Bits of Ohio’s history, big and small, are marked throughout the state with large cast aluminum signs to let folks know that something worth knowing about happened where they are standing.
There are more than 1,500 historical markers throughout the state, each one important to the community it’s in.
In Lucas County, there are more than 60 historical markers.
There’s one on North Summit Street, the site of the Dempsey-Willard Fight, “The Fight of the Century” they called it back in 1919. If not for the marker and keen local historians, most would likely have no idea about the 80,000-seat, all-wooden stadium that was built there — on what is now Bayview Park — for the single purpose of housing the boxing match.
There’s another marker outside of the downtown Toledo HCR Manor Care building on Summit Street, though it has nothing to do with any of the buildings that surround it.
It marks the original location of Toledo’s oldest black institution: Warren African Methodist Episcopal Church. The church was founded in 1817 by eight people. The congregation was led by the Rev. Henry J. Young, who came to Toledo through the Underground Railroad, as did some of his parishioners.
In front of Swanton Township Hall is a marker noting “Ohio’s Last Ottawas.” The two-sided marker tells visitors that, in the Oak Openings region during the 1830s, some of the last Ottawa villages in Ohio were along the banks of Swan Creek. The Native Americans were led by Chief Ottokee and his half-brother, Chief Wauseon.
“Known for being honest and friendly, Ottokee was the last Ottawa chief in the Maumee Valley, for years refusing to go when the last of his people were removed to the lands west of the Mississippi,” the marker reads.
Anyone can request a historical marker for nearly anything, so long as it’s factual, said Becki Trivison, coordinator of the Ohio History Connection’s Historical Markers program. The program has been in place since 1957.
“We wouldn’t put up a marker saying, ‘Aliens landed here on such-and-such date,’ ” she said. “We haven’t gotten anything like that.”
The only restriction is that, if a community wants a marker to honor a person, the person must be deceased, Ms. Trivison said.
“What happens is people in the local communities around the state decide on a story, an event, a person, a site that they want to commemorate with a marker,” Ms. Trivison said about the process.
From there, research is done, an application to the Ohio History Connection is made, and the application is fact-checked and, if all information is good, approved.
Each marker costs $2,400 to $2,700, which is paid for by the community or group sponsoring the marker; there is a grant available to cover $750 of each marker, but the award isn’t guaranteed.
In Erie, Huron, and Seneca counties, there is a grant in place to pay entirely for historical markers, Ms. Trivison said.
Applications are available online at ohiohistory.org, and are due by July 1 of every year.
Contact Taylor Dungjen at tdungjen@theblade.com, or 419-724-6054, or on Twitter @taylordungjen.
First Published October 9, 2016, 4:00 a.m.