In 1969 the United States celebrated the centennial of the Golden Spike ceremony - which linked the Pacific and Atlantic coast with railroad service.
Nickel Plate Road 759, a Berkshire steam locomotive, built in Lima, attended the Gold Spike ceremony in Utah. Here is that locomotive, newly painted as the Golden Spike Limited, as it passed through Bluffton with rail fans aboard.
It was the first steam locomotive to pass through Bluffton since steam on the NKP ended in 1958.
The location: Harmon Field. The event: Bluffton College homecoming. The year: 1956 or 1957. Barbara Diller Garriott (center), a Bluffton High School grad, now of San Diego Calif., was homecoming queen. Her father, Paul Diller, took this color slide photo. Can Icon viewers name the two attendants?
Check the photo below for a graduation photo of Barbara, also taken by her father.
Here's another photo from the 1955-56 Bluffton Business Men's Association dinner and program that welcomed Ex-Cell-O to town. We see Gerald "Tuffy" Swank on the far left, facing the camera. Paul Basinger is looking up at the speaker. Is that Mayor David Risser on the far end of the table.
We encourage Icon viewers to provide more identifications in this photo. The dinner was on the second floor of the town hall. Neu-Art Photo.
The year was 1933 - but actually 1961. A re-enactment of the John Dillinger bank robbery in Bluffton was portrayed in this scene from the Bluffton cenntennial historic pageant.
The pageant at Founders Hall was presented on two evenings during the week. Leland Gerber took this photo during the dress rehearsal. Rudi Steiner, who had just graduated from Bluffton High School that spring, is in the center collecting the loot. George Burkholder, a 1960 (?) BHS grad is on the right.
Just when you think you know everything there is to know about Bluffton, a photograph like this shows up.
Can you identify what's going on here?
This is a photograph of the "floating" pool that once served swimmers in Bluffton. It was constructed on the east bank of the Buckeye and then was moved to the quarry where it floated and allowed swimming.
Older Icon viewers with splinters in their behinds may be able to put a date on this photo. It's probably the mid-1940s.
In an effort to make life interesting The Icon provides viewers with this photo of the Bluffton High School class of 1976 as first graders.Vera Basinger is the teacher. We see several familiar faces, but we will rely on viewers for proper IDs.
If any questions come up, ask Denny Edinger at the post office.
