Week three of our Ohio day trips takes us East of Columbus to Coshocton, OH where we visit historic Roscoe Village. We were missing one of our crew as she was at a horse riding camp. If interested in riding horses, drop me a line and I can hook you up! Roscoe Village was an important part of Ohio’s history as it was a major stop along the Ohio and Erie Canal that ran from Cleveland to Marietta Ohio. Today there are multiple trade shops you can visit where you can learn about life cerca 1830. There is a charge to see them, but it is small and you can pay for all of them at the Visitors center. You can also do crafts with the kids and see great models of how the canals were built.
I recommend watching the 15 minute video on the canals. The canal is a feature of the town where remnants of the old canal system including a canal boat ride still exist. The canal system itself was recommended by George Washington (not sure if it was his idea) and is an engineering marvel that is close to forgotten in history. There were nearly 600 miles of canals in Ohio in the 1830’s between the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal. To put it in perspective, the Panama Canal is 50 miles long and was built at a time when steam shovels existed. The waterway canals were dug by and constructed by hand. The labor required to build the canals helped bring people to the state, and then helped settle them here by providing a viable way to ship goods back east to markets, creating economic prosperity for the state before the railroads made there way here.
This is the 50th anniversary of Roscoe Village. The people working there were great, and incredibly knowledgeable about their areas. The Blacksmith working the day we were there had been practicing his craft for 40 years. He was great with the kids and let them handle many of the tools and other items he had made or was working on. In the print shop we got a full tour and explanation of how newspapers were produced back in the day. The guide even printed off a sheet for us with an antic press. In the same building they gave a demonstration of how brooms were made which was actually fascinating to me. All this time I thought the came from Diagon alley.
Next up on our tour was the doctors office. They talked about how he used herbs grown in his garden, was paid with barter, and showed some of the tools he may have used. In the kitchen of his house they talked about the foods they ate, how they cooked and even walked us through how they made soap. All of it kept the attention of the kids who had lots of questions. The kids (and adults) walked away with a much greater appreciation for modern medicine, while at the same time a new found frustration with insurance companies. Ok, the frustration with the insurance companies may just have been me, but how nice would it be to pay for a procedure with a chicken? I would spring for 3 or 4 buckets from KFC over the hassle arguing a claim. Just saying.
Moving on to the next attraction which is an actual canal boat you can walk through. Important note, if you want to do the canal boat ride, don’t go on Mondays. Apparently that is their rest day. The boat is cool because you can walk through it. We played a game where the kids took turns being captain and bossing me around until I jumped ship. After that we went to the school house. At the school house you learned about how education was in the time period. All the grades were together and they only taught 3 subjects, reading, writing and arithmetic. You got to sit in the desks and write on chalk boards with soap stone.
Last historical stop on our tour was the weavers house. Like so many of the other volunteers she could not have been more nice. She gave a good accounting of the original weaver and how the canal impacted his life (not in a positive way) and how weaving worked on the old style looms. She then took the time to show the kids crochet and knitting and let them take a turn on the loom. She was so patient, and had I actually fed the kids lunch on time, we may have been there all afternoon. Unfortunately, tummies were telling us it was time to move on.
We ate at McKenna’s Market and it was fabulous. I seriously have to stop taking these kids to awesome eateries as i’m starting to get the stink eye at home when I cook our normal meals. They are too polite to say it but there is definitely a “what is this dish you try to pass off as food to me” kind of vibe. Of course, we could not sneak pass the candy store without stopping. It is a first class confectionery. Lots of novelty candies and not too expensive.
Our last stop was a park not too far from the visitor center. You can actually walk around one of the old locks. It is hard to appreciate the scale from the pictures but they are incredibly impressive in person. To think they cut and transported all those blocks without modern equipment blows my mind. Then to think at one time there were almost 600 miles of this, incredible. If you would like to see more pictures from our trip checkout our Facebook album here.