday morning for a lecture on the history of Lanterman’s Mill by its manager, Eric Simione.
Simione was a Boardman High School teacher for 33 years until he retired in 2023. He loves to research everything from labor history and the Supreme Court to rock ‘n’ roll, as evidenced by his discussion the previous evening about Bruce Springsteen and his song “Youngstown.”
Last year, he became the manager at Lanterman’s Mill, where he maintains the facility, schedules tours and operates the gift shop. Although he grew up in Youngstown and moved to Boardman at age 10, he admitted that as a child he did not know Mill Creek Park intimately so he continues to learn more about the park, including the mill.
He noted the 180-year-old structure is an iconic image. “If you do a Google search of Youngstown one of the first things you come up with is Lanterman’s Mill,” Simione said.
In 1797, Phineas Hill and Isaac Powers surveyed land for owner John Young. When they saw the waterfall, they knew it was valuable property. Young agreed to sell them the acreage under the condition that they set up a grist mill as quickly as possible to feed the growing population.
The “Hill Mill” operated for about 20 years. It was not remarkable considering at the time there were 1,861 water-propelled mills in Ohio and 17 in Mahoning County alone, Simione said.
The second building on the site was the Eli Baldwin Mill, which was erected in 1823. In 1843, it was washed away by a flood.
Two years later, Samuel Kimberly and his brother-in-law, German Lanterman, built the structure that stands today. Simione noted that Kimberly has been mostly lost to local history and joked that he was “the Art Garfunkel” of the partnership.
Because of what happened to the Baldwin Mill, Lanterman and Kimberly used sandstone and limestone walls that are 10 feet thick at the bottom. It is wider at the base to give it more stability.
The mill operated until 1888. It was then used for swimming and sunbathing, complete with a changing room and a hot dog vendor. Eventually it became a nature museum and remained so until the 1980s, when it was restored to serve as a mill.
It was rumored to be a distillery during Prohibition. Although Simione has not found any proof of this, Youngstown City Council outlawed swimming in 1918 — right before the 18th Amendment was ratified — and the nature museum was established in 1933 just as alcohol was again legalized.
Today, Lanterman’s Mill greets 12,000 visitors from May to October plus the annual Christmas at the Mill event. This does not include countless hikers in all seasons who stop to admire the scenery, Simione said.
Mill Creek speaker takes deep dive into Springsteen’s ‘Youngstown’
/in Media Coverage/by Mill Creek MetroParks StaffNo one in the Mahoning Valley expected the biggest rock star in the world to be an ally. But that’s what occurred when Bruce Springsteen released “The Ghost of Tom Joad” on Nov. 21, 1995.
Among its dozen tracks was “Youngstown,” which, in less than four minutes, encapsulated the origins, boom and fall of the area’s steel industry.
Eric Simione, manager of Lanterman’s Mill, took a deep historical dive into the lyrics of the song during Mill Creek MetroParks’ “Winter Talks: Youngstown — The Story Behind Bruce Springsteen’s Tale of Our Hometown” Friday at the Ford Nature Center’s Education Building.
“If you go back about a decade before this, you really didn’t get much bigger or more popular than Bruce Springsteen when he was doing ‘Born in the USA.’ So, the idea that he wrote a song about Youngstown was a pretty big deal to a lot of us.”
The lecture combined past events with visuals, including several from the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor (aka Steel Museum) and personal anecdotes.
With a printout of the song’s lyrics available for attendees to follow along, Simione went through each verse. It begins by mentioning the Hopewell Furnace — located in Yellow Creek Park in Struthers — which was built in 1803 by James and Dan Heaton.
Later, the track recognizes the area’s contributions such as making cannonballs for the Union Army in the Civil War.
“Sometimes, people overlook the fact that not just Youngstown, but Ohio, in general, played such a huge role in the Civil War and the war effort for the North. The Civil War would have taken place at a time when some of the mills were just getting started. I believe there were 17 mills in Mahoning County alone,” he said.
Moving to the 20th Century, Simione brought up that there were mills running along the Mahoning River for decades until Black Monday began the closures on Sept. 19, 1977.
“Depending on how long you lived in the area, most of us probably had relatives that worked in these facilities at some point in time. They became a very prominent part of life for people in this region,” Simione said.
He referred to his grandfather, who worked at Youngstown Sheet & Tube Campbell Works and retired shortly before it closed. Showing a photo that reproduced a typical steelworker’s home with a small living room and kitchen downstairs and one bedroom / one bathroom upstairs, Simione mentioned his elder relative lived in a similar residence with four family members.
“It was a very simple and humble experience, but it was something that particular generation took great pride in because they did have shelter, these houses,” he said.
The city’s importance to manufacturing was considered so important that the Soviet Union placed it among its top targets for a nuclear strike.
“By the close of World War II, the United States was producing about two-thirds of the world’s steel supply, which is really quite prominent. Then, within the span of only 40 years we’re down to 11%.
“There’s a drastic shift that takes place that really started in the ’60s, but it was happening so slowly, nobody really noticed it,” Simione said.
He recalled his dad coming home in 1970 after serving in the U.S. Navy during Vietnam.
“Like anyone who grew up in Youngstown he figured he’d get a job at the mill, but when he went down there, he was told, ‘We’re not hiring.’ That was unheard of. So, it started before the real shutdowns.”
Simione concluded by quoting the last line of the song — “I pray the devil comes and takes me to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell” — and then said, “That is a unique line to describe what these workers went through and what they took pride in. It really embodies the spirit of Youngstown. We will do the hard work. We always have and continue to try to in the decades since these mills closed.”
The hourlong talk was bookended with live videos of Springsteen performing the song — a somber, eulogy-like, solo acoustic version taken from the musician’s concert on Jan. 12, 1996, at Stambaugh Auditorium and an emotional, angry version featuring the full E Street band from the “Live in New York City” DVD.
Springsteen continued to make “Youngstown” and the plight of workers a fixture of his setlists. According to setlist.fm, he’s performed the song 318 times around the world, most recently on Nov. 22, 2024, in Vancouver.
Despite the facts within the lyrics specifically geared toward this area, at its core the song deals with displaced workers, which makes it understandable for his international fans.
The Winter Talks lecture series continues this weekend with YSU Ward Beecher Planetarium Engineer Curt Spivey discussing the current winter night sky and recent astronomical events 6 to 7 p.m. Friday and Diana Alexander exploring the geology of Mill Creek Park 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday. For more information, go to www.MillCreekMetroParks.org.
Read the original article at The Vindicator.