Six years ago, while I was on leave of absence from the Navy, my son Jarrod and I decided to take a hike along an old section of railroad lines here in northeast Ohio. Only a few months earlier, we had found our first insulator (a Hemingray 42) along a line outside of Jacksonville, Florida, where we were stationed. 

As we walked along searching for downed poles and crossarms in the thick brush, I discovered an overgrown road leading downhill into a large, deep valley. As we investigated, we found the remains of an old power and signal line heaped in piles. Within the boundaries of the poles we found pieces of CD 121's, 114's, 115's and a lot of high power ceramic insulators. 

As our excitement increased with each discovery, I realized we had walked nearly to the valley floor. To explain the feelings we felt, as we gazed at the old building foundations, the piles of crossbeams, would be to describe the emotions of an archeologist finding the ruins of ancient Troy or an explorer treading on unknown lands. All around us were the impressions of age and decay, forgotten and timeless artifacts of a bygone era. 

We energetically explored the ancient foundation and discovered a lone wall still standing at the foot of the hillside. On the wall, set within the crumbling mortar and brick, was a rusted cast iron plaque with a relief of a man at work and a date (which we determined to be 1893). Also at the base of the wall we found many pieces of other insulators and an incredible new find -- the E.S.B. chloride accumulators in dark green and light blue. As we walked around the overgrown foundations, thrilled with our discoveries, I realized the ground was literally covered with thousands of broken insulators, in many styles and colors. We even found the "Whatzit" pictured in Milholland's Bicentennial Edition of Most About Glass Insulators. In the valley, the trees had dropped a deep accumulation of leaves and limbs, and we decided to return the next day with a few yard tools. As we related our amazing story to our family, neither of us stopped talking for several hours.

In the six years since our discovery, my son and I and a few close friends and relatives have returned many times to the site. We mapped the area, staked out certain foundations, plotted and traced the old telephone lines. The site had all the eager emotions and atmosphere of an archeological dig in Tanzania! 

Jarrod is studying the high voltage, ceramic insulators (above)
 and the cross-beams (below) that led us on a trail to the valley floor.

The only wall left standing of a building in the floor of the valley. As I stood
in the doorway of the ruins, I wondered what the building had been.
(See 1920 photograph of power house later in the article.)

Jarrod sorts through the many styles and pieces that we found covering the ground.

We uncovered many pieces of different insulators lying just a few inches beneath the leaves and soil. We dug for and found a few nice CD 121's at the base of a decayed pole and following the contour of the valley floor, paced off the distance to the next pole. Our diligence paid off, for we removed from the earth several "AM. TEL & TEL. CO." (CD 190/191 and CD 121). We have dug up in mint and near mint:

CD 121 Hemingray No.16
CD 115 Hemingray 10
CD 113 Hemingray 12 
CD 121 Brookfield 
CD 106 Hemingray 9
and the E.S.B. Chloride Accumulators in emerald green.

In pieces we found ---

E.S.B. in ice blue;
The "Whatzit";
CD 257 in ice blue;
CD 196;
CD 301 OHIO
CD 303; 
CD 121 in jade; 
CD 160; 
CD 151 in an electric blue; 
CD 210; 
CD 153 in green. 

Of all the folks I've been exploring with, my son Jarrod and I have had the most enjoyable times together. Since all young boys are prone to ask questions that require valid answers, we know that our discoveries needed further explanations. What was down there? How long ago was it destroyed? Why so many insulators?

The research spanned the better part of the winter months and really tied things together for us. I started out by talking to a few of the older folks in our area. Although the building demolition and subsequent dump were remembered, what the site was still remained unclear. Could it have been a power station?

Certain things proved this to be the case -- a large power line trees and crossbeam piles, all radiating from the valley (some at a point more that 1/2 mile from the site). Many stacks of high voltage porcelain insulators, and access to the then major railroad for coal delivery as well as the Chagrin River for water use.

My research revealed we had discovered the ruins of the Cleveland, Pennsylvania and Erie railroad power station. It was built to serve the C.P.&E.R.R. and a later Interurban Trolley system which ran from Cleveland to its far eastern suburbs in the early 1900's. The power station was built around 1893 and was the hub of a great railroad and trolley system in early Willoughby and nearby cities of that era. It was shut down by the early 1920's and demolished in 1926-28. Apparently the site was used as a dump for electrical glass, slag and odd industrial junk. This may account for the occurrence of so many different styles of insulators.

The remains were not as scattered as I once thought, because less than a mile away, across from the municipal land fill in Willoughby, there is a fenced in two acre lot that has been there for the last 65 years. It contains much of the brick from the old station, the ancient coal fired boilers, the coal chutes and cars, all kinds of bygone industrial gears, pulleys, levers, structural parts, and many rotting barrels (I suspect they contained something caustic years ago -- for everything down grade of the barrels, like trees and vegetation, is dead and brown), and a structure that may contain the power station generators and electrical items. Everything has been sitting in place for a very long time; as evidenced by the old 12 x 12 wooden beams that are nearly gone now.

Our search has never stopped, and this summer we may find more insulators since we plan to increase the dig if we can get permission from the present land owners. The site has been visited by a person from the Western Reserve Historical Society, but there really isn't enough to interest anyone but a few lucky insulator hounds!

About a half mile away, we found what was left 
of the internal workings of the power station.

This photo was taken of the Willoughby Power House about 70 years ago.
A man stands in the doorway where I had stood. I used the pictured poles
to trace the electric lines, and many telephone and low voltage
 insulators were found at the base of the decayed poles.

The Willoughby Trestle of the C.P.& E.R.R. The Interurban trolley 
was the reason the power house was built. ft was closed when
 roadways and automobiles replaced the trolley line.

Many of the insulators are in pieces, but the search will continue.
 The 7-1/4" bar in an olive green glass was also dug at the site. It was 
used as a sleeve to fit over the top ledge of a battery jar.