Blast From Past offers fun history for ages 8 to 12

MARION – A teacher at Harding High School brought history to life for Kelli Saunders.

Now, the 20-year-old history major at Wittenberg University is trying to do the same for children ages 8 to 12 at Heritage Hall, site of the first session of the 15th annual Blast From the Past. The event will be provided for free through the support of Junior Service Guild and volunteers for the Marion County Historical Society.

“He was really engaging,” Saunders said of her high school American history instructor Greg McClelland. “He made history interesting for me.”

At Heritage Hall, the 20-year-old is working as an intern, her latest task to label items in the facility’s numerous exhibits; on Thursday, those who have registered for Blast From the Past will focus their attention on the displays pertaining to how business and industry transformed Marion after the Civil War and complete a scavenger hunt in the new exhibit.

Randy Winland, coordinator for the event, which will continue on the three remaining Thursdays in July, said the aim of Blast From the Past is to allow students to build their knowledge of Marion history while having fun.

“It’s a way for the children of Marion to learn about Marion and get some hands-on experience,” Winland said.

On subsequent Thursdays, which are divided into 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 1 to 3 p.m. sessions, the topics will be the impact of the prairie on the settlement of Marion, the role of aviation in the history of Marion and Ohio, and exploration of the birds and animals of Marion County.

Gale Martin, Marion County Historical Society director, said the first class will be a follow-up to last year’s Blast From the Past look at Marion residents’ involvement in the Civil War.

“They’ll be learning about how those soldiers who returned from the Civil War helped to build Marion into the industrialized city that it became by the turn of the century,” Martin said.

Those soldiers included John Jay Smith, a Prospect farmer who lost a leg in the war and returned to Marion County to become a “very prosperous farmer”; Simon DeWolfe, a National Guard member who “came back and built a huge business,” selling coal, wood and other materials; and William Fies, a prisoner who survived Andersonville, “one of the most notorious Civil War prisons,” and the explosion of Sultana, a steamship overloaded with former prisoners of war returning home to become a “successful businessman” in Marion.

“There are things out in the exhibit on all of those men,” she said.

The first Blast From the Past session focuses on business and industry as it grew out of the aftermath of the Civil War.

“We thought we’d take it one step further and see what happened when those men came home,” she said. “Building Marion was what happened. Marion became a very industrialized city. Marion became known as Lime City, and then Marion became known as Shovel City,” references, respectively, to the limestone quarries and Marion Power Shovel that employed many.

The second session is July 16 at Ohio State University at Marion prairie. The third is July 23 at Marion Municipal Airport. The fourth is July 30 at Sandusky Plains Environmental Education Center and will include a craft and picnic snack.

Registration before Thursday is required. For more information or to register, call Heritage Hall at 740-387-4255. Openings remain in the afternoon sessions; the morning session is full, with 30 registered.

For Saunders, a history major minoring in East Asian studies, helping Heritage Hall prepare for public visits, as well as events such as Blast From the Past, the work has been an education.

“I’m happy to do it,” the Wittenberg sophomore said. “I’ve learned a lot here that I never knew. So to me I think it’s really exciting. ... And I think it’s interesting to learn about Marion history, especially because I live in Springfield most of my life now, so just to know my roots and everything is really exciting to me.”