2009 Licking County Convention and Visitors Bureau Guide -- text drafts

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Floating Worlds From the Ice Age Past (369 wds, with weblink)

Can an island float?

Outside of fantasy novels or science fiction, that is. . .

On the southern edge of Licking County, a five mile long arc of water is Ohio’s oldest man-made lake, with an accidentally made marvel bobbing in its midst.

Cranberry Bog is the local name for a vast mat of sphagnum moss and other plants that was lifted as the waters of the Licking Summit Reservoir filled what had been, to early pioneers, the “Great Buffalo Swamp.”

Salt licks and other springs in this highland bog gave the Licking River’s South Fork and the county as a whole its name, but around 1830 the designers of the Ohio & Erie Canal saw a basin that could be dammed and filled to provide passage from the Scioto River drainage below Columbus to the Muskingum River watershed.

As the canal bed was cut, the Northbank was built across the open end of the boggy upland valley, and by 1835 the reservoir was a lake.

But in one area, now along the north-central shore of Buckeye Lake, the bog material rose up, holding a tenuous connection in the shallow waters through roots systems to the now-lakebed below. This mat of material still shelters pitcher plants (the kind that “eat” insects!), sedges and grasses more common nearer to Hudson’s Bay today, and of course cranberries.

Since becoming Ohio’s first state park in 1949, Buckeye Lake has tried to shelter this fragile ecosystem from the growth of vacation cottages and the wakes of powerboats passing nearby. Each major windstorm blows a chunk or two off the edge, and there are less than twenty acres left to visit, perhaps someday -- no more.

The state allows a day each June to visit, limited to 400 by lottery, and other groups by special arrangement with the Greater Buckeye Lake Historical Society (www.buckeyelakehistory.org). An ingenious arrangement of boardwalks and narrow paths allow you to step off a boat onto Cranberry Bog, walk into the heart of this glacial era remnant, and then at your guide’s encouragement, jump just a bit into the air . . .

The ripples you feel beneath your feet when you land confirm that this island indeed is floating!

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A Homestead For Your Family (364 wds, with weblink)

Just east of the Licking County border, after you drive past the famous seven story tall “basket building,” housing the Longaberger Corporation’s home offices in Newark, is the Longaberger Homestead (www.longaberger.com/homestead.aspx).

You may step just across the county line to get there near Frazeysburg, but a huge piece of Licking County history is the anchor of the Homestead experience – the Crawford Barn.

Once a fixture of the north end of Newark, the Crawford family first introduced Belgian and Percheron horse breeds to the Midwest, and to hold these massive creatures they needed a 12,000 square foot barn, which Col. George Crawford built in 1890.

His grandson, Bert Crawford, donated the majestic structure to Dave Longaberger in 1999, as retail and residential Newark had long since grown awkwardly around the barn’s former location. Over 60% of the 90’ by 54’ barn’s timbers were reused, and skilled local timber framers and Longaberger workers re-erected the six bay building, added a new wing in the same design, and lovingly resheathed it all as the new rustic heart of the complex of shops and restaurants and factory stores that are “The Homestead.”

In tribute to the barn’s origins, the modern day re-assemblers used a team of Percherons to hoist the main timbers into place on Labor Day weekend of 1999!

Among these buildings, new and old, Longaberger collectors and casual visitors can learn about how hand-made baskets are assembled from start to finish (you can even sign up to make one yourself), eat your fill of good old fashioned Ohio cooking, and yes, there are a few baskets for sale.

Sitting just down the road from Dave Longaberger’s hometown of Dresden, The Longaberger Homestead holds seasonal events around major holidays, and hosts events for their consultants and collectors, often in conjunction with “The Place Off the Square,” their hotel in downtown Newark, or with the Longaberger Golf Club in eastern Licking County.

The goal of the Crawford Barn museum and Longaberger Factory Store is “to capture the spirit of our American craft and tradition.” A visit to The Homestead will help you feel that spirit, and possibly even to hold that spirit in your own hands.

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Three Museums, One Village (463 wds, 3 weblinks)

Founded in 1805 by New England settlers, who found a small party of Welsh pioneers already here from 1801 in the valleys north of town that are still called the “Welsh Hills,” Granville has always carried her heritage and history close to her heart.

Near the heart of the modern day village, where classic Greek Revival architecture and modern business activity peacefully co-exist, you can stroll to three unique “immersion experiences” which can also be called museums.

Within a week of their 1805 arrival, the Massachusetts pioneers began organizing a library, which in their efficient New England way was to be a bank, as well. So it was incorporated as the “Alexandrian Society,” after the ancient institution in Egypt. The bank didn’t do so well, and brought the first library down with it, but the solid sandstone structure they built in 1816 stands proudly on Broadway today.

Now home to the Granville Historical Society (www.granvillehistory.org), they carry the stories and artifacts of centuries, leavened with tales of hymns heard in the forest, curses that brought down floods, and businesses that didn’t end up all that busy.

The basement holds a fascinating collection of 19th century craftsmanship (if you’re an old Eric Sloane fan, it’s like walking through the pages of “A Museum of Early American Tools”), and they also maintain the Granville Academy building a block away, a schoolhouse of 1833 that was the site of a dramatic early meeting of Ohio abolitionists.

Denison University sits mostly on a ridge along the north side of downtown, but the “lower campus” which once was a separate college for women in the 1800’s, and is now the Fine Arts quadrangle, is easily reached on foot from Granville’s historic “Four Corners.”

Burke Hall is a modern anomaly amidst the Victorian and Federal architecture of College St., a white wedge that holds performance spaces, rehearsal rooms, and the Denison Museum (www.denison.edu/campuslife/museum). Holding over 8,000 objects from Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America, their exhibit space is constantly changing, tied to various events, speakers, and symposia through the academic year, and a senior art display each spring.

You can always expect a surprise, and a new perspective, when you visit the Denison Museum at Burke Hall.

The Avery-Downer House & Robbins Hunter Museum has new displays through the year, as well (www.robbinshunter.org), but the steady, peaceful beauty of this 1842 Greek Revival home is why it holds such a special place in the hearts of many local residents and visiting guests.

A truly beautiful home, some say one of the most beautiful houses in America, the history of this striking building is accented by the collection of materials found within, gathered by the last private owner, Robbins Hunter, whose will turned it into a museum in 1981.

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Things Come Together Here (375 wds, 3 weblinks)

Courthouse squares are the center of most Midwestern county seats, planned from the start as the place where things come together.

Roads converge on diagonals, following old pioneer paths or even earlier Indian trails, the grid of north-south and east-west right angle streets pace off the benchmark of a public square or central governmental building, and from legal affairs to banks to churches to retail, downtown starts as the heart of it all.

The last century has presented certain challenges to classic downtowns, with cars helping spread business out to the newer edges of communities. Some cities have found that this kind of change in shopping patterns creates a host of new opportunities for what a downtown can be, and Newark has been a leader in that kind of transformation!

Movies may be out at the mall, but the grand theaters of early last century are now again where live performance is on stage, and today’s downtown visitor is looking for something real and immediate – the Midland Theater (www.midlandtheatre.org), spectacularly renovated a few years ago, is host to performers like Garrison Keillor, Kathy Mattea, Ben Vereen, and Kenny Loggins.

Youth ballet companies put on “The Nutcracker” and “Swan Lake,” and community groups gather concerts of local talent along with appearances by celebrities like B.B. King and Emmylou Harris.

The 1876 Courthouse is still home to the main county courtrooms, but other county offices and agencies fill the blocks nearby, supporting an assortment of restaurants like The Natoma (www.thenatoma.com), run by the same family since the 1920’s on the square; or Dal Cielo, the newest place in town for Italian cuisine, including pasta and specialty pizza.

Above Dal Cielo is an apartment where the owners live, reflecting a growing trend for residential use of formerly retail space. A downtown grocery store, a rarity in many cities, is part of the supportive mosaic that includes coffee shops, specialty stores, and a little fast food.

And those malls that challenge some downtowns in other places trace their roots to structures like The Arcade, built in 1907 (newarkarcade.com), one of the first covered malls in the United States! You can walk through both history and present opportunity in this attractive and active part of modern day Newark.

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Soaring Music, Heartland Musicians (371 wds, one weblink)

While a boldly colored hot air balloon slowly rose above a green hillside last Labor Day, a glowing red sun settled behind the Dawes Arboretum bandshell.

Seated across that hillside enjoying the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra were over 3,000 people from all across central Ohio, knowing that whether bluegrass or Berlioz the performance would be world-class.

This fully professional orchestra was formed in 2005 from earlier symphonic groups in the area, pulling together talented local performers under the direction of Timothy Weiss, their conductor and music director.

Venues for the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, or NGSO (www.ngsymphony.com), when they’re not out under Licking County skies, include Swasey Chapel at Denison University in Granville, and on The Ohio State University at Newark campus in the J. Gilbert Reese Center.

Seasonal favorites, such as romatic classics for Valentine’s Day, patriotic music for the Fourth of July, or holiday favorites around Christmastime, are mixed in with a full complement of classical symphonic standards. The coming year includes works by Copland and Ravel, and culminates in the premiere of a beautiful composition written by local rising star, Ching-chu Hu, music chair at Denison University.

A real benefit to bringing together the strands that weave into the NGSO is the ability to sponsor programs like the Newark-Granville Youth Symphony, in its third season under the direction of Susan Larson. The NGYS was created to bring together young musicians interested in orchestra from not only Licking but also surrounding counties, and gives these young artists a chance to rehearse and perform a full variety of orchestral repertoire.

The NGYS offers concerts on their own, and the youth also get to perform alongside of and even as part of the NGSO when the occasion demands; local high school choirs also get to work with the NGSO through the year.

Many of the skilled performers in the regular NGSO are also music teachers in local schools, professionals in other fields with musical backgrounds that need an outlet, and faculty at area higher educational institutions. They and their younger counterparts cover the entire breadth of Licking County through the week, and represent our concentrated best on the stage when the conductor’s baton rises, and calls them to harmony we can all enjoy.