MOUNT VERNON — Oh, the particular places one will go when reading “Particular Places: A Traveler’s Guide to Ohio’s Best Road Trips.” Particularly, Mount Vernon and certain parts of eastern Knox County.
Orange Frazier Press of Wilmington released the slim paperback earlier this year. A continuation of and “best of” the “Particular Places I and II” books written in the 1990s, it was edited by Jane Ware and compiled for Ohioans who either want to or need to — due to economic necessity — vacation closer to home this summer.
Fortunately for those Ohioans, they live in a state rich in one-tank-of-gas mini-vacation opportunities, including the 15 “best places” detailed in this book. They include Marietta, Athens, Yellow Springs, Granville, Coshocton, Amish country, Lake Erie and its islands, and more.
“It’s possible to eat raccoon,” states the company’s press release, “and make your own golf club, to meet a horse rescuer and see the country’s biggest horse-and-carriage parade, or to see a Stealth bomber and the world’s only perambulator museum. You can even go to a washboard music festival, visit the world’s only floating cranberry bog or meet a baker who used to be a fashion model in Paris.”
The reference to eating raccoon, of course, refers to Danville.
Included in the book are clever hand-drawn maps, whimsical pen-and-ink drawings of featured buildings, driving directions with hours and Web site addresses, trivia, phone numbers and “opinionated insight” on the destinations.
Here’s what Ware writes about Mount Vernon.
She entered Mount Vernon on the old 3C Highway, “then the road makes the long, slow descent to town, past the overhang of maples and dogwoods, to the surprise of antebellum houses on narrow brick streets. From this perspective, the town appears more Southern than Midwestern — an unexpected pleasure in heartland Ohio.
“This is a town of uncommon beauty — as genteel as a well-bred Southern lady of a certain age: Her wealth displayed, but discreetly, and her troubles hidden by a veil of propriety ... When librarian Mary McGavick [now assistant director of the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County] came to town to interview for her job, she first spent some time driving around, admiring the fine houses, the Public Square, the ornate storefronts. After she’d looked the place over, she told the library director, ‘I’d pay you for a chance to live here,’” Ware writes.
Featured in the book are The Russell-Cooper House, The Alcove, Kenyon Inn and Village Inn of Gambier, the White Oak Inn near Danville, Public Square, Down Home Leather, the Knox County Historical Society Museum, Woodward Opera House and Memorial Theater, the Kokosing Gap Trail, Kenyon College, Middle Path and more.
Under the heading “International Dining in Mount Vernon,” the author lists Fiesta Mexicana, Henry’s on the Square and Mazza’s. Unfortunately, the latter two have closed.
Ware’s description of the Square is a snapshot: “It’s circumnavigated by anyone driving into town as all roads lead here. Entering and exiting this rotary could be a nightmare, as it is some places. But in Mount Vernon it occurs with the ease of a well-oiled turnstile, and out-of-towners have been known to enjoy the process so much, they’ve been seen circling the square a half dozen times or so.”
Ware makes the annual Lions Raccoon Dinner in Danville sound like a classy event, noting its beginning in 1944 and its growth into the current harvest of 230 raccoons, served up by 100 volunteers, that feed 600 to 800 people every February.
“Particular Places” makes Knox County look so inviting, friendly, unique and interesting that residents and business owners may just want to gear up for a very busy summer with lots of visitors from Ohio.
