Groveport Messenger - April 4th, 2021

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PAGE 4 - SOUTHEAST MESSENGER - April 4, 2021 JOIN OUR TEAM! Apply Online At FLYERSPIZZA.COM/JOBS IMMEDIATE OPENINGS AT: GROVEPORT • BLACKLICK • HILLARD and our NEW Location at 6542 Hayden Run Rd. $ 100 DRIVER *SIGN ON BONUS* Lucrative Tips • Commissions Paid Nightly • Flexible Hours Hiring Seniors • College/High School Students (18 yrs +) www.columbusmessenger.com column The phantom track Sometimes history hides in plain sight. Tucked away under the grass near the baseball/softball fields at Groveport Elementary is a former athletic facility that in its heyday was state of the art. It can be a bit of a historical scavenger hunt, but if one looks closely, one can see remnants and shadows there of the old cinder running track and field event areas that once were the home of the Groveport Madison High School Cruiser track and field teams. Constructed in the early 1930s when Groveport Elementary was Groveport Madison High School, the track facility was a gift to the school from the classes of 1929 through 1933 and was used by the Cruiser track teams until the 1970s. It featured a quarter mile cinder running track along with high jump, pole vault, and broad jump runways and pits as well as areas for shotput and discus. The track is now covered in grass (and in places with gravel), but its faint oval outline can still be seen encircling the baseball/softball fields. The track featured low wooden rails a few inches tall that defined its inner and outer borders. Some of these low wooden rails can still be seen poking up out of the grass and mud, especially near the southernmost baseball/softball diamond and the larger diamond east of the former track. There also once were small wooden blocks positioned at areas along side the track showing where races, such as the 220-yard dash, would start. I’ve looked for these blocks, but I have not been able to find them these days as they either weathered away or are just buried too far under the dirt and grass. The circular concrete pad for the discus throwers is still in place and visible near the third base/left field side of the southernmost baseball/softball diamond. The shotput area once sat between Cron Drive and the track near the southernmost baseball/softball field’s left field area. Shotputters would heave the shotput into a Editor’s Notebook rectangular flat pit of cinders. The pole vault, high jump, and broad jump areas, now grass covered, were along the west side straight portion of the track and near Wirt Road. In the early days of the track, the jumpers did not land in foam pads like are used today. Instead, they landed in a pile of sawdust! In my youth in the Rick Palsgrove 1960s, I looked upon it as one of the first signs of spring when I would come out at recess at Groveport Elementary and see the freshly white chalked running lanes marked on the black cinder base of the track for the Cruiser track team to use. White chalk measurements were also marked in arcs in the track’s infield grass so officials could measure how far an athlete threw the discus. The late Ed Rarey, who ran track for the Cruisers in the 1940s, once told me he liked running on the track. “When well cared for, the old cinder tracks were good running surfaces,” Rarey told me a few years ago. “But, if a hurdler tripped going over a hurdle and hit those cinders, he’d have to pick the cinder bits out of his wounds.” Rarey also said that, after a heavy rain, puddles would form in places on the track. “You just ran and splashed through them,” Rarey said. Next time you are at a baseball or softball game at Groveport Elementary, take a look around and see if you, too, and can spot the remnants of the phantom track of Cruiser athletic history. Rick Palsgrove is editor of the Groveport Messenger. PRODUCTION & CUSTOMER SERVICE POSITIONS ALSO AVAILABLE Letters policy The Southeast Messenger welcomes letters to the editor. Letters cannot be libelous. Letters that do not have a signature, address, and telephone number, or are signed with a pseudonym, will be rejected. PLEASE BE BRIEF AND TO THE columbusmessenger.com Keep tabs on the latest news in Groveport & Madison Township Look for Groveport Messenger on Become a fan! POINT. The Messenger reserves the right to edit or refuse publication of any letter for any reason. Opinions expressed in the letters are not necessarily the views of the Messenger. Mail letters to: Southeast Messenger, 3500 Sullivant Avenue, Columbus, OH 43204; or by email to southeast@columbusmessenger.com. southeast Messenger (Distribution: 20,634) Rick Palsgrove ...................................Groveport Editor southeast@columbusmessenger.com Published every other Sunday by The Columbus Messenger Co. 3500 Sullivant Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43204-1887 (614) 272-5422 The Columbus Messenger Co. reserves the right to edit, reject or cancel any advertisement or editorial copy at any time. The company is not responsible for checking accuracy of items submitted for publication. Errors in advertising copy must be called to the attention of the company after first insertion and prior to a second insertion of the same advertising copy.
www.columbusmessenger.com Rivers help tell the story of the Ohio frontier Janet Shailer, author of the new book,“Trouble on Scioto’s Waters – Soldiers, Frontiersmen & Native Americans: 1725-1815.” The tranquil waters of the Scioto River were once anything but placid. The Scioto River and its tributaries, such as Big Darby Creek, Big Walnut Creek, and the Olentangy River were once hot beds of activity as Prehistoric and Woodland Native Americans used them as major transportation routes. A new book by Janet Shailer, “Trouble on Scioto’s Waters — Soldiers, Frontiersmen & Native Americans: 1725- 1815,” explores the Native American history surrounding these waterways. “From 1754 — 1814 fighting raged within the state between Native Americans and their adversaries,” Shailer said. “Those years are vital to understanding the history of Ohio. By 1843, the last of the Native Americans left the state after the signing of the Treaty with the Wyandots. A mere 18 years later the Civil War would start.” The importance of the Scioto River watershed to Ohio’s early history cannot be underestimated. This river was a transportation artery for the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware, Ottawa, Seneca, and Miami on their way to camps in the Pickaway Plains and beyond. The area between the Scioto River and the Big Darby Creek was once a cradle of Prehistoric and Woodland activity. This area alone has artifacts from the Paleo-Indian, Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient cultures. Battelle Darby Metro Park along Big Darby Creek, for one, is continuously being studied by archaeologists for its numerous mounds and Native American artifacts that are still being discovered there. Later the European fur trappers and frontiersmen understood their significance, followed by soldiers from three different countries. “I have included chapters on five men who were important figures in central Ohio’s early history,” Shailer said. “They include Col. William Crawford, Simon Girty, and Jonathan Alder plus Native Americans Blue Jacket and Tecumseh. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 began to drive the Native Americans out of Ohio permanently.” Shailer said the Native Americans knew the Ohio country was a special place and they helped to make it so. “I believe that to understand the history of a great people, we must thoroughly study them, including walking the ground where they once lived,” said Shailer. “Part of this book is a guide to visiting some of those sites. Native Americans entered what is now central Ohio about 9,000 - 10,000 years ago.” For people interested in both Prehistoric and Eastern Woodland Indians, the Middle Ohio Valley is an archaeologist’s gold mine. “The Ohio Historical & Archaeological Society estimated in the 1880s there were once 10,000 mounds and earthworks in Ohio alone,” said Shailer. “Unfortunately, urban development has left us with few remaining sites to see and explore.” The Ohio History Connection has documented dozens of Prehistoric and Eastern Woodland sites all along the edges of the Scioto River. “In Jackson Township/Franklin County, archaeological maps show dozens of Native American sites along the edges of this waterway,” said Shailer. “Other creeks in the Scioto River basin were also important for development. On the western side of Franklin County lies Big Darby Creek, another important transportation artery for several tribes. In the eastern part of Franklin County, Alum Creek runs south from Mount Gilead and joins Big Walnut and Blacklick creeks in (now) Three Creeks Metro Park. The Adena built at least seven mounds in the Alum Creek Valley.” The book includes a guide to those who would like to visit sites once occupied by these First Ohioans. Books may be ordered online from the publisher Orange Frazer Press at www.orangefrazer.com or via Amazon.com. “Janet Shailer has captured a long-overlooked portion of Ohio’s history, a past era that we are still feeling the effects of today,” said Rick Palsgrove, managing editor of the Columbus Messenger Newspapers and director of the Groveport Heritage Museum. “The stories she tells of the Native Americans, military, and frontiersmen who helped shape Ohio are fascinating. Her listing of pertinent historical sites that help tell the story of those times is helpful to those who wish to see the places where this history took shape.” Janet Shailer is a former editor with the Columbus Messenger Newspapers and has written two other history books including “Images of Grove City,” and “Images of Modern America: Grove City.” She also wrote the novel, “The Austerlitz Bugle-Telegraph: A King, A Goddess and a Chronicle of Deception,” as well as three children’s books. Farmers’ Market The 2021 Groveport Farmers’ Market is tentatively scheduled to be open on Tuesdays from June 29 through Sept. 14 from 4-7 p.m., according to cit of Groveport officials. Groveport city council Groveport City Council holds its regular meetings at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Mondays of the month. Council holds its committee of the whole meeting on the third Monday each month at 5:30 p.m. Meetings are held in the municipal building, 655 Blacklick St., Groveport. Our Family Caring For Yours April 4, 2021 - GROVEPORT MESSENGER - PAGE 5 AUTO HOME OPEN ENROLLMENT Beplerinsurance.com 614.837.4379 staff@beplerinsurance.com 3246 Noe Bixby Rd., Columbus, Ohio 43232 Dr. Sacheen Garrison 5055 S. Hamilton Road Groveport, OH 43125 614-836-0500 www.groveportsmiles.com
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Groveport Messenger - April 4th, 2021

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