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Golfing greats Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus first met on the golf course at the Athens Country Club in Athens, Ohio. The event was a celebration for native son Dow Finsterwald, winner of the 1958 PGA Championship. Due to the significance of the event, Athens city officials proclaimed September 25, 1958, “Dow Finsterwald Day,” and the day featured an 18-hole exhibition golf match at the Athens Country Club. Reigning Masters Champion Arnold Palmer joined his long-time friend Finsterwald for the exhibition. Outstanding amateur Howard Baker Saunders of Gallipolis and eighteen year old Jack Nicklaus of Columbus completed the foursome. Nicklaus, a recent high school graduate, was a promising amateur with an Ohio State Open title and a national Jaycee championship to his credit. [Continued on other side]
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Nicknamed “Ohio’s Million Dollar Playground” or “Atlantic City of the Midwest,” Sandy Beach Amusement Park opened here on May 29, 1924. The park at Indian Lake featured a 2,000-foot long roller coaster and other popular rides, a boardwalk, and the Minnewawa Dance Hall. The Minnewawa and its succeeding dance pavilions hosted the greatest names of the Big Band era, and thousands of people came from all over Ohio to listen and dance to these popular entertainers. Societal turmoil and rioting in the 1960s affected the popularity of the park. Diminishing crowds, plus competition from larger theme parks such as Cedar Point and Kings Island, led to the park closing in the early 1970s. The lone remnant of the park is the steel arch bridge that spans the harbor.
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Named for General Zebulon Pike, killed in the War of 1812, Pike County was organized in February 1815. Commissioners were charged with establishing a county seat and on May 12, 1815 accepted a conveyance of 40 acres from Elisha Fitch. The new seat was named “Piketon.” In 1816, the commissioners let a contract for the construction of a courthouse and jail. A fine two story courthouse with brick laid in Flemish bond was finished in 1819. A fire destroyed some country courthouse offices on October 9, 1844. The repaired courthouse was the seat of county government until 1861 and is part of the Piketon Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Limestone headers above the windows have the names of the county government offices.
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This 6.5 acre island, named for the resemblance of its dolomite ledges to the Rock of Gibraltar, was the likely observation site for Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s naval forces during the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Stone Laboratory, located on both Gibraltar and South Bass islands, is the oldest freshwater biological field station and research laboratory in the United States. Founded in 1895 as the Lake Laboratory, it was named for Franz Stone, whose son Julius purchased the island from the Jay Cooke family and presented it to Ohio State University in 1925. It continues as the research and teaching laboratory for the Ohio Sea Grant College Program. The Jay Cooke Castle on the island is a National Historic Landmark.
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Overlooking the “Middlegrounds,” an early site of railroad, immigration, and commercial activity, the Oliver House opened in 1859 as Toledo’s premier hotel. It was designed by nationally prominent architect Isaiah Rogers, in the Greek Revival style, and built by the family of William Oliver for whom the hotel was named; owner of this land, Oliver was one of Toledo’s earliest real estate investors. (Continued on other side)
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The advancing and retreating mile-high glacial sheet of ice and snow shaped the countryside around this area. As the last of the ice masses melted, a great swamp developed, punctuated by towering white pines, bogs, and wetlands, fed by the Shenango and Beaver rivers. Abundant wildlife drew prehistoric and later historic Native Americans into the area where they lived and hunted for thousands of years. Indian legend has it that the name Pymatuning means “The Crooked-Mouthed Man’s Dwelling Place,” referring to a Native American chief who once resided in the area. European trappers came to these swamp lands in the 1700s in search of beaver and other fur-bearing animals. Pioneer farmers and lumbermen came to the area after 1800, but settlement in the swamp was slow and difficult. Eventually much of the area was cultivated in onions and other root crops. (continued on other side)
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Settlement came to Round Bottom in early 1795 following the end of the Indians Wars in what would become Ohio (1791-1795). Pioneers Allen Devol, David Wilson, Nathaniel Cushing, Peter Shaw, and Andrew Story came down the Muskingum River to this rich and extensive alluvion shoreline where agriculture became a way of life for them and later settlers. They built the Round Bottom Schoolhouse in the fall of 1795 from bricks fired in nearby fields. The school is one of the oldest one-room brick schoolhouses in the state.
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The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and St. Louis Railway began construction of the Dennison Railroad Shops here in 1864. This rail line was chartered as the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad in 1849, opened in 1855, and integrated into the Pennsylvania Railroad system in 1870. The yard and shops, situated exactly halfway between Pittsburgh and Columbus, were known as the “Altoona of the Pan Handle” and boasted foundries, machine shops, and two roundhouses. The Dennison Shops experienced their busiest period between 1900 and 1921, with over 3,000 workers employed in the complex. A bitter 1922 strike prompted consolidation, and the facility was gradually phased out. The last passenger train stopped in 1970. Ohio Central Railroad Systems revived the line in 1992 as the Columbus and Ohio River Railroad.