CENTERBURG THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER 
OF OHIO-- Or is it?


As we saw in our on-line research, the above monument boulder and plaque are located in the village of Centerburg in a park at the intersection of SR 314 and US 36 on the east edge of town.

After exploring the site we visited an adjacent convenience store and inquired of the first three people we met about the actual location of Ohio's geographic center.  The clerk dismissively mumbled something like "Not live her long."

An older guy wandered in about then and explained the old timers will tell you the center is up across from a spring in Rich Hill.  You can see that little town on the map we published earlier.  A friendly younger guy standing nearby disagreed saying, "That's it right over there across the road," pointing to the marker Sue is reading above.

That graffiti blemished plaque simply says the town is the center of Ohio and has been, I trust, since it was established in 1834.

Armed with this perplexing information we headed for the town hall in search of some official perspective.

Two lady receptionists, upon hearing our frustration, promptly summoned a delightful young fellow who chuckled at our consternation and told us about yet another official plaque and monument in a new subdivision a bit north of the town hall.


That memorial was established in the allotment's common ground on April 30th 2011.  "How do you reconcile these two different locations in your town about 1/2 mile apart"  I inquired.  Pretending to look over the top of his glasses he gave me a mild grin.

We headed along his directions to Heart Ct., and did the photo (right).

It was then we energized our GPS and headed for the previously loaded coordinates which actually led us through the town of Rich Hill where I stopped and inquired of a pleasant young lady if she knew anything about the location of the center of Ohio or its being near a spring in her town the older fellow told us about earlier.

No, it didn't seem to be a topic that aroused her curiosity so we thanked her and continued on our way following the directions of the GPS.

After wandering a bit on local rural roads we wound up on County Rd 15, 8/10 of a mile west of County Rd 204--in Morrow County where, strangely enough the GPS was pointing into a field to the south where there was a path freshly mowed in the weeds flanked by two orange colored survey sticks.  There also were a pair of spiral, galvanized 6" culvert-type pipes laying in the grass as if they might soon be installed as gate posts across the visible path.

We wondered if this was just a farmer about to install a driveway into his field, or, just maybe, an under-construction entryway for the actual location of Ohio's geographic center.  (See photo below).

Since we were headed to Delaware for another touristy visit we decided to call on the Delaware County Engineer's office for some local enlightenment where we met a very friendly and helpful Jack Jennings, a professional surveyor and supervisor of the county map department.

They had no official connection with the state's determination of the geographic center of Ohio being in their jurisdiction.

We wound up having a penetrating discussion on just how do you(?) determine the precise center of an object with a random, geometric shape like the outline of Ohio and he concluded it would be quite easy to arrive at several different results depending on methodology which could find the actual center of the object to be somewhere inside a fairly small, say a few miles in diameter, circle.

A US geological Survey web site agreed with Jack with this statement:  "Because there is no generally accepted definition of a geographic center and no completely satisfactory method of determining it, there may be as many geographic centers of a State or county as there are definitions of the term.

The geographic center of an area may be defined as the center of gravity of the surface, or that point on which the surface of an area would balance if it were a plane of uniform thickness."

Thanks Jack!  I can see where that would be pretty hard to determine with an area as big as Ohio.

Later, in drafting this story I marked the various locations I had found for Ohio's center on a very detailed Ohio Atlas and Gazetteer.  All four sites; the one in Delaware County, the one my GPS found in Morrow County and both monuments in Centerburg of Knox County fit in a circle with a diameter of five miles.

Saturday's story began when I noticed the red dot on a current, official map of the State of Ohio.  That's it above in the northeastern corner of Delaware County designating the geographic center of Ohio.  That's curious, I thought.  Most folks believe that location to be in or around Centerburg; shown above in the southwestern corner of Knox County.

When I looked into this a little deeper I found actual coordinates for our state's center on the web site www.ohiohistorycentral.org and they were 82 degrees 44.5' W and 40 degrees 21.7' N which on my otherwise very accurate Garmin Nuvi GPS took us to a site north of Rich Hill on the above map--in Morrow County.

Please stop by Saturday and ride along as we head down that way and try to sort this all out.

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD--

The red, iridescent throat feathers--also known as a gorget--are the obvious reason for this little bird's name; the only hummingbird that regularly nests east of the Mississippi River.

This photo was done with a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second.  Even with that incredibly brief instant of time recorded in the exposure the bird's wings were blurred.  That is because they are known to beat about 53 times per second. 

OLENTANGY INDIAN CAVERNS--

Millions of years ago underground flow of water dissolved the limestone rock and left behind an intricate string of passageways and rooms (like those above) showing what is now called the council room; known to have been used by the Wyandotte Indians.

The flat rock in the lower photo is thought to have been used for tribal ceremonies.

The cavern was discovered in 1821 when a wagon train camped overnight nearby.  One of the oxen wandered off during the night and was discovered dead in the morning after falling down a shaft that turned out to be one of many entrances to the cave.

This part of Ohio in the 18th century was part of the Northwest Territory and artifacts found in the caverns indicated the Wyandotte's used the caves until as late as 1810.

Concrete stairways now descend 55 feet to the maze of passages occupying three different levels, one now known as the Bell Tower being 105 feet below ground.

Many miles of passages are yet to be explored including one on the fourth level down which, only partially explored, contains a river flowing to the Olentangy River 1/2 mile to the East.

While this cave is geologically very much like others around Ohio the grounds are well maintained, our tour guides were friendly and knowledgeable, Sue liked her "gem mining" experience and their miniature golf course, even with a $5 tariff, looked interesting and challenging.

They are open 9-5, seven days per week and the cavern is a constant 54 degrees.  Wear hiking shoes and be prepared to descend and climb the 105 feet mentioned above. 

http://www.olentangyindiancaverns.com/

GEM MINING--
In another romp around Ohio


Lady friend Sue Brooks pans for "gem" stones by sifting her purchased bag of sand in the mill race at the Olentangy Indian Caverns south of Delaware.  Her $3.50 bag of sand had been salted with a surprisingly generous collection of colorful minerals (below).

It didn't matter the street value of her gems likely was a buck or so.  She had $5.00 worth of pleasure on what was an enjoyable day for both of us.

She did her prospecting stint while we waited for our tour of the caverns to form.  The prospecting and the spelunking both followed several interesting hours of trying to find the exact center of Ohio which many folks believe to be in, well, Centerburg.

We found strong evidence and some of the anecdotal kind to support three or four locations of that geographic point all within about five miles of the junction of Delaware, Morrow and Knox counties.  Please stop by Saturday and we'll tell you about the caverns.  With luck, the story of finding the center of our state will follow the next week.

MY HYPOTHESIS--

Today's standard of excellence is mediocrity

The latest assault on our ever diminishing standard of excellence arrived, unsolicited, in my mail box recently.  It was a shiny, new VISA credit card complete with an account number on a local bank where I closed all my accounts more than a year ago.

The card even boasts a spending limit of $X,XXX.

There is a pasted notice on the card which says it cannot be used until I confirm I have received it by simply calling an 800 phone number.

That's it.  One phone call and I can be off on a multi-thousand dollar spending spree.

Good grief!

Charlotte, a retired teacher, describes ink wells in this 1898 school house which cost $687 to construct new.  It is now one of 40 buildings, described on the site map for Sauder Village. They have been transplanted largely from surrounding northwest Ohio communities and fully restored on the village site near Archbold, OH., a small segment of which is pictured below.   

HISTORIC SAUDER VILLAGE--
Ohio's Largest Living History Destination

Erie J. Sauder (1904-1997) had a dream which led to his company now being the world's leading manufacturer of ready to assemble furniture.  His dream continued to grow when he drew plans on the back of an envelope for a museum that would one day tell of the challenges of early settlers in the Great Black Swamp of Northwest Ohio during the period from 1803 to 1920.

His dream further blossomed when he purchased 17 acres on SR 2 near Archbold in 1969 then started purchasing, moving and renovating historically significant local buildings to his new site which formally opened in 1971.  The village now sits on 235 acres.

Today, artists, craftsmen and re-enactors lead 100,000 visitors annually through the magic of experiencing colonial life from that time when Ohio became a state--like Judy (right) describing the life of the Jacob Eicher family of the 1850s. 

In addition to the more than 40 buildings the village includes nearly countless displays like the replica of a pioneer's covered wagon (left) used to bring settlers across the Appalachian mountains in pursuit of their own dreams.

Craft buildings and studios are home to several nationally recognized artists working with traditional materials such as wood, tin and glass.

Richard in the wood shop.

Rich in the tin shop.

A tourist in a native home.

Johanna in the Wabash RR depot.

Thank you Mr. Sauder and to all who have contributed to this marvelous jewel.  Your dream certainly is alive and well.
_____________________
www.saudervillage.org