Monday After: Stark joins effort to prepare for America's 250th birthday

Planning for the national birthday bash has begun.

America250. America 250-Ohio. America 250-Ohio, Project Stark County.

By varied names at federal, state and local levels, planning to celebrate the Semiquincentennial (250th) Anniversary of the United States has begun.

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Admittedly, our nation's birthday is more than two years in the future – July 4, 2026, to be exact – but designing an observance of an anniversary for more than 330 million U.S. citizens, almost 12 million residents of Ohio, and more than 370,000 people in Stark County takes preparation.

"We want to get people to understand that this isn't just a national event," said Cynthia Guest, president of Plain Township Historical Society and a cog in the planning process for the Stark County observance of the United States of America's birthday, which will begin with a 30-minute documentary for release in 2025.

The documentary, along with other local ideas for recognizing our country's anniversary, places a heavy emphasis in preserving the interesting and influential stories about Stark County's past.

"The reality is that we're going to lose a lot of history if we don't do something now to preserve it," Guest said.

Planning on national and state level

Federally, the 250th anniversary planning started several years ago with the United States Semiquincentennial Commission Act of 2016 authorizing the United States to issue commemorative coins and postage stamps, a directive enhanced by the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020.

The 2016 legislation also directs the federal government to commission "appropriately named" naval vessels in advance of the semiquincentennial and to organize celebratory events in "locations of historical significance."

The non-profit organization carrying out that "nonpartisan initiative," is America250. The planning organization bills the 250th anniversary of the United States as "an opportunity to pause and reflect on our nation’s past, honor the contributions of all Americans, and look ahead toward the future we want to create for the next generation and beyond.”

"To commemorate and celebrate our 250th anniversary with inclusive programs that inspire Americans to renew and strengthen our daring experiment in democracy," America250.org lists as its mission. "The shared experiences of America250 will have ignited our imaginations, elevated our diverse stories, inspired service in our communities, and demonstrated the lasting durability of the American project."

Those "diverse stories" are among the focal points of America 250-Ohio, a statewide project created by legislation and announced by Gov. Mike DeWine in March 2022.

According to its website, the commission of 30 individuals, assisted by a staff of five, was organized "to honor, recognize, celebrate, and highlight Ohio’s indispensable contributions to our nation’s past, present and future." The commission will do so with several initiatives, including grants providing seed money for projects throughout the state.

Local planning brings groups together

Ohio's efforts to involve all 88 of the state's counties was the impetus for organization of the local planning group, America 250-Ohio, Stark County Project, a collaboration of historians, historical societies, museums, library systems and school districts.

"We're trying to build an infrastructure," Guest said.

The framework for Stark County's participatiON in the larger America 250-Ohio celebration is based on a rebirth of a previous collaboration -- Stark County Local History Group -- that originally was organized by Stark County Park District.

"The idea was to get the local historical societies together to help tell the history of the land that the Stark Parks trails cover," said Guest, who noted the group met three times a year until the caronavirus pandemic and changes in the direction of Stark Parks "mothballed" the project.

Dr. Leslie Heaphy, a professor of history at Kent State University at Stark who oversees Kent's museum studies program, "resurrected the group," said Guest, who explained that Stark County's part of America 250-Ohio is its first major undertaking.

"The group was looking for a 'project' to allow everyone to work together," she explained. "An idea was formed to do something for U.S. 250th anniversary."

It was decided that Kent Stark, with Heaphy as representative, would take a lead in the project. Students in the museum studies and history programs at Kent Stark and Walsh universities will be utilized in research, digital media production, marketing and other facets of the project.

"Our group is trying to come up with a plan for how we're going to represent Stark County," said Guest. "The vision was that the first big thing we wanted to do was the documentary."

Work on documentary beginning

Putting 250 years of local history into a 30-minute documentary highlighting about two dozen items and individuals is a film project the history group will undertake with assistance from Massillon Museum and MAPS Air Museum. Both organizations have produced documentaries of their own.

"Our goal is to choose 25 items – they have to be historically significant and they have to represent 250 years of history in Stark County," explained Guest, who said the history group has been working with local historians to identify a list of 25 significant items by June.

Among "items" being considered are William McKinley's campaign home – "It represented a time of change in political campaigns," Guest said – and Clearview Golf Club – "When it opened in 1946 (by William J. Powell) it was the first golf course designed, built, owned and operated by an African-American" – as well as William Martin's bi-plane.

"That plane flew before the Wright Brothers," Guest noted. "It had the first female pilot, the first animal pilot, and the children of William Martin flew that plane as well."

Guest noted that Martin's aircraft, a plane that had no engine and was towed by a motor car, has been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution, McKinley Presidential Library & Museum and now at MAPS Air Museum.

The plan is to debut the documentary in October of 2025 at the historic Palace Theatre, an event that may include speakers and a panel discussion. A hope is the documentary will be distributed to public television.

"Obviously, when we're talking about only 25 items, there is a lot of history being left out," said Guest. "So we're designing additional layers of the project."

Finding ways to get involved

Those other layers might include developing a list of 250 artifacts with local impact that could make up displays at area museums – perhaps accessed with multi-museum "passports" – and public spaces. Or perhaps traveling exhibitions will be developed with stories pertaining to the artifacts collected from area residents.

"That's where libraries could become involved," said Guest. "We could create displays for libraries to expose patrons to history."

Other celebratory events also are being considered, activities that will be regularly identified and promoted at VisitCanton.com.

America 250-Ohio, Project Stark County already has taken its first fledgling steps out into the community, with information booths set up earlier this month at Belden Village Mall as part of Visit Canton's America's Playing Field and at Massillon Museum for the museum's Genealogy and Local History Fair.

"One thing we need right now is awareness, getting people excited about Project 250," said Guest. "Another thing is engagement, getting people to share their stories."

Guest noted that stories can be shared with any participating historical society or at any museum that is a part of the Stark County History Group. People with questions for Guest can email preservingplaintwp@gmail.com or call her at 330-224-2660.

"We're looking at coming up with a website so we're not making people jump through hoops to share their stories, and so that sharing of stories can come from beyond Stark County."

And Guest hopes the stories of Stark County history can include not only the most influential and successful individuals of our past, but also be about people beyond the normally recited names associated with local history.

"I see this as a tremendous opportunity to move the needle forward to preserve history," she said. "I'm looking to be able to bring back to mind people who haven't been talked about for a long time."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com. On Twitter: @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Stark history in the focus for America's 250th birthday in 2026