CRABBY - THE WORLDS LARGEST HORSESHOE CRAB
Limited Parking is available in the short gravel drive to the right of the structure by the wagon wheels and the fenced small grave site.
Per the property owner:
PLEASE: NO CLIMBING STRUCTURE
NO SMOKING
NO THROWING ROCKS
NO going past the structure toward the house
Horseshoe crab, (order Xiphosura), common name of four species of marine arthropods (class Merostomata, subphylum Chelicerata) found on the east coasts of Asia and of North America. Despite their name, these animals are not crabs at all but are related to scorpions, spiders, and extinct trilobites.
Horseshoe crabs are an extremely ancient group and are often referred to as living fossils. Best known is the single American species Limulus polyphemus, specimens of which can reach a length of more than 60 cm (2 feet), though males and females typically average lengths of 36.6–38.1 cm (14–15 inches) and 45.7–48.3 cm (18–19 inches) respectively. The other three species, Tachypleus tridentatus, T. gigas, and Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda, are found along Asia from Japan to India and closely resemble Limulus in both structure and habits. The animals are most abundant in estuarine waters, where they feed on algae, marine worms, clams and other mollusks, and dead fish.
This big crab was originally intended for a Baltimore nautical museum that went bankrupt. Crabby was then bought by the Answers in Genesis Creation Museum in Kentucky, but it proved to be too big even for their oversized sense of theater. By luck or mysterious-ways intervention, Pastor Jim was giving a talk at the museum, learned about the crab, and accepted it as a donation to his church, Freedom Worship Baptist Church in Blanchester, Ohio. In 2006 it was erected -- next to a former hardware store that had been turned into the church's meeting-and-dining hall -- the World's Largest Horseshoe Crab.
Crabby is 28 feet wide and 68 feet long. The church called it a "community pavilion," and claimed that 60 people can sit within its shell. Pastor Jim said that weddings have been performed inside the crab. Movies are screened there as well. The insulated foam and fiberglass skin make Crabby warm in winter and cool in summer. A wooden post props up its long, spiky tail.
In early 2015 the crab was put up for sale, its Creationist work apparently complete. The crab was purchased by Ben Sexton, who'd admired it for years and wanted to preserve it as a roadside attraction. Ben cut it apart with a chainsaw, moved it 25 miles east to Hillsboro, and reassembled it next to a local highway. It has proved so popular in its new spot that Ben hopes to build a roadside pullout to accommodate all the parked cars.
This cache is placed with permission of the owner, but with the request that visiting cachers please respect the structure and the property by adhering to these rules:
NO CLIMBING
NO SMOKING
NO THROWING ROCKS
NO WANDERING PAST THE STRUCTURE TOWARD THE HOUSE
CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 TO kayjean07 for FTF!!!