It’s Lake Township’s Bicentennial! To celebrate, we have invited Lake Township Historical Society’s curator, Steve Espenschied, to write in throughout the year to share local history and information on upcoming Bicentennial events. Enjoy!
Curator Steve and the Case of the Missing Mastodon
Here’s the story from Curator Steve
I’m posting this blog for the citizens of Lake Township to help me locate a “Mastodon” that was discovered in September, 1948. While creating a timeline, I came across an article that a “Mastodon” was found ½ miles south of Uniontown, OH on the Grable Farm.
The Akron Beacon Journal press release states that the family had help from Ohio Historical Connection (Ohio Historical Society) and Orton Geological Museum at Ohio State. To this day neither has the bones.
What is a mastodon?
Mastodons were animals in the same order of mammoths and modern elephants that became extinct approximately 10,000 years ago. Adults stood about 9 feet tall and weighed 4-5 tons! (source)
By Charles Robert Knight – http://paleo.amnh.org/artwork/knight/index.html, Public Domain
Next steps
Curator Steve has contacted the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian and is waiting for additional information.
Has the mastodon story been told in your family? Ask your granparents if they have heard the tale and send information to Steven Espenschied, Curator at calliope7532@sbcglobal.net
Lake Township Bicentennial
What is the Bicentennial ? The 1981 New Webster Dictionary states:
Bi*sen*ten/e*el n a two-hundredth anniversary –a. Relating to a two-hundredth-year period; recurring every two hundred years.
For Lake Township, Greentown and Uniontown that would be 1816 when the land was plotted and recorded at the Stark County Commissioner’s office to the current year of 2016. People were living in Lake Township before 1816 but it took one, two or group of people to make it official and for Stark County Commissioners to put their signature on the land deed or document.
Over the course of 200 yrs. communities could celebrate the founding with special celebration such as 50, 75, 100, 150, 175 yrs. For the generation today they will come to celebrate 200 wonderful and glorious years. The planning committee is finalizing the calendar of events which will run from March through December. Follow along here: Lake Bicentennial Facebook Page
