Theresa Rayner has lived in Noble County her whole life. She said not much happens in the rural unincorporated community of Ava.
But, one morning, a century ago, it felt like the center of the universe.
“It really happened right here in our backyard,” Theresa said, peering out across the interstate.
The USS Shenandoah, a naval airship, fell out of the sky and onto the farm fields across from Theresa’s home on September 3rd, 1925. The tragedy changed the identity of the tiny town, where some roads had yet seen automobiles, much less a nearly 1,000-foot-long Zeppelin.
All these years later, Noble County residents are still clinging onto pieces of the wreck that made Ava into an important stop in aviation history.
Pioneering Zeppelins
At the turn of the 20th century, the U.S. Navy saw Zeppelins as the future of surveillance. But, they needed the public’s approval of their first lighter-than-aircraft. So, they sent their very first rigid airship – the helium-powered USS Shenandoah – on a publicity tour through the Midwest.
It was going well until they unexpectedly encountered the squalls of a thunderstorm, said Jerry Copas, author of “The Wreck of the USS Shenandoah”. The crew on board tried to change course, but the ship became engulfed by heavy rain, lightning and thunder.
“All they could do was just kind of hang on and try to guide the ship through that terrible ordeal. Mother Nature prevailed, of course, and bit by bit the ship started, you know, fracturing and disassembling in flight,” he said.
It tumbled from the clouds into southeast Ohio’s farm fields. Of the 43 crew members, 14 died – including its Ohio-born lieutenant commander, Zachary Lansdowne of Greenville.
For the rest of the world, it was tragic breaking news. For Ava, it was the day their quiet town became a part of history.
“It kind of became Noble County's airship at that point, and parts of it remain there today,” Copas said.
The mobile museum
Ava residents gathered what they could from the wreckage and passed the fragments down through generations, like family heirlooms.
That was the case for Bryan Rayner, Theresa’s late husband. He grew up on one of the farms where the airship crashed, scavenging for scraps of history in the fields behind his house.
Together, he and Theresa piled the collection into a small trailer, creating a mobile museum dedicated to keeping alive the story of the Shenandoah.
Nearly every inch of the walls are covered in photos of the floating giant. Broken bits of metal, fraying rope and compasses whose needles have long since moved – are encased inside like treasures.
To the untrained eye, it looks a bit like junk, but Theresa said each piece is a part of a much bigger story.
“The naval men on board, they are pioneers in what they did and they deserve to be remembered,” she said. “Even though the lighter-than-air program through the Navy was not successful, there were things that were learned that have helped aviation down through the years.”
A part of Ava’s identity
Most of the items in Theresa’s trailer came from locals, who scavenged the site after the crash.
Each comes with its own story. One neighbor used the ship’s lightweight metal to hold up a porch swing. Another mended their broken lampshade with its airtight fabric during the Depression. The Zeppelin’s wash basin became a hanging basket.
Legend has it, the airship even briefly made its way into local fashion.
“Some industrious tailor, over in Caldwell, had collected enough of that airtight, watertight material that he made raincoats out of it,” Copas said.
But Noble County residents didn’t just take souvenirs from the site. One resident, Ernst Nichols, saved the life of a crewmate. Others covered the bodies of the men lost.
“A lot of people let people have the water out of their wells and the food out of their garden. So there were a lot of local heroes that day,” she said.
The community still celebrates those heroes with pride: the local high school’s mascot is the Zeps (short for Zeppelins) and a monument in the center of town honors the lives lost.
Theresa hopes the museum can help people remember Ava not just as the site of a tragic wreck, but as a home to a community of people willing to pick up the pieces.
