"I learned more today in an hour than I did over 12 months of social distance college," I thought jokingly to myself. After university cancelled our Spring Break due to COVID, I decided that if I took a little (and much needed) break to myself, very few would notice. So one Tuesday after class I packed my bags, hopped in my car, and drove to Cincinnati.
I don't know why, but Cincinnati has been calling to me for years. As children going on a long vacation from Georgia to Canada, we would usually hit the Ohio border right at sunset and cross the river as the sun was lighting up both city and river with beautiful hues of gold and orange. Soon after, I would fall asleep, maybe wake up to the rumble of a pot hole once or twice, and then use the light of the passing street lights to play my game boy until falling asleep again. Before long, I woke up on vacation. Cincinnati was a magical place where it was always sunset and never night. What better place to go on my first solo presidential trip? I spent the morning as a tourist in Queen City, hopping from site to site, taking pictures of presidential murals and statues, eating lunch outside of William Howard Taft's house, and taking a nap under the sun in Eden Park's presidential grove. After purchasing a drink that was as close as I could find to an iced tea (curse the north), I drove the bumpy riverside highway thirty minutes West to North Bend, Ohio. |
We collectively forget (or either never learn) how much rich early American history takes place along the Ohio River. Hop the river in Pittsburg and you could end up drifting West across Kentucky, down the Mississippi, and out along the Gulf of Mexico. Many people don't know that under British colonial law, Americans where prohibited from settling beyond the Appalachians in order to prevent conflict with the native and to concentrate rule. Once independence was gained, and the article of confederation provided new rules for territories to come into statehood, the West became a homing beacon for many entrepreneurs.
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Side Note: Ohio comes from the Iroquois "O-Y-O" which means 'great river'. So the Ohio River is literally just the Great River River. |
This new (well, new to them) land needed to be won and defended, which prompted young soldiers, like an eighteen year old William Henry Harrison, to hop a boat in Pittsburg and ride it to the edge of all that was then known. Years before Lewis and Clarke set forth to explore the West West, surveyors like Andrew Ellicot had taken the daring trip that young Harrison was now taking, past French colonies (the French had no qualm with settling west of the Appalachians) like Louisville, and before the river turned at the bend to the north (North Bend) at the frontier of Indian country (Indiana). Names really do have meaning! (unless you are Idaho...)
I learned a lot from this tri-state area and saw a president, a settler's cemetery, and with just a few minutes farther west, right before hitting Indiana, some Indian burial mounds atop the rolling hills of Shawnee Lookout Park.
I learned a lot from this tri-state area and saw a president, a settler's cemetery, and with just a few minutes farther west, right before hitting Indiana, some Indian burial mounds atop the rolling hills of Shawnee Lookout Park.
The monument stands alone, and if you miss the exit and drive past it three times like I did, you can see it gazing down over the traffic below, perhaps desperately demanding not to be forgotten. There are very few parking spots, but even few visitors. When I pulled up at around 2 in the afternoon, my car was the only one there. After walking around for a bit, I saw another car pull up, only to see a man pull his bicycle out of his car, don his helmet, and ride away down to the river. There were art deco style houses just on the other side of the small two-lane road that holds the monument and a small nature loop.
Early whig era political drama is what got me into history in the first place, so I would LOVE to read more about William Henry Harrison's life (although maybe less interestingly his 31 day long presidency). From the Curse of Tippecanoe, to the first campaign songs, to the giant campaign ball rolled across Ohio, to the long cabin whiskey bottles made in Harrison's honor, the 1840s truly were a time to be alive... besides the Cholera outbreaks. My behindness on telling the stories of all of my departed friends and of my visits to their gravesites is making me think seriously about a deeper dive into all of this with a Deadventure Time book of Presidents. What do ya'll think? |