First off, let me start off by saying “Thank you” for visiting my site. I’ve been putting a lot of hard work into it, so I really appreciate that.
What Is The Ohio Project?
Well, that’s a bit of a long story, but I think I can shorten it up a bit.
I was born (quite a few years ago) in Washington Court House, Ohio. A couple of years later, the family moved to the Cincinnati area, where we stayed until I was halfway through my teenage years. Then the family moved away. After that, I’ve lived in quite a few places, but I always considered Ohio to be my home.
Fast forward to the year 2020, which was one of those years that I think everybody wants to forget. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, the politics, as well as man’s general inhumanity towards man, it was a fairly crappy year. While there were a few lucky individuals who managed to escape that year unscathed, I was not so lucky.
To make a long story short (or a sad story a wee bit less horrible) I decided it was time to move back home.
Once I got here, I was surprised to learn that I didn’t know the state nearly as well as I thought I had. Sure, there were a lot of things I remembered … from spending the entire day at King’s Island (or across the highway at The Beach) … having lunch or dinner at places like Skyline Chili or if we were in for a real treat, lunch at Frisch’s Big Boy. (Hey, to a ten year old, Frisch’s was like a three Michelin-Star restaurant.)
Anyway, I picked up several books on Ohio and its history and geography and, honestly, I can’t remember if I had ever learned this stuff in school. I’d like to think that I had … but who can say? It’s not like any of us can remember what we learned as 5th Graders … Am I right, Jeff Foxworthy?
On the other hand, some of the stuff I was reading about was pretty bonkers … enough so that even if we did study this in grade school, it was surely a cleaned up and sanitized version. Like, the Toledo War … that time the state of Ohio went to war with the Territory of Michigan because neither place had the brains to invent the GPS and nobody could tell for certain where one state began and the other ended. That’s good material for the history books … what isn’t good was the sorts of crazy things people did in the name of Ohio or Michigan which took bizarre to a whole new level.
It was at this time that I got the idea for The Ohio Project. What if … hear me out on this … what if, rather than reading a ton of books at random, I would pick one topic concerning Ohio History or Geography and try to find out everything I could, and what if I wrote a blog about that? Wouldn’t that be fun?
What Can You Find Here?
It is my sincere hope that you’re going to find something here that you’ll find interesting. I am not going to post anything here that I, personally, don’t find interesting, at least to some degree.
When we think about history, we tend to think about all the stuff they tried to teach us in schools, as if somehow trying to memorize a list of state Governors and the years they were in office would ever, somehow, be important knowledge.
Yet, there are a number of fascinating stories that are right there before our eyes, if we just took the time to look. And, like I mentioned above, sometimes the most interesting aspects of history aren’t always covered by the historical textbooks, either. Or, if they are, they’re oddly sanitized.
So, again … thanks for visiting my little site. I hope you enjoy reading about The Ohio Project as much as I have enjoyed writing about it.
Who Are We?
Meh … We’re not anybody famous, or special. (Sorry, Mom.)
Seriously, though, I’m just a middle age guy who is about to turn fifty, with some extra time on his hands.
Where Do I Get Ideas From?
So far, I have gotten inspiration from any number of places. Some of it has been from history books, or other blogs or podcasts. Other times, I’ve been driving around and something caught my eye. Maybe it was the name of some town or community, maybe it some historical marker on the side of the road, maybe it was the World’s Largest Horseshoe Crab.
There have been a few times when I’ve started writing on one particular topic, only to discover something else, just as exciting as what I’m working on. For example, at one point I was trying to come up with a list of Ohio towns that no longer existed. I was expecting to find a list of old mining or railroad towns that died out when the mine dried up (and there are a few of those) but I also discovered towns like Moonville, with its infamous ghost stories, or Laceyville, a town that existed until they built a lake on top of it. Needless to say, they both got posts of their own.
So, I guess the answer to your question is that I get ideas from a lot of places. Why are you asking? Do you have something you want me to look into? If so, I’d love to hear from you.