The Monticello III takes visitors on horse-drawn canal boat rides at Roscoe Village. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Roscoe, a rural port town in Coshocton County near the Muskingum River, was platted in 1816 and first named Caldersburgh after its founder.

When the Ohio and Erie Canal was built in the 1820s, the town boomed and was renamed Roscoe in 1830 in honor of a leading abolitionist of the time.  The first canal boat, the Monticello, landed at Roscoe on August 21, 1830.

In time, the town became an important port on the Ohio and Erie Canal as well as a key location for routes of the Underground Railroad prior to the Civil War.

Roscoe thrived until the 1860s, when railroads superceded canals as a way to move cargo and passengers across the country. Then the town was all but swept away by the Great Flood of 1913.

Roscoe Village was restored in the 1960s as a unique living history museum. Not only does the town display a 19th century way of life with costumed interpreters, its buildings also house active businesses that are open to the public along a brick-paved main street.

Roscoe Village features canal boat rides, a visitor’s center, public gardens and the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum. Living history tours allow visitors to watch blacksmiths and other artisans at work. Tours are offered at the Village Smithy, the Hay Craft & Learning Center, the Toll House, Dr. Maro Johnson’s Office, Dr. Maro Johnson’s Home and Kitchen Pantry, the Caldersburgh Pearl Canal Boat Exhibit, the Craftsman’s House and the Roscoe School.  

The village’s period-correct businesses are open to the public, including Canal Cargo Company, Coshocton Art Guild, Coshocton Supply Company, The Cottage Gate, Foothills Studio & Art Gallery, Good Boy Bakery, G.A. Fisher Diamond Jewelers, Huck’s Tavern, Kiefer’s Florist, Knob Hill Design, Lynnie Lou’s Boutique, Indian Bear Cork & Coffee, River Ridge Leather, Roscoe Barbeque Co., Roscoe General Store, Roscoe Village Sweets & Treats and The Warehouse Restaurant.

With all this to offer, picturesque Roscoe Village has become a major tourist destination in Ohio and is known as America’s Canal Town.

Learn more about Ohio’s canals in the Dusty Tires website at Canal-Related Attractions.

Ken Drenten is creator and editor of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

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