Roscoe Village provides a look back into the times when the Ohio and Erie Canal brought goods and people to Coshocton County. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

This week we’re traveling in Ohio to northern Muskingum County and neighboring Coshocton County — to Dresden, Coshocton, Roscoe Village and West Lafayette, plus other sights to see. The ultimate goal of this trip is to find the oldest structure in Ohio, the Old Stone Fort, near West Lafayette.

Dresden, north of Zanesville, was platted in 1817 and incorporated in 1835. The village became a booming port town on the Ohio and Erie Canal when it became connected to the canal in the early 1830s with a “side cut” canal.

Dresden is the birthplace of the Longaberger Company, famous for handmade maple splint baskets. Started in 1919 by the J.W. Longaberger family, the company employed nearly 2,000 people at its operations, and thousands more as home salespersons as the largest manufacturer of handmade baskets in the United States. The company liquidated in 2018 but rebranded later at longaberger.com. The Longaberger General Store opened in Dresden in 2023.

Prospect Place is a 29-room mansion built in 1856 by abolitionist George Willison Adams (G. W. Adams) in the village of Trinway, just north of Dresden. Today, it is the home of the non-profit G. W. Adams Educational Center, Inc. The mansion is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Ohio Underground Railroad Association’s list of Underground Railroad sites.

The village of Adams Mills, located about 4 miles north of Dresden along SR 16, was settled in the 1830s by employees of the G.W. Adams and Edward Adams Flour Mill which was built along the Ohio and Erie Canal. The ruins of the canal’s Locks 28 and 29 can be seen along SR 16 at Adams Mills, near Prater’s Highway Market, a family run farm market. The mill itself was moved in the early 20th century to the nearby town of Dresden, where it was used as a feed mill until it burned down in 2009.

Just up the road, Conesville Power Plant was a 2-gigwatt (2,005 MW), coal power plant located east of Conesville in Coshocton County. Its units were co-owned at the time of its closing by American Electric Power (AEP) and AES Ohio Generation. All plant operations were handled by AEP. Conesville began operations in 1957 and ceased generation in April 2020, and was demolished.

Coshocton, established in 1802, is the county seat of Coshocton County, with a population of 11,050. The Walhonding and Tuscarawas rivers meet in Coshocton to form the Muskingum River.

Click on the link above to view this week’s video tour. If the embedded video does not appear in the email, please use this link – https://youtu.be/Cyy24xcmzUw

Coshocton’s crown jewel is Roscoe Village, a restored town located next to the former Ohio and Erie Canal. A heritage tourist attraction, it showcases the area’s unique canal history.

Roscoe Village features a visitor’s center, shops that are open for business, 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.

Another popular attraction is Clary Gardens, a 20-acre botanical garden that is free and open to the public.  Visitors are welcome to take self-guided tours anytime during normal hours of operation and enjoy the ponds, woodland trail, amphitheater and rose garden.

Coshocton Lake Park is located near Roscoe Village and is the home of the Monticello III, which takes visitors on horse-drawn rides down a one-mile stretch of the old canal and towpath. The park also includes a large fishing lake, an activities pavilion, picnic shelters (some with electricity), walking and biking paths, aquatic center, playground, sports fields and a 69-site campground with electric hookups.

West Lafayette was laid out in 1850 and has a population of about 2,400. In 1855, the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad was built through the new town. The line is now operated by Ohio Central Railroad System.

In 1903 the Lafayette Stamping and Enameling Co. was founded. Before plastics were invented, steel vessels covered with a ceramic called enamelware were widely used in American homes.  The Jones Metal Products Co. has been producing high-quality metal products at the former Lafayette Stamping and Enameling plant since 1923.

The Old Stone Fort near West Lafayette may date back to 1679. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

The oldest structure in Ohio is reputed to be the Old Stone Fort near West Lafayette, allegedly built as early as 1679 by D’iberville, a French military leader, to protect French-Canadian fur trading operations. There’s no hard evidence to support this claim, however.

Others have claimed that the small, sturdy structure was actually built in the 1700s as a fur trading post. The Old Stone Fort is located at 22921 County Road 254, West Lafayette, about a mile south of SR 36.

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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