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     You could think of Sacra Via Park as the remains of an ancient road. Sacra Via (Latin for “Sacred Way”) is part of the extensive Marietta Earthworks network (sometimes called Indian mounds) constructed around 1,500 years ago. This was no ordinary road as we think of it today. It was 150 feet wide, 3 blocks long, descending on a uniform […]

     Yes, this football score is for real. The year was 1895. Sure, the game then was new and far different from today. But that year the Marietta College Pioneers were dominant. The Parkersburg News in a 1964 article suggested that the 1895 Marietta College team might have been the best ever.      Marietta played OSU eight times in the […]

They built ocean-going vessels here, 300 miles away from any ocean. How could that be? It's what I call a Marietta-ism: a combination of amazing skills, creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, and river access. Ships were built here, floated down to the Gulf of Mexico, and sailed out into the world. People in European ports knew of Marietta before […]

      There it was, laying next to the grass trimmer I was about to start: a paw paw, the first fruit of the season. Suzanne had found it doing yard work. It was ripe, and I took a bite. Fantastic!      Paw paw has an Appalachian ring to it, sounding like a dog extremity or ma's husband. A paw paw is a greenish potato-sized wild fruit […]

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart was the Taylor Swift of the 1920s and 30s. It was not music but her accomplishments in flying and her charm that made her so famous. She visited Parkersburg, WV, to give a speech at Parkersburg High School on October 30, 1936. That was just months before she and co-pilot Fred Noonan disappeared on July 2, 1937, in the […]

 This photo and caption reproduced below were authored by Hotel Lafayette owner, local historian, and accomplished photographer S. Durward Hoag. This was one of his entertaining Marietta Times columns “Round and Round Below the Railroad Tracks” from the 1960s and 1970s. Spelling and punctuation are from the article.   ROUND AND ROUND DELVES […]

     They called him Billy. His real name was William Dawes, Jr., ancestor of Marietta’s noted Dawes family. He rode with Paul Revere on his famous 1775 midnight ride. But Dawes was left out of the story, along with a third rider, Dr. Samuel Prescott. To paraphrase author Christopher Klein, “While Paul Revere galloped into history, his […]

     There is a monument at the corner of Gilman and Virginia Streets in Harmar. It sits near busy traffic lanes, yet offers a serene view of the Ohio River. It was a gift of France, donated as part of the Northwest Territory Sesquicentennial Celebration in 1937-38 in appreciation for the service of the World War I Marietta College Ambulance […]

Turned off by the spiteful rhetoric in today’s political discourse? Stressed by the twenty-four hour news cycle and social media rancor? Go back to the 1924 presidential campaign. A Marietta native, Charles Gates Dawes, was the running mate of Calvin Coolidge on the Republican ticket. Dawes is the serious-looking one on the right in the photo. […]

The hill behind the former Children’s Home complex in Marietta offers a serene view of the area. Breezes rustle the leaves of giant oak trees towering over the site. A mowed clearing with a chain link fence seems out of place. A plaque identifies the site as a burial ground for children who died while residents of the Home. It is a poignant […]