GEOLOGY ALONG ZANE'S TRACE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF OHIO'S MINERAL INDUSTRIES

In 1797, Ebenezer Zane established a shorter, more reliable, overland route across the Ohio frontier from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Limestone (Maysville), Kentucky. Pioneers traveling “Zane's Trace” promptly exploited the abundant and easily accessible mineral resources along the route. Salt, an essential and valuable commodity to early settlers that had been produced from saline springs near the Muskingum River as early as 1785, was produced in ever-increasing quantities. The Devonian-age Berea Sandstone was quarried along the route and used as a building stone in at least six important buildings in the Chillicothe (Ross County) area prior to 1810, including Ohio's first state house and the magnificent mansion at Thomas Worthington's estate, Adena. Pennsylvanian-age clays and shales were extracted at several locations near the trace , and were used to produce building bricks at Zanesville in 1802 and as raw material for a thriving pottery industry that began in Muskingum County in 1808. The first successful glass-manufacturing facility in Ohio was established in 1815 at Zanesville and used locally obtained sandstone and limestone as raw materials. Annual coal production in counties on Zane's Trace rapidly increased from 200 tons in 1810 to 3,100 tons in 1820. Mineral commodities such as iron ore and flint were also readily available to support the rapidly increasing population of the newly formed state. Many skilled craftsmen, quarry operators, miners, and businessmen were attracted to Ohio because of economic opportunities afforded by emerging mineral-based industries.