A daytrip to Redstone is worth anyone's time. I arrived on a brisque August morning around 8:30. The town was still pretty much asleep save one questionable café that had an Open sign lit up. I went in hoping for a good breakfast.

I had to chuckle; it looked more like an ice cream parlor than a restaurant. It had two tables that didn't match in a room about the size of a dentist's waiting office. It had a patio out back, but it was too cool yet to eat out there. I picked the round table instead of the rectangled one and sat with my coffee and perused the menu.

The owner was pleasant, and surprisingly had a full breakfast lineup that even included trout. I ordered the basic two eggs scrambled with home-baked potatoes and two silver-dollar pancakes. I wanted a side bowl of oatmeal, but he apologized that he had forgotten to pick some up yesterday. The pancakes were cooked in butter, so they absolutely melted in my mouth. I was glad they were a little larger than the true silver-dollar size. And the potatoes, equally delicious.

The owner gave me some tips on what to see in the area, and since the town was still closed up, I decided to travel on and return later in the day. I could tell it would be a sin to pass it up. Well, it was close to 3:30 in the afternoon before I made it back. I parked across from the General Store where people were coming out with huge waffle ice cream cones, so I indulged as I walked the tiny town.

Redstone's history centers around the coke ovens and one industrialist named John Cleveland Osgood. He built the Redstone Inn to house the oven workers and their families and the Redstone Castle for himself and wife.

The coke ovens were used to convert the coal found in the nearby mines to coke which would then be used to fuel various steel mills in the area.

When the coal mines closed only a few years later, Osgood tried to make a resort of the town, but died before it was realized. His, by now, third wife Lucille, inherited the estate and continued his efforts, but the Great Depression caused yet another failure. After decades of ill-repair, Redstone, mostly due to its scenic surroundings and its stately inn and castle, has transformed into the jewel that it is today.