Monday, June 27, 2011

Welcome to the Gehio Blog!

Ohio's first Statehouse in Chillicothe, OH
The purpose of this blog is to share my relatively recent interest in the history of the Ohio Valley and the surrounding region with my focus on the prehistoric Woodland Indian period up through the 19th century. Those who know me are aware that I have a particular fondness for the Native American history of the Old Northwest territory, however, all history of the area is fair game as all of it leads us to the present. The history of my adopted home goes way beyond "Porkopolis" and German immigrants and I have found that many life-long residents only have a vague notion of the French, British, Native American and frontier stories that shaped this region over hundreds of years. Understanding this history more fully has brought me a greater appreciation and sense of my current surroundings.

Now, about the name "Gehio"...I had a vision and I saw a man on a flaming pie, and he said "You are Ohio with a 'Ge'," ...sorry, bad joke, only big Beatles fans will get that...

Actually, it just struck me that Geocaching led me to my interest in Ohio regional history so the word "Gehio" (pronounced Gee-Hio) popped into my head and it seemed like a good combination of Geocaching, Ohio, and History. It was short, it was available and it sounds a bit Native American too so that's a plus.

At any rate, I hope people enjoy reading my write-ups and photographs as much as I will enjoy visiting these locations and writing about them.

next post...How It All Began