The Spokesrider

I’ve been reading “The Ohio Frontier” by R. Douglas Hurt (1996) in preparation for some riding later this summer. I am now getting to like this book, but was disappointed by some of the first chapters. The chapter titled “Clash of cultures” was not particularly insightful on cultural issues. There was much awkward use of [...]

I happened to be at home today, instead of at work, when I received a phone call from Nanci, who had seen my pages about Allen Norcross at my Black Hawk Slept Here web site . She is a descendant. I always get a kick out of meeting descendants of the people in the Black [...]

This was the final destination for the day — a piece of county road that marks a tiny part of the boundary between the area known as the Virginia Military Tract and the lands of the rectangular survey system. The military tract is to the right of the road in the photo. It was for [...]

Instead of fighting with on the side of the British in the War of 1812 as did many native people (such as Black Hawk) his faction sat it out. As a reward his people were evicted from Ohio by the Americans after the war. But Black Hoof died before the eviction was complete, and is buried near here.

Fort Amanda was a supply station during the war of 1812. Now it’s a cemetery. It would have been a good place to have lunch, if I had been carrying my cook kit with me, because it’s a cemetery that has a picnic area alongside. Not your typical cemetery, obviously. The path at the foot [...]

The “Deep Cut” site was in the northwest corner of Auglaize County. I intended to end the day in the southeast corner, with a stop at the site of Fort Amanda just to see what was there. This photo is on Deep Cut road, which follows close to the north edge of the county. I [...]

The roads all morning had been quiet, level, and well maintained. I was wondering why this road was called “Deep Cut Road.” I had chosen this route partly because the name intrigued me. But it was quiet and level. There had obviously been no need to cut the road through hills or anything of that sort.