Twenty-two Ohio University students visited Shawnee of Perry County and Chesterhill of Morgan County on the Alternative Economies in Appalachia field trip on Sept. 23 with the Wealth and Poverty theme.
Twenty-two Ohio University students visited Shawnee of Perry County and Chesterhill of Morgan County on the Alternative Economies in Appalachia field trip on Sept. 23 with the Wealth and Poverty theme.
By Sue Ryu
Enrolled in CAS 2300 Themes in Action: Wealth and Poverty
9 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I found myself in a bus in front of Baker, awaiting our Wealth and Poverty theme group’s departure to Perry and Morgan County.
The trip, named “Alternative Economies in Appalachia” and led by Drs. Smoki Musaraj and Rachel Terman of the Sociology & Anthropology Department, intended to explore a handful of community economic adaptations. Armed with snacks and sunscreen, we began the day trip in Shawnee, Ohio.
Like many small Ohio towns, Shawnee began and thrived as a coal mining town. The area was built on natural wealth and quickly evolved to birth an urban center that facilitated the mining industry and consequent culture. Nowadays, the only remnants of that culture and prosperity is Main Street and the piles of gob, or unusable coal, alongside the Tecumseh Lake portion of the Buckeye Trail.
After the sudden withdrawal of wealth as the original owners of assets within the community left with the coal bust, Shawnee had to adapt by creating an alternative economy. Today, the face of that new economy is centered around the main assets of the community such as the tranquil and lush natural environment and the buildings around town. The eco-tourism business and the use of buildings as ways to generate income are established purely through community cooperation.
For example, the Tecumseh Theater, the “Skyscraper of Perry County,” was saved from destruction by the Shawnee community pooling together money to buy the building. Renovation continues on the building with a lot of direct work from community members in hopes that the historical space can, in the future, be used to host large events or be rented out to businesses.
Tecumseh Theater (photo by Lauren Conner in CAS 2300)
Our next stop sent us through winding roads and past beautiful fields of yellow wildflowers in Morgan County. Chesterhill Produce Auction (CPA), an institution established and maintained by Rural Action, attempts to provide an accessible space in which the local farmers (the majority Amish) can come buy and sell produce, plants, baked goods, and furniture. In November, they will also be able to sell livestock!
Chesterhill Produce Auction acts as an alternative economy through its approach as an integrated and alternative marketplace. It stimulates the local economy by allowing people who find the Athens Farmers Market too expensive or physically inaccessible with access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Consumers set their own prices and support local businesses simply by enjoying and participating in an active and familiar environment.
This has created a sort of allure around the CPA and has drawn people to it, cementing CPA as an economic hub of Morgan County. Like the Tecumseh Theater and the Tecumseh Lake trails, the CPA was birthed from community engagement organization.
As the world economy changes and local economies adapt, it is imperative to focus on this key part of economic growth: community. Many development agencies are beginning to focus heavily on asset-based community-development as a recognition of dignity and of the power of community in raising alternative economies through a self-evaluative process of the assets available to them. We have seen this clearly on the Alternative Economies field trip through the creation of ecotourism and rental businesses as well as an auction marketplace for the communities of Shawnee and Chesterhill, respectively.
Editor’s Note: Twenty-two Ohio University students visited Shawnee of Perry County and Chesterhill of Morgan County on the Alternative Economies in Appalachia field trip on Sept. 23 with the Wealth and Poverty theme.
Students on the field trip included those from CAS 2300 Themes in Action: Wealth and Poverty, SOC 3090 Sociology of Appalachia, and T3 4400 Seminar in Wealth and Poverty. In addition, former Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland joined the field trip, along with a few Wealth and Poverty affiliated faculty members.
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