Ohio history

There are more than 200 such shops in the region, and the star of the show at each is the soupy, spicy concoction that, despite the name, bears little resemblance to what most Americans consider chili. Further, it’s tough to guess what’s in the chilis because no one wants to talk recipes.

The original

Steve Martin has operated Empress Chili in Alexandria, Kentucky, for 35 years.

“Empress is the original,” he says. “It all started in 1922 with brothers Tom and Jeff Kiradjieff; they were Macedonians. Empress is the best.”

The short answer is that the street honors Mary Harris, a woman of European descent who lived in the Ohio Country. But that merely skims the surface of her story. In all probability, Harris was the first white person to reside in Ohio, and her presence was so extraordinary that it was noted on international maps and occasioned a nomenclature — including White Woman’s River, White Woman’s Town, White Woman’s Rock, and, of course, Whitewoman Street — that is particular to the Coshocton area.

Thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash hit musical, Hamilton, most Americans know how and where Alexander Hamilton’s story ended: in a duel with Aaron Burr in Weehawken, New Jersey, in July 1804 — Burr killed Hamilton and became persona non grata among the Eastern political elite.

A Vietnam veteran was exploring the then newly opened National Veterans Memorial and Museum (NVMM) when he saw another man, a veteran of World War II, and stopped him in his tracks with a “Thank you for your service.”

“It was a very moving moment,” says Shelley Hoffman, associate director of external affairs, who witnessed the scene. The poignant episode epitomizes NVMM’s unique mission: saluting every veteran from every branch of the U.S. military in every period of war and peace.

During the Great Depression, two federal programs — the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) and the Federal Art Project (FAP), which was a part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) — put thousands of artists to work. Murals were painted across the U.S., including more than 60 in Ohio, with post offices reaping the bounty.

Guernsey-Muskingum Electric Cooperative (GMEC) serves 17,091 consumer-members in east-central Ohio. The unglaciated terrain doesn’t lend itself to wide swaths of farmland, but the hills make for fine pasturelands for cattle raising, and poultry barns fit nicely in the valleys. Because it’s situated in the midst of the Utica Shale, the oil and gas industry is a strong economic driver for the region.

Location: On a 100-foot-high bluff near the Great Miami River in Miamisburg Mound Park.

Location: The only place in the world where KitchenAid stand mixers are produced is the KitchenAid factory at 1701 KitchenAid Way in Greenville.

Let’s look to the future: It’s mid-July and incredibly hot, just as it’s been every summer. On one of those 80-80 days — in the ballpark of 80 degrees accompanied by 80 percent humidity — the condensation pools on the table around the base of your glass of iced tea.

Conveniently, ice is but a few steps away. Open the freezer, twist a white rectangular tray, and cubes fall out; push a button on the door and crescent-shaped ice chips cascade into your glass.

Location: On the grounds of the Ohio Statehouse at the northwest quadrant of Capitol Square. Provenance: Created for an Ohio exhibit at the 1893 World Columbian Exposition in Chicago, These Are My Jewels is a sculpture featuring bronze statues of seven Ohioans — Salmon P. Chase, James A. Garfield, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, Philip H. Sheridan, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Edwin M.