Chief Leatherlips, SHA-TE-YAH-RON-YA, Dublin Ohio

The gravestone of Chief Leatherlips who was executed on June 1, 1810. Ohio had been a state only 7 years when Chief Leatherlips was executed. He was named Leatherlips by White Man because he never broke a promise. He was a good friend of whitemen. He was an important Wyandot Indian Chief. He signed The Treaty of Greenville which put an end to the Northwest Indian Wars after the Battle of Fallen Timbers in August of 1795.

This quote by William Sells: "O, Johnny my heart was touched by the taking away of that good Indiana. His word was as true as Gospel. He proved it by his actions. This certainly gives credence to his name. William Sells witnessed his execution and tried to stop it to no avail. There are several stories about how and why he was executed. Tecumseh's brother Tenskwatawa condemned him to death for giving away Indian Lands. He signed land over to The Whites in The Greenville Treaty. It is also recorded that when The Wyandots moved northward bad health and other negative things happened to them. Chief SHA-TE-YAH-RON-YA (Leatherlips), stayed behind in Ohio; the Dublin area rather than moving on with the tribe because he didn't want to leave his white friends. The tribe thought he'd brought them bad luck and that he practiced witch doctor tactics that caused them to have bad luck.

His own brother, Roundhead sent 6 warriers to carry out the death order of Tenskwatawa. He was, according to one account given an opportunity to move back with tribe which he denied. His executioners sang the death chant with him and then killed him with their tomahawks. Chief Leatherlips wore his finery for the occasion.

This plaque rests in a different location then the above gravestone of Chief Leatherlips. The gravestone is suppose to the area where he was executed. This plaque marks the last known hunting camp of Chief Leatherlips at 7377 Riverside Drive. This location is on the opposite side of the road and is south of the gravestone. Walk up the hill from the historical marker and you see this.

A interesting 12 foot tall Limestone likeness of Chief Leatherlips. The likeness even shows his long flowing hair which flows into the hillside. This monument was dedicated in July of 1990 by The Dublin Art Council. Walk up the hill beside the memorial for a birds eye view.

A great place to take the kids. They can pose where Stanley is and look down over Chief Leatherlips camp. At this point it's like you're on top of his head. As you look around the beautiful park you'll see The Scioto River. No doubt Chief fished and hunted for life game on it's shores. Re-create that with the kids and bring your fishing pole.

To the right of the large impressive monument is this wonderful outdoor theatre where summertime performance take place. Come spent the day, bring a picnic. Bathroom facilities are available, and several parking lots. This is free, please come and enjoy the scenery and reflect on the life of Chief Leatherlips.

Depending on the age of the kids you might not wish to dwell on how The Good Chief died; but you can still discuss how he helped The Whites in what was then very much a wilderness area. Fishing of course will help them remember the activity, even if you're doing the activity here on my blog vs being there in person...you can still go fishing. Make a tent on the close line, let the kids pretent their at camp. Build with clay, or blocks a likeness of someone they know, like a family member. Buy a piece of leather at the fabric store and let them make something with leather. As with all our activities pull in math, let them figure out how long things happened. Word puzzles never get old, make a hidden word puzzle. The important thing is have fun with it, and the kids will learn something along the way.

Don't forget to come back next Friday the 13th for Flat Stanley's next adventure. And when you come, bring an orange crayon!
If you've missed any of Stanley's adventures you can travel with him now:

• April 23, 2010 Books and Parks (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• April 30, 2010 Traitor or Hero (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 7, 2010 Flat Stanley and his friend Captain Pinney (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 14, 2010 First Flight and Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 21, 2010 Up The Indian Mound with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• May 28, 2010 Flat Stanley goes to Camp (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• May 31, 2010 Honoring Those who Served on Memorial Day (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• June 12, 2010 Signs and Flat Stanley, (Worthington, Ohio)
• June 18, 2010 Breathe Easy with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• June 25, 2010 Stanley at The Masonic Museum (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 2, 2010 Special 4th of July with Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 9, 2010 Free Seats Available, (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 16, 2010 Corn on The Cob and Flat Stanley (Dublin, Ohio)
• July 30, 2010 Bill Moose Crowfoot and Flat Stanley (Upper Arlington, Ohio)

Traveling by Car or Traveling by Plane?

Traveling is fun, it's educational, interesting, and can be stress free. However, often people make travel confusing, difficult, and more stressful then it needs to be.

How to travel is an important factor in the process and can enhance your experience or detract from it in a very negative way. If you're traveling for business you're probably flying instead of driving. However, that might not be the best method of travel. Habits are hard to break, but consider this for a minute. Getting up at the crack of dawn to take the one flight where you're going can add stress to your day and make you tired and irritable. Missing your flight obviously can produce lots of stress and sometimes added expense to the trip. Weather conditions often delay flights, cause you to be routed to other cities even; more time lost and again potential added expense. Most airlines require you to be at the airport an hour or two ahead of your scheduled departure time. Do you need to rent a car once you reach your destination to get to your hotel or the meeting? That process takes time and cost money too. Consider the distance you're actually going, you might be ahead to rent a car and drive. Having pretty scenery to see coming and going can add a pleasant distraction from your hectic work schedule. You're much more in control of time tables when you drive vs when you fly. Take for example a trip from Columbus, Ohio to St. Louis. Taking into count arriving at the airport appropriately early, flight time; it's about a 4.5 hour time commitment provided everything's on time and you fly non-stop. It's about 6.5 hour car trip. For a mere 2 hours you could be ahead to drive. It's certainly cheaper to drive. Just food for thought. Other considerations obviously are whether you're making the trip solo or with other people. If traveling with other people, driving becomes even more cost effective.

If you're traveling with children I highly recommend car travel over plane travel hands down! Even if the trip is longer than say above example of Columbus, Ohio to St. Louis, Missouri. Kids can be better entertained in the car then they can on a plane. It's definitely cheaper for a family of 4 to drive unless they're using frequent flier miles. You have total control over when you stop to eat, when and where you stop to go potty. When and where to eat and go potty are super important when traveling with kids. You have total control over who sits where or with whom; which you don't have on a plane. The average family is 4 people and most airplanes don't have 4 seats together. Packing for the trip is far easier when traveling by car vs traveling with kids on a plane. You don't have to worry about finding and lugging all your luggage, while trying to hold juniors hand, and finding out you really need to be an octopus to hold and carry everything. Many kids are afraid of planes, and the large number of strangers they see on them. Car travel eliminates that. You also have control over what time you depart. For small children I recommend picking them up while asleep (be it at night or during nap time), and placing them in the car after you are totally loaded and ready to depart. They'll sleep, you'll have a very peaceful couple of hours of travel. You can dress them quickly and easily when you stop at the rest area for a potty break; or if they're infants to change a diaper. You know how tiny airplane restrooms are, you don't want to have to change a diaper in there. In fact, I'm not sure you could. Though I also don't support changing them in your lap while you're in your plane seat. Yes, in my travels I've seen people do that. One mother traveling alone ask the couple she was sitting with if they minded. Well I guess it was nice she asked. Their choice was to put with the smell of the dirty diaper or agree to let her do the diaper change on their shared laps. Ok, now she has the dirty diaper to dispose of and she's in the window seat. Not a good solution for any of us in the surrounding rows.

Planes aren't the cleanest places in the world, nor are airports. If you have children and travel by car, you'll not be exposing them to extra germs that may be difficult for their little bodies to fight off. No one wants a sick child on their hands while traveling.

If you're travel party is all adults, car or plane travel is still a choice you need to make. Consider the distance, the cost, and your time frame. Car travel has added bonuses. Sometimes the trip isn't just about the destination; sometimes the trip can be the trip!

For additional car travel info (must needed safety tips for all travelers), you'll want to read a previous post HERE

For families traveling with children please read all about making a kids special travel trip tick here.

And if you're traveling with your furry friends car travel is much much better, they can run and play in the rest stop while the family's goes potty. And you don't have to leave your pets behind.

Bill Moose Crowfoot and Flat Stanley

This Memorial sits on 3.5 acres of land at 2875 Lane Road in Upper Arlington, Ohio. The land originally donated by the city of Columbus is comprised of 39 granite boulders taken from The Scioto Riverbed and stands just over 9 feet tall. The tower of granite boulders resembles a TeePee. The memorial sits on a rise a short distance from Scioto River Road which follows The Scioto River. A fitting location since Bill Moose Crowfoot often walked these grounds, fished and hunted these grounds. He lived on the land as he learned from his father.
A short bio of Bill Moose under glass stands at the park entrance. (click to enlarge). Bill lived to be almost 100 years old, as did both his parents. His father died in 1871 at 100 years of age, his mother the following year in 1872 at the age of 106. Both are buried in The Indiana Cemetery in Upper Sandusky.
This small photo (original housed at The Ohio Historical Society) is curled and faded over time is visible beside the above bio of Bill Moose. The fancy headdress and beads were worn when people wanted a photograph. These were given to Bill during the 9 years he was employed by The Sells Brothers Circus as an Indian Rider in The Wild West Act. Beyond living off the land, Bill's income consisted of having his photo taken, selling postcards and trinkets and teaching children Indian Crafts.
The park is pretty with wild flowers covering his grave and walled in with The TeePee Memorial facing The Scioto River and Scioto River Road. A paved walking path, small picnic area, and bench provide a peaceful spot to reflect on Bill's life.

Bill here telling stories to a group of young boys, an apparent common sight at his shack. I've read accounts of Bill having lunch at The Wyandot Country Club (where the blind and deaf school now are located), the Railroad allowed him to continue living on land they owned. This area is now Clintonville; even though the residences of Dublin want to claim him as their own. Bill and his family stayed in Ohio, one of only 12 families to do so when the tribe moved west to Kansas and Oklahoma.
As the tribe moved westward and inter-married with other tribes there were no longer full blooded Wyandots, except those few left here in Ohio. One by one they perished. Bill outlived his tribe and was the last known living Full Bloodied Wyandot Indian in the state and the territory. He died just 2 months short of turning 100. The last 7 years of his life he lived in the Franklin County Home, too aged to continue living off the land. His shack became a children's playhouse.

His funeral was attended by thousands who lined The Scioto River Bank to witness his full ceremonial burial, the largest funeral on record for The Rutherford Funeral Home. He layed in state for 5 days from July 13th through the 18th in 1937. In a short bio Bill mentioned he voted for Abraham Lincoln, and was a republican. Bill never married but lived a long and very full life. He was well liked and respected by thousands. The two hands in friendship on his memorial seem most fitting.

Activities the kids could enjoy and help them remember and learn from this adventure:

1. go to a stream, riverbed, creek and let the kids collect rocks. Get some glue and let them building their own teepee style memorial
2. color pictures
3. make word puzzles
4. make vocabulary lists of new words from the adventure
5. paint rocks with a design, shaking hands for example
6. string beads and make a necklace or bracelet
   

As always if you missed any of Flat Stanley's adventures, now's the time to catch up:

• April 23, 2010 Books and Parks (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• April 30, 2010 Traitor or Hero (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 7, 2010 Flat Stanley and his friend Captain Pinney (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 14, 2010 First Flight and Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• May 21, 2010 Up The Indian Mound with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• May 28, 2010 Flat Stanley goes to Camp (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• May 31, 2010 Honoring Those who Served on Memorial Day (Upper Arlington, Ohio)
• June 12, 2010 Signs and Flat Stanley, (Worthington, Ohio)
• June 18, 2010 Breathe Easy with Flat Stanley (Columbus, Ohio)
• June 25, 2010 Stanley at The Masonic Museum (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 2, 2010 Special 4th of July with Flat Stanley (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 9, 2010 Free Seats Available (Worthington, Ohio)
• July 16, 2010 Corn on the Cob and Flat Stanley (Dublin, Ohio)

See you next week, Friday August 6th for another Flat Stanley Adventure, bring the kids! Stay tuned, Flat Stanley has a cousin, Flat Bob who will be visiting in the next couple of weeks. You don't want to miss that.

Traveling Blog to Blog Business

I've not posted a new blog post for awhile purposely. I've been spending some time wedding out, cleaning up and trying to find a decent way to eliminate spam. I've deleted (almost all still working on it) comments that have nothing to do with the post at hand be they Chinese or Japanese ? characters, or non comments like visit my blog. Yes we all hope for blog walkers to take time and travel from one blog to another, to visit and read and make comments. We all love the interaction. Yes, the more people visit the more encouraged one is to visit their page so it's a two way street. All this internet travel is good, it's fun, and I encourage it. But....I will not visit your page when you leave a comment that says visit my page without taking the time to read or post anything appropriate to the blog post I made here. So, please if you're visiting make your comment (at least part of it) related to the blog post.

I've also been busy deleting lots of blogs on the DoFollow list. Some don't allow comments on their blogs which defeats the give and go spirit of being a Do Follow Blog, others have their blogs set to subscribe only--again that defeats the give and go spirt and they are also being deleted. Additionally blogs that have clearly not been updated are being deleted. I like giving the links, but only to real bloggers; not webpages, not dead end type blogs.

Flat Stanley will be back tomorrow as schedule with an adventure. And stay tuned in a couple of weeks, one of his cousin's is coming for a special visit. You'll not want to miss Flat Stanley's cousin, Flat Bob's visit.

As you make blog walk abouts, please pop into The Bridge and Beyond. A blog dedicated to knitting and crocheting for homeless is having a blog contest. You can win FREE yarn. The Bridge and Beyond is approaching a blogging milestone, 200 blog posts and is having the contest as a means of celebrating the milestone.

I never pack to travel without giving some thought to what yarn to pack, what yarn to accompanying me on the trip. With that said you might have noticed a new badge on my blog, The Hive. If not, do take a look. It's a wonderful new forum where creative people can get together, have fun, share ideas and learn from each other. I highly recommend it. It's easy, quick and very user friendly. Click here, or my cute little Bee in the sidebar.

Corn on the Cob and Flat Stanley, Dublin Ohio

This should start off your Friday with a laugh or at least a smile. Flat Stanley here next to 6 foot tall cement ears of corn. Don't rub your eyes you really are seeing lots and lots of these tall cement ears of corn. This is real, there are 109 such ears. I don't know why there are 109 to be exact. This "art"/joke can be seen at the corner of Frantz and Rings Roads in Dublin Ohio.

This is the first piece of public art The Dublin Arts Council paid for (with tax dollars mind you) and it got very mixed reviews. Many thought it was silly, some thought it was art, and to a few who knew why it was planted there it was historical. I've driven by the field of corn many times and wondered. I finally decided it was time to find out what the silly cement corn was all about. Sam Frantz used to farm here, (1935-1963) thus the name of the road. He was supposedly well known for his work with hybrid corns. I say supposedly, because living here some 50 years I've never heard this or run into anyone who knew this. Well known/famous I think perhaps only in very small circles of previous farmers? This location was a test field. The cement corn we see was made from 3 different molds by Malcolm Cochran in 1994 and is Corn Belt Dent Corn Hybrid.

Sam and his wife Eulalia donated this land after Sam retired from working with Ohio State University on hybridization projects. The Park is so named for them. I say park with tongue in cheek though, as I saw no sign indicating this was The Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, nor have I ever heard it referred to by that name. This 1/2 acre field does have a few benches and a row of Osage Orange Trees off to the very end of the corn art with plagues talking about hybridization; but I've never seen people using the area as a park. There's no parking lot, so it's not inviting to say take the family, play, and have a picnic. I left my car on the road that leads to lots of industrial business buildings.

The various information I found about the Corn Art indicated this was to remind people of the rich agriculture heritage of the area. I even found that a little odd, as Hilliard not Dublin has always and still is to some degree known for wonderful sweet corn. People would go driving in the country to buy fresh corn right off the farmers truck was common place up until a few years ago in Hilliard. In fact there are still stores that proudly display a big sign so locals will known when the fresh Hilliard Corn arrives. In all my years I've never seen a sign indicating there was fresh Dublin Corn. Dublin has become well known in the golf circles because of Jack Nicholas and The Muirfield Golf Tournment; but I always thought the corn field was misplaced when I drove by.

Going farther back in history, to times of Indians in the area though corn would indeed play a part, so perhaps those who spent public money on these giant ears of corn had the right idea after all. I ran into 2 young women on a road trip when I was there with Flat Stanley, they too left their car on the road as they took their photo's. They said they saw a funny picture and thought they'd come to check it out. Parking on the road ties up traffic, so it's hard to come and spend anytime exploring. Perhaps if you drive all the way to the back of the Industrial Parkway to leave your car and walk back to the field, you could spend time. I think kids and their furry friends might really enjoy running among the ears to burn up some energy. The plagues are flat to the ground and not really visible, and I only found them as I walked back to my car after the girls left. That too was probably because I was searching for a sign, it seemed odd to me there wasn't something posted to explain what the corn was all about; so I spent time to search it out; though I think it would and probably is easily missed the bulk of the time.

Ask the kids to make a list of all the things they can where corn comes into play. Draw corn, color corn (don't forget candy corn and Indian corn with the pretty colors). Measure the kids, cut string to represent their height and do the same for the 6 foot tall corn so they can see the relationship of size. Can they count to 109? For those that counting to 109 is easy for try having them count backwards. All of these fun activities help kids learn, and remember. Give them a calendar, have them mark on the calendar how many times in a given period of time you eat corn.

Until next week, Flat Stanley out.