BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)—Just to the left of the Great American Crossroad mural in Bucyrus’ Washington Square, a small red-white-and-blue plaque can be found, commemorating the nation’s upcoming semi quincentennial.

It takes a lot of work to prepare for a 250th birthday celebration, and local historical societies and museums are doing their part. The Crawford County History Alliance, formed in 2022, has expanded its purpose in the last year to help with this massive undertaking.

“America 250 is what has made the history alliance itself really take off,” said Amber Wertman, Treasurer of the Galion History Center. “There is a lot of history here. We have museums, houses, and park districts. In 2023, we created a passport book. The idea was that individuals or families or groups could go around to all the sites, and if they stamped everything, they were entered to win prizes and things like that.”

As the CCHA continued to meet, Wertman said, they discovered that other states were creating initiatives for America 250, “and we already had this built-in group. ‘So,’ we said, ‘let’s get on board.’”

“Late last year,” Wertman continued, “our county commissioners designated the history alliance as Crawford’s lead organization, which was really an honor.”

“We’re still focused on building the organization,” Randy Fischer, Vice President of the Bucyrus Historical Society added. “We were just 16 established organizations and nothing else. We were just getting together and meeting.”

“Now we’re the Bucyrus Rotary Club’s partner for their Auction Fest event coming up in April,” Fischer continued. “In order to do that, we had to become more formal. So, we’re now an official nonprofit through the Community Foundation. And just being part of this [Rotary] event is making us think collaboratively.”

A sharing of the proceeds from Auction Fest will give the CCHA funding to expand further, Fischer said, to build a website and create promotional material.

“Every day we get updated information from the state directives,” Wertman explained. “Each month, there’s a theme. So, one month that theme is ‘Transportation.’ Well, in Crawford County, we have Lincoln Highway, which is all about transportation.”

“We have the Loretta Schimmoler Museum,” Wertman continued, “which is about ‘Aviation.’ One of the months is ‘Industry,’ and back in the early 1900s, Crawford County was booming with up-and-coming industries.”

Returning to the topic of Lincoln Highway, Fischer added, “We do know there’s going to be some type of Lincoln Highway event in September of this year. There was a documentary made by a national group, and the mural is featured a whole minute. So, we’re going to have a screening of that film.”

“We’re also going to have an ‘Ohio Goes to the Movies’ theme,” Wertman added, “which is about arts, music and movies, of course. The state is hoping that every county chooses a site to show movies that are Ohio specific, that have actors or other people that influenced it from Ohio.”

“When you think about Crawford County, we have a lot of really cool things,” said Wertman. “We have agriculture, tourism, we also have history. And if somebody wanted to spend the night or have like a long weekend, they might not want to come to just one of these places, but if we can help them as an alliance to say, ‘All this stuff is right here, in driving distance, and you can just make a day of it,’ that’s the goal.”

Wertman further illustrated the CCHA’s commitment to tourism, citing a study of the Galion History Center from 2024: “We had people from over 20 counties in Ohio. As well as California, Indiana, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina, West Virginia. So, we are getting tourists.

I think sometimes those of us who live here—were born and raised here—think, ‘Oh, nobody’s coming here to see this stuff,’ but they are. And we have data to prove that. So, if we can capitalize on the people who are already coming here through our history alliance, I think we can grow even more.”

“The long-term vision,” Wertman concluded, “would be that this alliance is here to remove barriers, to sustain our culture, sustain our history … because it’s just such a rich history.”

Those who are passionate about history and would like to help the CCHA in their local work, and their preparations for America 250, you can make a donation to Projects, Inc. at the Community Foundation for Crawford County in care of the Crawford County History Alliance. Those who would like to volunteer for upcoming events can do so through their local history organizations in Bucyrus, Galion, and Crestline.

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