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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Commission received four bids for a carriage to display Long Tom, the Civil War-era siege cannon, when it is eventually moved to its new home at Fort Boreman Park this summer.
The commission also discussed how the cannon might be displayed at the park and at an in-person dedication in June on West Virginia Day.
Last year, the county did a trade with the City of Parkersburg where the county would get Long Tom and move it from City Park to Fort Boreman Park. The city would get control over all of Bicentennial Park, which had been split in half between the county and the city.
The county has a Civil War park at Fort Boreman Hill and officials felt since Long Tom was of that era and was located for a time at Fort Boreman after the war that it would fit in with the park. Officials have removed the cannon from City Park and it is in a county maintenance garage.
The bids are Seed Artillery of Altoona, Pa., for $26,600; Steen Cannon and Ordinance of Ashland, Ky., for $29,500; Paulson Brothers Ordinance of Clear Lake, Wis., for $27,900; and Trail Rock Ordinance of Blane, Tenn., for $25,500.
The commission referred the bids to Wood County Parks Director Jeremy Cross and County Administrator Marty Seufer for review and recommendations.
The carriage will be made of aluminum to better handle weather conditions.
Cross said the plan is to refurbish the cannon to make it "as original as we can."
"When we get this finished it will look like it did the day it rolled off the assembly line," Cross said.
The cannon is a four-and-a-half-inch ordinance siege rifle. It is marked as being the 70th out of a group of 113 made for the Union Army at the Fort Pitt Foundry at Pittsburgh, Cross said.
The cannon was brought to Parkersburg in 1898 by the Andrew Mather Post No. 14 of the Grand Army of the Republic fraternal organization and placed at Fort Boreman, seemingly to "watch over and protect" the City of Parkersburg, according to a sign that sat next to the cannon in City Park.
The cannon was discharged each year around the Fourth of July, but eventually fell silent and was almost scrapped.
In September 1921, through the efforts of the Parkersburg Kiwanis Club, the cannon was saved and retired to City Park, according to the park sign. Over the years, the cannon has fallen into disrepair.
Cross said the cannon needs to be sandblasted and painted. A deal has been worked out where a local painters union will use its second-year students to sandblast it and the third-year students to paint it. The county just has to buy the paint. The work is expected to be done in February and March.
"We wanted this to be a community project," Cross said.
Another cannon already at the park also will be sandblasted and painted at the same time, he said.
Officials want to be able to dedicate the cannons, as well as the new picnic shelter named in honor of former Wood County Commissioner David Couch, the father of current commissioner Blair Couch, for West Virginia Day on June 20, which will be observed on Monday, June 21.
"Hopefully, the virus will be behind us or being managed," Seufer said of COVID-19.
Officials have hopes they might be able to shoot Long Tom that day. They are planning to invite Carlin's Battery D to shoot their cannon as well.
Seufer said they will be making new signage for the cannon explaining its history.
Officials discussed putting both cannons at the center of the park area near the overlook in a grassy area that the road loops around. Officials said there would be a lot of security cameras for the park on them.
"It would be the centerpiece of the park," Seufer said.
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com