Historic equipment used to pave lot at Heritage Center of Clark County

John Yowler operates a 1921 Kelly Springfield Road Roller in the parking lot of The Clark County Heritage Center. JEFF GUERINI/STAFF

John Yowler operates a 1921 Kelly Springfield Road Roller in the parking lot of The Clark County Heritage Center. JEFF GUERINI/STAFF

Heavy construction equipment that hadn’t been in action in about 80 years was back on the road this week smoothing a parking lot at the Heritage Center of Clark County.

WA Stevens, a Springfield contractor, is paving the parking lot at the heritage center. But before that work got underway, a South Charleston man got a chance to crush gravel in the lot using a 1921 Kelly Springfield Roller. The steam-powered equipment is owned by the Clark County Historical Society and got its first real work in decades on Tuesday morning.

John Yowler, of South Charleston, said he spent the last several years refurbishing the equipment to make it road-worthy again. A boiler produces steam to power the machine, which Yowler used Tuesday to compact the gravel lot before WA Stevens paved the area.

“I got started four years ago and got it in working order,” Yowler said of the machine.

Tuesday was the first time in decades the machine got any real work, although Yowler said he also showed off the equipment in Plain City at the Miami Valley Steam Threshers Show.

“That was the first time it had ever run we think in over 80 years,” Yowler said.

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