COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Ohio Historical Society found a way to highlight some interesting parts of the state's history. From a bridge to Canada to turning an Earthwork into a golf course -- The Ohio Historical Society unveiled the state's bad ideas and blunders.
Instead of sweeping the blunders under a rug, the Ohio Historical Society chose to memorialize the missteps in a top 10 list.
Curators began posting a series of blogs titled, "The Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments of Ohio History." The historical society said the blog highlights some of the quirky, awkward and sometimes humorous moments in state history.
Ideas were submitted to the society's curators and then put to a vote. The moments were unveiled one at a time, starting with 10 and counting down to their top pick for the "Most Embarrassing Moment of Ohio History."
"We hope that it will provide as much enjoyment to read as it was to create," said Elizabeth Higgins, a history curator at the Ohio Historical Society.
"Our audience may be inspired to dig deeper into Ohio history to suggest more embarrassing moments for future additions to the list, or other topics for a top 10 list."
Ohio's Top 10 Most Embarrassing Moments
10. Ohio Antiquities Are Treasured... In London
A Chilicothe man sold a large collection of more than 1,000 antiques from Mound City in 1864 to an English entrepreneur after he was unable to spark any interest from the Smithsonian or other American museums. Those antiques are now only viewable on display at the British Museum in London.
9. Rhodes' Road To Canada
In July of 1965, Ohio Governor James Rhodes announced a plan to build a bridge from Ohio to Ontario. The bridge would have stretched 50 miles over open water and cost $786 million dollars, several billion by today's money. Erie’s gales, that start as early as November, can produce hurricane-force winds, 35 foot waves (on a planned twenty foot bridge), and send chunks of ice flying with car-crunching force. Fortunately for any future bridge-goers, when John Gilligan took office in 1971, he abandoned the idea.
8. Newark Board of Trade Finds A Curious Way to Save An Earthwork
In April of 1910, the Newark Board of Trade voted to turn the Octagon Earthworks, a 2,000-year-old American Indian cathedral, into a golf course. The site had been preserved originally for use as the Ohio National Guard’s encampment grounds, but the National Guard moved their encampment north to Lake Erie and Newark was left with finding an alternative use for the property.
7. Presidents and Generals First
On July 22, 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes, soon-to-be-president General James A. Garfield, General William Tecumseh Sherman, and other notables came to Newark for a “Great Re-Union of the Veteran Soldiers and Sailors of Ohio.” A speaker’s platform had been built, presumably by the lowest bidding contractor. Part way through the program, the platform began to collapse and President Hayes and General Sherman, according to an account published in the Cincinnati Enquirer, “only saved themselves by springing forward out of their chairs, which tumbled back into the ruins.”
6. Traitor Runs for Governor
Clement Vallandigham, a Congressman from Dayton, opposed the Civil War. In 1863, he escaped to Canada after being tried by a military court for “…declaring sympathies for the enemy.” He then declared himself a candidate for Ohio governor, and ran his campaign from a hotel. John Brough, a Union supporter, beat Vallandigham easily.
5. No One Believes the Passenger Pigeon Will Go Extinct … Until it Does
The Columbus doctor, John Maynard Wheaton was a founder of the American Ornithological Union and author of two works on Ohio’s birds. In his 1860 Catalogue of the Birds of Ohio he comments on the 1857 landmark Ohio legislation that provided the protections for select birds and mammals. Among his comments: “The passenger pigeon needs no protection.” The last documented wild passenger pigeon was shot in Ohio in 1900.
4. Escape
On Nov. 27, 1863, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan and his command escaped from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus by tunneling under their cells and scaling walls and gates. Five of the officers were able to rejoin Confederate forces. The Columbus Ohio State Journal newspaper reported: “In some points of view, the escape of John Morgan…., is the most humiliating circumstance that has ever occurred in the State of Ohio.”
3. Ohio Admitted to the Union… in 1953
In 1953, during Ohio’s sesquicentennial celebration, Ohio’s congressional delegation asked the National Archives for the formal resolution declaring Ohio’s admission to the Union. It was soon discovered that the resolution had never been adopted. Congress quickly passed a resolution that declared admission of Ohio and postdated it to 1803.
2.The Toledo-Michigan Border War
In 1835, a long-standing dispute between Ohio and the Michigan Territory over a section of Ohio’s poorly-drawn northern boundary boiled over, with both
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