Features

The nasally call of summer insects has begun to fade away, and the shiny wax coating of tree leaves is beginning to lose its luster. As summer turns toward fall, buckeye seeds come to rest on the forest floor, where they will sink into the soil and take root, as they’ve done since the Pleistocene winter of 10,000 years ago.

Coded in that inedible promise of a would-be tree lies all the information the seed needs in order to make a living in Ohio’s rich and varied soils — just add water and light.

Some members of today’s younger generations — millennials and Gen Zers, if you will — favor a trendier, urban lifestyle, with conveniences like Uber rides and food trucks, bike-sharing, live entertainment, and ethnic eateries. But we found some young adults who prefer working the land, carrying on centuries-old legacies, rearing kids with an appreciation for nature, and growing acres (and acres!) of crops, raising livestock — even tending bees.

Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude and want determine how well you do.” Those words, adorning a motivational sign in the Butterfield family’s barn near Oxford, Ohio, have been undeniably effective.

Matt Butterfield’s 280-pound market barrow, named “Repeat,” was grand champion at the 2018 Ohio State Fair. The pig was so named because Butterfield’s previous pig, “Hollywood,” was grand champion at the 2017 fair. It was only the second time that someone had won back-to-back Ohio State Fair grand championships with pigs.

Jody Christiansen was into trees, and he enjoyed finding ways to get other people into them as well.

In 2004, he discovered his dream. He and his wife, Anna Lee, took their family on a trip to Costa Rica to celebrate daughter Madison’s high school graduation and his completion of chemo treatment for lymphoma. Jody, an avid recreational tree-climber, took an interest in a zipline experience they had while they were there.

Location: On U.S. 250, about 4 miles east of Ashland and a half-mile from Interstate 71.

The five sculptors know how important their role is. Within their capable hands is a tradition that some will experience for the first time this year and others perhaps the fiftieth time — one that thousands of people look forward to every year.

“The butter sculpture display is one of the most loved traditions of the Ohio State Fair,” says Jenny Hubble, senior vice president of communications for the American Dairy Association Mideast, which represents dairy farmers in Ohio and West Virginia. “Ohio’s dairy farmers are proud to support it.”

When The Shawshank Redemption was released in 1994, no one predicted the movie would make Mansfield, Ohio, a tourist destination for fans. Filmed almost entirely in and around Mansfield, the prison drama stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne, a banker wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, and Morgan Freeman as Ellis “Red” Redding, the resourceful inmate who befriends him.

Michael Barhorst never tired of standing near the covered stage in the natural amphitheater on his property in rural Shelby County, watching thousands of country music fans enjoy the Country Concert he organized every year.

Fans came there to enjoy headliners, old favorites, and newcomers to the country music scene, to camp out and have fun with friends, and to share their love for the music with a massive crowd. “It is so rewarding,” Barhorst often remarked to friends and family, “to watch thousands of people take a shared emotional journey through the power of a song.”

The whole world watched on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong planted his left foot in the virgin lunar dust. That “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” rocketed Armstrong to instant immortality. As the first person to stand on a celestial body, Armstrong fulfilled the late President Kennedy’s goal of putting an American on the moon and rendered the United States the winner in its space race with the Soviet Union.

Location: The Rivertown area of Kings Island, a 364-acre amusement and water park in Warren County.