Loudonville’s Main Street is bustling with locally-owned businesses in 100-year-old buildings. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

This week I traveled to a place that takes me “way back” — Mohican Country. It’s an area of Ohio just east of Amish Country in Ashland, Richland and Knox counties, and its’ unofficial capital is the village of Loudonville.

Like probably many others, my first experience in Mohican Country was on a canoe trip when I was a teenager. Loudonville has been the “Canoe Capital of Ohio” since the 1960s when Dick Frye established the first canoe livery in the state on the Black Fork of the Mohican River.

There’s so much to see and do in this tourist haven that it will take several video trips to unpack it all. This first part focuses on the village of Loudonville itself, which was founded in 1814 and now has about 2,800 people.

Loudonville has three sites on the National Register of Historic Places – The Ohio Theatre, 156 N. Water St., built in 1909 and restored in the 1990s; the Philip J. Black home, built in 1856, 303 N. Water St., now the Blackfork Marken Inn; and the T.J. and Sarah Bull House, a Greek Revival home built in 1852.

Discover the history of the Mohican area at the Cleo Redd Fisher Museum, 203 E. Main St.  Visitors may choose self-guided tours or request a guide for their visit. The museum is open year-round Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; select Saturdays, closed holidays. 

From 1913 to 1996, Loudonville was home to The Flxible Company, manufacturer of motorcycle sidecars, commercial cars (hearses, ambulances, and flower cars), intercity coaches and city-transit coaches.

Loudonville has a robust local economy and seems like a larger town than it is due to year-round tourism in the area.

In the video, you can take a tour through two local businesses featured in the video — Raby Hardware & Outdoors and Mowery Cider Mill.

Click on the image 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/UNKbOSjAevs

Raby Hardware and Outdoors is the nation’s oldest continuously family-owned and operated hardware store, open since 1885. Owner Jilian Raby is the fifth generation of the Raby family who own and operate the business. Located in downtown Loudonville, Raby’s offers an extensive line of hardware, tools and supplies, and a large outdoor/recreation section that includes RV parts, tents, sleeping bags, cast iron cookware, fire rings, fire pits, pie irons, and much more. 223 W. Main St., Loudonville (419) 994-3751.

Mowery Cider Mill is well-known to local and area residents and may not be as well known to those from out of state. The mill has been operated by the Mowery family since 1901 using a cider press patented in 1883. The mill uses the oldest commercially operated cider press in Ohio. The mill and market are open from mid-August until December 31, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. daily (close at 6 p.m. after time change).

Mowery’s offers fresh cider (by gallon, half-gallon, quart and pint), apples, apple butter, caramel corn, caramel apples, popcorn, honey, syrup and other locally-made products. The mill offers custom cider pressing as well, and the family welcomes visitors to watch the historic cider press in operation. Located at 659 County Road 2920, Loudonville (419) 282-8119.

Some of the locally-owned businesses along its bustling, restored downtown Main Street include: Alabaster Mouse, Miller’s Furniture, Bash Designs, Belly Busters Barbeque, Black Fork Bistro, Buzzard’s Family Shoe Store, Canine Designz, Copper Top Gallery, Creative Outlet, D’s Dariette, Four Seasons Flowers & Gifts, Gnat and Bee Natural Goods Store, Harris Automotive, Heffelfinger Plumbing, Lingenfelter Jewelers, Loudon Auto Parts, Loudonville Canoe Livery, Loudonville Farmers Equity Co., Raby Hardware, Rhoads Jeweler, River Zen Trading Post, Schrock Design Studio, Stela’s Ice Cream Shoppe and Coffee House and Strive Health Fitness. Many of the buildings along this downtown street are 100 years old and more.

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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