The Purpose Of The Project

                                                        *and a little history lesson*



Every town has its legends. I believe that this is especially true for my hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio. Founded in 1803, Portsmouth quickly became a bustling town of commerce that sat right on the Ohio river banks. The economy was booming due to out-of-area businesses using the river as a means for importing goods, N&W and B&O rail-yards, and the steel mill providing many jobs throughout Portsmouth. The area known as Boneyfiddle is located on Second Street, which is a stone's throw away from the river. It was built with the intention of becoming the town's main hub of commerce. Beautiful, brick buildings lined the street, providing Portsmouth with a popular thoroughfare to celebrate their successful new city.

But, as the famous proverb states: what goes up, must come down. Portsmouth's economy began declining steadily in the 1950's with foreign competition taking away their importing revenue. When the steel mill closed for good in the 1980's, the town began to slowly fade away. With its population declining and jobs vanishing, the local businesses began closing, leaving Boneyfiddle to become nothing but empty store fronts and memories of what once was. In the last few years there has been a real effort to revive Portsmouth and the storied Boneyfiddle area. Many of the beautiful brick buildings have businesses giving them life again. I am hoping to see Portsmouth once again become the great town that it is so capable of. It certainly has all the potential.

Portsmouth has a long-history and a lot of legends. There are plenty of urban legends to explore in this town, such as: The Flood of 1937, the many ghosts that people claim to haunt several of the Boneyfiddle buildings, or the Indian Rock and its link to Portsmouth. While those are all interesting and would make wonderful projects, they did not immediately come to mind when choosing my project, but one person did: Rich Moon. Mr. Moon has been a resident of Portsmouth, Ohio, for most of his life and just about everyone who lives there knows exactly who he is. Whether it be by name or description, most people will quickly make the connection and share anecdotes about their run-ins with Rich on the streets of Portsmouth. For my project, I have decided to find out if the urban legend that is synonymous with the name Rich Moon is actually true.