Ohio

Greetings from Ohio! Named after the river that the Iroquois called “ohi-yo” meaning “the great river.” The area has been inhabited for the last 12,000 years. First by the Paleo-Peoples who likely followed the receding glaciers northward to hunt mastodon and elk. Then, from about 10,000 to 3,000 years ago, the more stable climate allowed the, so called, Archaic peoples to move from being hunter gatherers to the beginnings of agriculture. The time from 1,000 BCE to 1,000 CE is called the Woodland Period and Adena and Hopewell peoples became less nomadic, relied on agriculture for much of their food, created ceramics, carried on extensive trade with places as far away as Wyoming, and developed elaborate burial rituals.

About 1,000 CE until contact with Europeans in 1650 CE, the Fort Ancient peoples established villages in the Ohio River valley with central plazas and upland hunting camps. Still many tribes, such as the Delaware, Iroquois, Seneca, and Shawnee visited Ohio to hunt, without establishing much if any permanent presence.

About 1650 French fur trappers were the first Europeans to enter Ohio, but were eventually replaced by the British after the French and Indian War ended in 1763. By 1750 the Fort Ancient peoples had disappeared, possibly due to small pox brought by the Europeans.

Now much of my hike will be in what is known as the Connecticut Western Reserve, (aka Western Reserve), a much disputed area of the state between the Pennsylvania border on the east, the Sandusky River 120 miles to the west and the 41st parallel on the south near Akron to the 42 and 2 minutes parallel on the north. New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Connecticut simultaneously laid claim to this 3.3 million acre tract of land due to different charters from King Charles II.

(In fact the Charter of 1662 from the King gave Connecticut a swath of land bounded on the north and south by the colonies existing borders and bounded on the east by the Atlantic and on the west by the South Sea (aka the Pacific)! Imagine Chicago, Omaha, Salt Lake City, and Cresent City, CA would all be in Connecticut)

After the American Revolution, New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania gave up their claims. Connecticut ceded most of their claims, including claims on parts of Pennsylvania and New York, but held on to the Western Reserve. Connecticut saw this as land reserved for the eventual settlement of Connecticut citizens. To this end, in 1795, they sold most of the Reserve to a Connecticut land speculation company to be sold to settlers. And settlers started to move in.

Of course the Native American nations probably had the rightful claim to the Western Reserve, but a few strategic treaties took care of that problem for Connecticut. One issue was that the tribes hunted in the Western Reserve, but had no permanent settlements there. One group that did have settlements were the Erie tribe, but they were wiped out by a war with the Iroquois in the 1750’s. I suspect that indigenous settlements or not, the Europeans would have taken the land.

Since many of the settlers were from Connecticut, the towns in the Western Reserve were layed out like towns in New England, with a town square, prominent churches, and similar architecture. Many towns share their names with places back east.

Well, I’m finally here in the Buckeye State about to start the Buckeye Trail tomorrow. It will be a different kind of hike, but I think interesting. My Great Great Great Grandfather, Silas Hurd, moved to Ohio with his new wife, Sophia Hill, in the Spring of 1815. So the Hurd family has lived in Ohio for the last 209 years. In some ways for me, coming here is coming home.

Tune in tomorrow to read about my first day on the trail. Until then…Happy Trails!