Postcards depict Vesuvius furnace
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, July 3, 2007
PEDRO — The Vesuvius Furnace Festival promises a little of everything under its umbrella of activities: historic tours, heritage food and even its own postcard and U.S. Postal Service hand cancellation.
The Pedro post office staff will be on hand at the festival Saturday to offer hand cancellations of mail and to sell post cards commemorating the festival.
The cards feature a sketch of the Vesuvius iron furnace and will sell for $1 each. There are 500 postcards for sale.
“I had it made just for us,” Pedro Postmaster Justin Jackson said. “I don’t think Pedro has ever had a postcard of its own before. A friend of mine, Bill Fraley, is a retired art teacher from Westerville and he drew the picture.”
The hand-cancellation will be available for up to 30 days, with the first day being Saturday during the festival. Postal employees will also sell stamps.
The festival will be Friday and Saturday at Lake Vesuvius. Activities will include storytelling, music, an Underground Railroad presentation, a Civil War re enactment and a tour of the Vesuvius Cemetery.
Activities begin at 6 p.m. Friday and then continue Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The festival is sponsored by the Wayne National Forest and Ohio University Southern. Organizers want to preserve and celebrate local history and tradition, particularly the iron furnaces that helped shape the area’s economy and society in its early days.