Lock General Store, a vacant and abandoned former business, sits on the border of Licking and Knox counties. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Spring has arrived, and with it a new season of Travel Ohio with Dusty Tires trips around the state. Today, we’re exploring the Licking County communities of Alexandria, Johnstown and Hartford, plus a look at the Hartford Independent Fairgrounds and the enigmatic village of Lock.

There’s a place in Lock that’s just a mystery to me. But more about that later.

Alexandria, located just west of SR 161 on SR 37, was founded in 1830 by Alexander Devilbiss of Frederick County, Maryland. In its 1800s heyday, the town had several churches, a hotel, post office, dry goods store, bank and a tobacco factory.

The town’s past can be seen in the handsome, well-kept houses that line Main Street. Among Alexandria’s bragging points are the Alexandria Public Library, Parker Community Park and the Alexandria Museum.

An historic 1870 house sits on the west edge of the village, currently unrestored but saved from demolition. It’s the former home of Captain Joseph M. Smith, a Civil War soldier. The house was relocated from its original location near SR 161 when the road was widened into an expressway.

Further west on SR 37 lies Johnstown, a community of about 5,300 that was founded in 1813 and attained city status in 2021. Discovery of a nearly complete mastodon skeleton in 1926 drew attention to the town. The mastodon skeleton is now on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Many of Johnstown’s quaint downtown buildings date from the 19th century and early 20th century. The town square features the 1885 Monroe Township Hall (now the town hall) as well as a gazebo and clock. Expansive, elegant Victorian-era houses line Johnstown’s Main Street.

Johnstown’s annual Swapper’s Day is one of the community’s most-loved events. The festival has been held each Labor Day weekend since 1944 by the Johnstown Community Sportsmens Club. It’s a weekend of flea markets, food vendors and racing prize dogs across a man-made pond. This year’s event will be held Sept. 5-7.

The video tour drives past Trillium Farms, a massive egg-production complex along Croton Road between Johnstown and Hartford. Founded in 2011, Trillium Farms is one of the nation’s leading egg producers with about 3.65 billion eggs produced annually.

Approximately 500 employees work at the sprawling facilities, which include laying barns, feed mills and trucking operations.

Trillium Farms is part of the Versova companies, with operations in Iowa, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado and Idaho. Versova produces some 10 billion eggs per year to a global market.

The village of Hartford just beyond was platted in 1824 and incorporated in 1866. At its height it had three hotels and two dry goods stores, but traffic into the village declined when state highways were routed elsewhere and railroad passenger service diminished.

The town’s current population is about 400.

The village is often referred to as Croton due to the name of its post office. When the post office was established, there was already a post office named Hartford in Ohio, so the village’s post office was named Croton.

Click on the link above to view the video; if it doesn’t appear in the email, please use this link — https://youtu.be/xr-eScNoPXA

The Hartford Independent Fairgrounds is just north of the town. The fair, established in 1858, is known as the “Biggest Little Fair in the World.” With more than 45 buildings on 211 acres, the fairgrounds is as large as most county fairgrounds.

But the Hartford Independent Fair is not a county fair. Rather, it’s a fair that accepts agricultural and livestock exhibits from nearby counties as well as from Licking County. The fair is operated by the Hartford Independent Agricultural Society, a non-profit organization.

This year’s Hartford Fair will be held August 9-15, 2026.

Finally we come to the tiny unincorporated village of Lock, located at the intersection of Lock/Homer roads and SR 657 at the border of Licking and Knox counties. Here is where a mystery lies.

The Lock General Store sits on the corner, vacant and apparently abandoned. I have not been able to find anything about it. Do any readers know who owned it, when it was opened, when it closed, what it was like? Any memories about going there? Let me know in your comments.

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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