Ohio Country 1776: Gateway to America
Division of Lifelong Learning
Supported by an NEH grant, Rural Action’s Ohio Country 1776: Gateway to America initiative celebrates the 250th anniversary with a series of 25 public programs throughout Appalachian Ohio.
Programs across the regions of Athens, Chillicothe, Marietta, Steubenville, and Zanesville explore themes of building, growing, learning, making, and moving through both formal and immersive hands-on learning opportunities to enrich public understanding of Revolutionary-era America by focusing on the local, material, and intellectual realities and complexities of building a nation on its first major frontier.
“This project brings the foundational history of Appalachian Ohio to life by focusing on the material realities of the times," said Rural Action Co-CEO Joe Brehm told the Zanesville Times Recorder. "If we can taste the same apples folks ate some 250 years ago, if we can walk part of Zane’s Trace and try our hands at 18th-century handtools, then we can begin to better appreciate how Ohio came to be and what it means to be here now.”