Features

A statue of Wheeling Gaunt in downtown Yellow Springs, Ohio

During the first holiday season after the death of her husband, the noted local artist Jack Hubbard, in 1987, Pat Hubbard received a curious gift delivered to her Yellow Springs home: two sacks — one filled with flour, the other with sugar.

“Wheeling Gaunt was a person of faith and a very resilient man who did not let adversity beat him down; he used it as a motivation to achieve,” says Brenda Hubbard Ibarra, Jack and Pat’s daughter. Although she had been born and raised in Yellow Springs, Ibarra was unaware of Gaunt’s story until her mother started getting those gifts. Inspired, she immersed herself in researching that history, and in 2021, she self-published Legacy of Grace: Musings on the Life and Times of Wheeling Gaunt.

Mistletoe

It’s the best time of the year — or so sings Burl Ives, over and over leading up to Christmas Day. Of course, cups of cheer (spiced cider, perhaps) will likely make an appearance, and (croons Burl) there may or may not be snow.

Like the Christmas celebration itself, hanging mistletoe in your house is rooted in ancient tradition. But before we get to that, it’s worth noting that mistletoe has no real roots — it’s a parasite, making its way in life by living off of rooted trees. “Mistletoe makes its own sugar, but poaches water from trees,” says Savannah Ballweg, who manages the Miami University botanical conservatory in Oxford.

According to Ballweg, Ohio is home to one species of mistletoe: American mistletoe, also known as oak mistletoe, found mostly in the southern part of the state.

A Christmas spider made from precious stones and pearls

Wrap up your shopping and sleigh the holidays this year with our gift guide’s selection of original, useful, and ingenious made-in-Ohio items, which will make it the most wonderful time of the year for everyone on your list.  

 

Barb Barbee Jewelry, Delaware

At her home studio in Delaware, Worthington Craft Guild member Barb Barbee fashions jewelry using 14-karat gold-filled wire, sterling silver, freshwater pearls, and precious and semi-precious stones. Her holiday line has Christmas tree-shaped green malachite pendants; mother-of-pearl snowman earrings; and stunning Christmas spiders that channel an East European folktale.

A white house flying a Blue Star Flag

Ohio seems to have a bit of a thing with flags. It’s not just that our state flag is the only one out of the 50 that is not a rectangle (an interesting story in its own right).

You might have seen a service flag: a blue star (or stars) on a field of white, surrounded by a red border — hanging in the picture window of a seemingly random home in the neighborhood or in a shop window of a downtown building. But many folks might be unaware, or at least unsure, of its significance.

Kathy and Doug Crow

On just about any night of the week, though certainly on almost every Friday and Saturday, there’s bound to be a square dance happening somewhere in Ohio.

The Crows got into square dancing by chance. They went to dinner late one summer evening to a restaurant where many of the other patrons were wearing what they later learned to be traditional square-dancing attire: the women in ruffled skirts worn over fluffy crinolines, and men in western-style shirts that matched or complemented their partners’ outfits.

The Crosskeys Tavern, Chillicothe

In the 19th century, Ohio held a crucial place in the national transportation system as Americans gradually gained access to wider and wider areas of the country. 

As a result, busy inns and taverns sprouted all over, and quite a few of them are still in business today. These centuries-old establishments are rich in history — and in some cases, ghosts. Below, we have listed some of the more notable haunted watering holes in the state for anyone interested in dinner with the departed, or an overnight stay with the spirits.

The Crosskeys Tavern

19 E. Main St., Chillicothe

Cherish Harrell, owner of the Secret Chamber House of Oddities and Artwork in Fairborn.

Cherish Harrell first started collecting oddities (and later selling them) when she attended huge conventions like Cincinnati’s HorrorHound or one of the giant regional Days of the Dead events.

The Secret Chamber is not just a store; it’s a hub of creativity and community. 

“We host art shows based on themes like Friday the 13th or cryptids,” says Harrell. “We also host themed classes that include making spell kits, crystals, or spooky terrariums.” 

Among the events that draw the biggest crowds are the photo shoots with Krampus, a half-goat, half-demon monster from central European folklore that punishes misbehaving children at Christmastime; and the evil bunny during Easter.

The historic Smiley Farm.

In 1772, four years before the start of the revolution that wrested control of the colonies from Great Britain, the British king, George III, gave hundreds of acres of land in what was then the Colony of Virginia to an Englishman named Alexander Smiley, for the purpose of f

Smiley, with help from the eighth and ninth generations of Smiley farmers — his son, James, and two grandsons, John and Alexander — raises corn, soybeans, hay, and Charolais beef cattle on 100 acres of the original Smiley farm, plus additional farmland they either own or lease.  

“The deed from King George was for at least 500 acres, but might have been for more than 1,000 acres,” John says. “We’re just not sure because parts of it were parceled off when people got married, and lots of the property records were destroyed in a courthouse fire.” 

The WACO Air Museum and Learning Center in Troy, Ohio.

Vintage aircraft are a common sight in the sky above and along County Road 25A at the south edge of Troy in Miami County — especially during late September, when the WACO Air Museum and Learning Center hosts its annual fly-in.

“The fly-in gives us a chance to show off our facility,” Royer says. “It is here that people can walk through the history of Troy and Miami County, which were at the forefront of the aviation history.”

WACO (Weaver Aircraft Company) in Troy was the largest manufacturer of biplanes in the country during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Buck Weaver, a civilian who instructed military pilots in Texas during World War I, and friends Clayton Brukner, Sam Junkin, and Charlie Meyers founded the company in 1920.