COLUMBUS, Ohio: Last Thursday the Ohio Historical Society announced a series of Behind-the-Scenes Tours that will highlight the Ohio Historical Society’s Civil War Collection in honor of this being the 150th anniversary of that war’s beginning. I’m a big fan of all aspects of Ohio’s history and this announcement really caught my attention. The tours will be held one evening per month for 3 consecutive months (April 14, May 12 and June 9 from 6:30-9:00 p.m.) The catch: these special “behind the scenes tours” will cost $150 per person and limited to just 8 – 12 people!
The “special $150 per person guests” will be offered typical camp food samples that kept our forefathers alive while away from home-cooking; see the battle flags our forefathers fought under; hold “real” military equipment our forefathers fought with; even smell real campfire smoke! Ok, the smoke was probably created just for these events and not the real smoke our forefathers encountered as they traipsed around the hills of Kentucky and Tennessee or the backwoods swamplands of Maryland and Georgia.
These 24 – 36 special guests will get to see stuff that ordinary Ohio citizens (except for the few that maybe catalog and dust off these bits of Ohio’s history) never get to see. Many of these items may have actually been used by their great-great grandparents or maybe even donated to the Ohio Historical Society in the hopes of preserving them for future generations to see. It doesn’t take a lot of deep thinking to imagine that they may have reconsidered that donation if it were known then that their family heirlooms would only be put on display for those willing to whip out their gold cards and charge the $150 per person for the honor of experiencing the smell of campfire smoke!
Ohio sent 300,000 men to fight in the war between the states. Many didn’t return, most didn’t return the same as when they left. Ohio’s citizens paid a big price for keeping these states united. Without deducting costs, the Ohio Historical Society stands to make about $5400 if each session is sold-out from this elite event. Is that what our historical society has become: a dinner party for the rich to see and touch our state’s history? If this is just a gimmick by the society to drum up interest in the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, I think they’re heading down the wrong trail. This organization is charged with protecting Ohio’s history for all of its citizens today and tomorrow. Why not bring out ALL of these items and have a special OPEN HOUSE for all of Ohio’s people for FREE– to see these rare hidden items! That would not only spark interest in Ohio’s history, but also in the historical society as well. No need to bring out the real campfire smoke, most Ohioans experience that every summer on camping trips to one of our great state parks for considerably less than the asking price of this event.
They cooked with grapevine trimmings (Ohio still had a great number of grape vine woods, although the number was severely declining) and made grapevine charcoal for later. Campfires smoked far less, and were much smaller than they are now. They were still wrapping food in coltsfoot or grave vine leaves. If you want to see what upstart grapevine woods look like, most parks have them now. The curlies are no longer 3 or 4 feet at the base,more like 18 inches. They are also colonizing the honeysuckle hedges in places. I saw some growing along a chainlink fence, surrounding what was once the biggest spring in the world. It is on Nelson Road, across from Sutherland Lumber