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The earliest highway signs along the National Road (Route 40) in Ohio were milestones located at one-mile intervals along the north side of the roadway. Each stone indicated the distance to Cumberland, Maryland, the eastern terminus of the National Road, and to the nearest cities and villages for both east and westbound travelers.
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Located at the crossing of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the National Road, Hebron was a favored commercial and agricultural center for Licking County in the nineteenth century. Only four miles north of the city Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York turned the first spadeful of dirt for the Ohio and Erie canal on July 4, 1825. The canal was completed through Hebron in 1828. Nearby Buckeye Lake served as a reservoir and feeder for the canal until 1894 when it was set aside for park purposes. The National Road was completed through Hebron in 1834.
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Built in 1894 at a cost of $575, this bridge spanned Town Creek at Hoghe Road (Township Road 82) for 100 years. The Van Wert County Commissioners approved the bridge’s construction in response to requests from the Cincinnati, Jackson & Mackinaw Railroad Company. The span is an example of the truss-leg bedstead design. It was intended to handle heavy loads traveling to and from area railroad tracks, which were less than a mile from the bridge’s original location. The bridge was removed from Hoghe Road in 1994. The Van Wert County Engineer’s Department rehabilitated the bridge and, with the permission of the Van Wert County Agricultural Society, relocated it to the county fairgrounds in 1997.
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This covered bridge in the oldest still (1962) standing in the state and the last of the “double-barreled” spans in Ohio. It was built across Seven Mile Creek on the Old Camden Road in 1829-30 by Orlistus Roberts and J.L. Campbell. Its three burr-arch trusses built of native oak and poplar with a clear span of 73 feet, support the double roadway. This plaque has been erected to give due honor to the early timber covered bridge builders of Ohio and the important spans they constructed. [This side also contains a bridge illustration in the upper left corner]
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This covered bridge, over Middle Run, Elkrun Township, Columbiana County, is the shortest covered bridge in the United States still standing on a once-used public highway, having a clear span of 19 feet and 3 inches. It is an example, rarely found covered, of the simplest, most basic truss design, the two-panel king post truss. It has withstood the rigors of time and traffic since the 1870s and stands in eloquent testimony of the fine craftsmanship of the early Ohio bridge builders.
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Oldest Standing House 1826. Entered in the National Register of Historical Places 1974.
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Norwalk West Main Street Historic District. Oldest Standing House 1826. Entered in the National Register of Historic Places 1974.
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One-half mile east is the site of the former BIG EAR radio telescope. Designed by Dr. John D. Kraus, pioneering radio astronomer at Ohio State University, it had a collecting area of 340 by 70 feet (104 by 21 meters). The observatory was completed in 1963. The Ohio Sky Survey recorded here between 1965 and 1972 was the most accurate, reliable, and complete mapping of cosmic radio signals (the “radio sky”) for many years. BIG EAR gained fame for its ability to detect quasi-stellar radio sources, or “quasars,” and for its discovery of some of the most distant objects known. This observatory conducted a 24-year continuous search for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, during which the famous “Wow!” signal was received in 1977. BIG EAR was demolished in 1998. [“Wow!” signal graphic]
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