Peter N. Cultice is President of Muskingum County History. Muskingum County History also is called The Pioneer and Historical Society. Muskingum County History operates two museums in Zanesville, The Stone Academy, built in 1809, and The Increase Mathews House, built in 1805. Mr. Cultice has presented programs on the Underground Railroad of which the Putnam, when it was a separate community from Zanesville, was a significant part, locally and to a national audience. He gives Underground Railroad walking tours in Putnam and has given programs on the history of professional baseball in Zanesville. He also has presented programs to the Civil War Roundtable and has published several articles on Zanesville history. Mr. Cultice’s program is  “The Zane’s Trace and the History of Zanesville.”                                                                             

The year 2022 is the 225th anniversary of Zane’s Trace. Muskingum County History in conjunction with the John McIntire Public Library and the generous sponsorship of Park National Bank shall present programs throughout 2022 on the Zane’s Trace and Ohio history. All programs will be the second and fourth Wednesdays of January through May as well as the month of September at 5:30pm at the John McIntire Public Library.

Come learn and appreciate the history of the Zane’s Trace from its beginning in Wheeling, West Virginia (at the time Virginia) to its conclusion in Maysville (at the time Limestone), Kentucky. A county by county history will be presented telling of the significance of the Trace to each county through which it passed as well as its importance to Ohio. We also will discover the history of Ohio when the Delaware, Shawnee, Wyandot, Miami, Ottawa, Mingo and other tribes occupied and roamed the Ohio Country. From the military campaigns that took place in Ohio, and, in particular, Muskingum and Coshocton Counties, between 1760 to 1815, to the removal of the Indian tribes from the State concluding in 1843, the history of the Northwest Territory and the Ohio Country will be explored. The conflicts seen in westerns on TV pale in comparison to the conflicts that took place in Ohio and the Northwest Territory.