Remarkable Ohio

Results for: entertainment-recreation
Portsmouth

, OH

The Ohio River floodwaters account for Portsmouth’s settlement. Alexandria, the county’s first town, was laid out in 1799 on the west bank of the Scioto at its confluence with the Ohio. Early settlers in Alexandria were forced to higher ground across the river in Portsmouth because of frequent flooding. As a result, Portsmouth, platted in 1803, became Scioto County’s seat and business center by 1814. Prominent local industries included brick, stone, steel, wood products, and shoe manufacturing. As of 2003, the Ohio River is the cornerstone of Portsmouth’s transportation system, providing a means for materials to reach destinations throughout the region. It also serves as a recreation hub. The three-mile long levy, first built in 1908, failed in the 1937 flood and was subsequently improved.

Muskingum River Parkway, S of the Putnam Avenue/6th Street Bridge
Zanesville

, OH

The Zanesville lock, canal, and dam were part of a series of eleven such built on the Muskingum River from Marietta to Ellis, north of Zanesville, from 1836 to 1841. The improvements made the shallow river navigable by steamboats. The State of Ohio funded the project as part of the Ohio Canal System. The locks are approximately 35 feet wide and 160 feet long. The river improvements spurred the development of industry in Zanesville, including pottery manufacture, shipbuilding, and grain milling. From Zanesville, goods could be shipped north to the Ohio Canal and Lake Erie. Products could also be sent south to Marietta and then east to Pittsburgh or southwest to New Orleans. Steamboats brought in manufactured goods, staples, mail, and entertainment. After 1880, competition from railroads caused a gradual decline in the river traffic. Today the locks remain in operation for the enjoyment of pleasure boaters.

Miner’s Memorial Park, OH 78
McConnelsville

, OH

Agriculture dominated the economy of southeastern Ohio’s Morgan County until the 1940s when harvests dwindled, the population declined, and land values dropped. Surface mining the area’s rich underground coal deposits replaced agriculture as the major industry and revitalized the declining local economy. As the nation’s demand for electricity grew over the next half-century, so did the demand for coal as fuel for nearby power generation plants. During mining’s heyday in the 1960s to the late 1980s, American Electric Power’s former Central Ohio Coal Company subsidiary employed nearly 1,000 people. Nearby communities-such as Cumberland, Caldwell and Chandlersville-thrived. As time passed, however, the robust coal industry was hit hard by environmental regulations that reduced the market for the area’s high-sulfur coal. In turn, mine work forces shrank considerably and local businesses closed. (continued on other side)

NE corner of Gallia Pike and Hillcrest Road
Wheelsburg

, OH

The Hillcrest Children’s Home stood near this site in Wheelersburg and opened in 1921 to the first 57 of many children who would come to live there. A 50-room building intended for 100 children, Hillcrest often housed double to triple that number. The extended community supported Hillcrest, providing entertainment, sponsoring activities, and donating presents for the children whose times there left indelible memories. The home closed in 1970 and was razed the following year.

110 Lighthouse Drive
Marblehead

, OH

In total area, Lake Erie is the twelfth largest freshwater lake in the world and the most shallow of the five Great Lakes. It is about 210 miles long, 57 miles wide, with a shoreline of approximately 871 miles, and has a maximum depth of 210 feet. It served as a passage for early explorers navigating by canoe into the interior of North America and has since become a key link to commercial shipping on the Great Lakes. Lake Erie is an important water resource for recreation and tourism as well as for municipal and industrial use. Its warm, shallow waters harbor a diverse and abundant fishery, primarily known by anglers for fine catches of walleye, yellow perch, and smallmouth bass.

6998 S Main Street
Gnadenhutten

, OH

The Upper Trenton Lock (Lock 15 South) of the Ohio & Erie Canal was built between 1828 and 1829. Originally built of cut sandstone blocks, the lock was named for the Village of Trenton, now Tuscarawas. Lock 16, or Lower Trenton Lock, lies only 800 feet southwest of Lock 15. The lock tender, who lived in a house on this site, served both locks. Repeated flood damage prompted reconstruction of Lock 15 in 1907. The deteriorated stonemasonry was completely replaced with concrete at a cost of $6,815. The old stone was used to shore up the towpath. Use of the state-owned canal had declined significantly by this point, and the great flood of 1913 brought the canal era to an end in Ohio.

4729 Walnut Road
Buckeye Lake

, OH

Formed by the retreating glacier more than 14,000 years ago, Buckeye Lake first existed as a shallow, swampy pond, named “Buffalo Swamp” by Ohio Company explorer Christopher Gist in 1751. Beginning in 1826 the State developed it as a water source for the Licking Summit of the Ohio and Erie Canal, it being the highest level between the Scioto and Licking rivers. Engineers dammed the north and west sides of the swamp, inadvertently creating a unique floating sphagnum-heath bog surrounded by water. Cranberry Bog, with boreal vegetation typical of glacial-era Ohio, is a registered National Natural Landmark. (continued on other side)

140 S. Washington Street
Delaware

, OH

Organized in 1845, Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church is the oldest congregation of African descent in Delaware, with Reverend Daniel Winslow serving as the first minister. In 1853 the cornerstone of the first church was laid, which was dedicated in 1855. Three former Pastors of Zion became Bishops in the AME Church–James A. Shorter, 1868; John Mifflin Brown, 1868; and Cornelius T. Shaffer, 1900. In 1876 the existing church was razed and carpenter, brick mason, and plaster church members built the present edifice. A fire destroyed the interior on December 19, 1983, and for two years the congregation met in the recreation building of the Londontown Apartments, undercroft of the William Street Methodist Church, and sanctuary of the Victory Seventh Day Adventist Church. On the first Sunday in October 1985, Presiding Elder Virgil Cummins, Pastor Rodney Thomas, and the congregation marched from the Adventist Church back into the restored sanctuary.