XENIA, Ohio – Dexter Bailey remembers driving by the rundown Tec*mseh Motel on U.S. 68 near Xenia and wondering, “Is there any real history there?”
The answer, he recently learned, is yes.
On the site of the old motel, named after the famous Shawnee chief, sits the state’s newest park, Great Council State Park, on land where the Shawnee people once gathered.
The centerpiece of the park is a 12,000-square-foot interpretive center modeled after a historic Shawnee longhouse. Inside the center are dozens of exhibits that chronicle the tribe’s earliest years in what would become Ohio, as well as the state’s long and complicated history with Native Americans.
The park, the state’s 76th, opened this month in Southwest Ohio’s Greene County, an easy three-hour drive from Cleveland. It’s worth a detour if you’re nearby -- a place to stop and stretch your legs, and stretch your mind, too.
Exploring the park
With just 14 acres, Great Council isn’t like other state parks in Ohio, with two modest trails that wind through the prairie behind the interpretive center. The half-mile Tec*mseh Preserve Trail dead ends at the Little Miami Scenic River.
The highlight of the park, however, isn’t its outdoor space, but its indoor exhibits.
Younger kids will likely gravitate toward the living stream, a large aquarium filled with native fish, including smallmouth buffalo, redhorse and other aquatic species. Kids can get their hands wet as they try to catch the slippery creatures.
Adults and older kids will probably spend most of their time on the second floor, where a series of exhibits chronicles the story of the Shawnee -- how they came to call Ohio home, and how they ultimately were forced to leave.
The park is located on the site of a former Shawnee village, dubbed Chillicothe (not to be confused with the modern-day Chillicothe about 60 miles east of here). The Native American word Chillicothe means “principle village,” which moved around.
This Chillicothe – later called Old Chillicothe and then Oldtown – was one of the largest and last Shawnee villages in Ohio. It was home to as many as 1,200 Shawnee people from 1777 to 1780, when they were chased from the land by European settlers and forced West.
On this land, they farmed and fished and raised their families. They also traded with – and subsequently battled -- colonial settlers.
Visitors can walk through a three-quarter scale reproduction of a Wiikiwa, a traditional Shawnee home made out of bent saplings and tree bark, and learn about Shawnee crafts, foods and other activities.
Among the inhabitants here: Tec*mseh and his sister, Tekampiyeesi, who raised him; Daniel Boone, the frontiersman who was captured by the Shawnee, adopted by them and then fled to warn fellow settlers of an impending attack; Chief Blacklick, Simon Kenton and numerous others.
The new park offers one of the most comprehensive overviews of Native Americans in Ohio, including their forced removal in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
The state of Ohio worked with three modern-day Shawnee tribes to develop the exhibits. Material is written in both English and Shawnee languages.
Talon Silverhorn, a member of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe, was a consultant in the early days of the project and was later hired as the park’s cultural programs manager.
The new park, he said, is a way for the Shawnee people to reclaim their history in Ohio.
“It highlights the Shawnee people’s preservation of community. The people are the most important thing,” he said. “Shawnee people are actively participating in their own destiny.”
Old Chillicothe was abandoned by the Shawnee on Aug. 6 1780, after a group of tribal scouts spotted American military leader George Rogers Clark headed toward the village.
“When Clark reached Chillicothe, the town had been packed up and burned to the ground by its own inhabitants, their way of taking control of the situation, escaping, and leaving nothing for the marauders,” according to a museum exhibit.
The Shawnee moved west toward Springfield, where they were attacked again, and then west again.
Finally, in 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the federal Indian Removal Act, which authorized the forcible removal of tribal nations to west of the Mississippi River.
Today, all three Shawnee tribes are located in Oklahoma. There are no federally recognized tribes in Ohio.
Silverhorn said he has talked to many Ohioans who believe the Shawnee people were assimilated into society in Ohio and that there is no history left. “Many people have come through and said, ‘I never knew this. It makes me furious.’”
He added, “It’s not their fault they didn’t know.”
Silverhorn credits Gov. Mike DeWine, who grew up nearby, with the idea for the new park.
Initially, the state envisioned a smaller space, with trails and signage explaining the significance of the site, he said.
In 2021, the state purchased the old Tec*mseh Motel, tore it down and erected the interpretive center in its place.
Bailey, from Fairborn, said Great Council tells a story that every Ohioan should know.
He brought his two daughters, ages 10 and 12, to the park a few days after it opened in early June.
“I want to give them as much information as I can about as many cultures as I can,” said Bailey. “I want them to know about all the cultures, our melting pot. I want them to see, to have an idea that many cultures have been here before us.”
If you go: Great Council State Park
Where: 1587 U.S. 68, Xenia, about three hours southwest of Cleveland
When: The interpretive center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. The park offers tours of the interpretive center at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., as well as 6 p.m. on Thursdays.
Admission: Great Council, like all Ohio state parks, is free.
In the area: The Little Miami Scenic Trail, a multi-use path that travels 78 miles through Southwest Ohio, runs parallel to U.S. 68 across the highway from the park. Eventually, the state hopes to build a pedestrian/bicycle bridge connecting the trail to the park; for now, use caution crossing the highway.
Nick’s Restaurant, about a mile and a half south of the park, offers terrific salads and sandwiches and other fare along the bikeway.
Or head 6 miles north from the park into Yellow Springs, a fun, funky town with numerous restaurants, shops and places to stay.
Also nearby: John Bryan State Park, with rock climbing, camping and terrific hiking; Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, with a stunning river-cut canyon; and Young’s Jersey Dairy, with oversized ice cream cones plus batting cages, putt-putt golf and more.
You’re also not far from Dayton’s many aviation-related sites, including the terrific National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
Read more:
Best Ohio small towns: Yellow Springs shines with trails, tie-dye and Chappelle cornfield comedy
Dayton’s National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, celebrating 100 years, has been showcasing aviation history longer than the air force itself
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