Champaign County Historical Museum - Urbana, OH

Champaign County Historical Museum - Urbana, OH Whether you're visiting your old hometown or have been in the area your entire life, stop in to see u

The Champaign County Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets relevant artifacts, documents, and other resources from Champaign County to educate current and future generations about our history.

Professional sports fans, golfers, and lovers of local history: the Champaign County Historical Society has a program fo...
09/05/2026

Professional sports fans, golfers, and lovers of local history: the Champaign County Historical Society has a program for you.

Urbana Daily Citizen sports editor Steve Stout will give a presentation Sunday, September 13 at 2 p.m. at the CCHS Museum about Champaign County athletes who have gone on to the big leagues. He’ll also feature a family who’s achieved legendary status in golf course design.

Stout will be joined at the program by Urbana native and former NFL player Roger Wallace and renowned golf course designer P.B. Dye, whose late father, Urbana native Pete Dye, was a World Golf Hall of Famer and famous golf course designer.

Wallace will talk about his career in pro football. After graduating from Urbana High School, he played at Bowling Green State University and was drafted in 1974 by the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL. He played for the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League in 1974-75 and the New York Giants of the NFL in 1976.

P.B. Dye, who resides in Urbana half the year, will discuss his family’s legacy in golf course design and how his father’s innovative designs changed the sport.

AND HERE’S A BONUS: All who attend Stout’s presentation will be entered in a free drawing for a Panini 2010 Pro Football Hall of Fame Personal Edition collector’s card autographed by Dick LeBeau, who played 14 years as a cornerback for the Detroit Lions and served 45 years as a coach, including as defensive coordinator/head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals and and defensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

LeBeau, a native of London, Ohio, played in several high school sports against Urbana. He donated the card from his personal collection.

Many thanks to our panelists and moderator Dusty Hurst (center at panelists' table), president of the CCHS Board of Trus...
08/31/2026

Many thanks to our panelists and moderator Dusty Hurst (center at panelists' table), president of the CCHS Board of Trustees, for an enlightening discussion Saturday, August 29, about the study of history and how it impacts our lives and society (from left):

• Kane Stratton, playwright and projects manager with Caesar’s Ford Theatre (CFT) of Xenia, an American Indian-led performing arts nonprofit organization.

• Margaret Piatt, with her family’s museum, Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek, in Logan County, and a background in theater and living history.

• Amanda Goodwin, seventh grade social studies teacher and department chair at Urbana City Schools.

• Scott Marsh, middle school world and American studies, freshman world studies, and research methodology teacher at Mechanicsburg Exempted Village Schools.

Don’t delay, submit your favorite recipes – with the stories behind them – for publication in the Champaign County Histo...
08/31/2026

Don’t delay, submit your favorite recipes – with the stories behind them – for publication in the Champaign County Historical Society’s Commemorative Recipe Book, to help celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary.

We’ll publish all recipes and stories, submitted to us by September 15. Here’s the link for sharing your recipes … https://form.jotform.com/262084152472050
Or drop them off at the CCHS Museum, 800 East Lawn Ave., Urbana.

All proceeds from the sale of this cookbook will support the mission of the Champaign County Historical Society. The commemorative cookbooks will be available at the CCHS Gift Shop starting at Oktoberfest, October 4, 2026.

Now that the 185th Champaign County Fair is history, join us for a free presentation Saturday, August 22 at 2 p.m. at th...
08/19/2026

Now that the 185th Champaign County Fair is history, join us for a free presentation Saturday, August 22 at 2 p.m. at the CCHS Museum, 809 East Lawn Ave., Urbana.

Ward Lutz, a CCHS volunteer and retired veterinarian who has a deep interest in the county fair and harness racing, will share a fascinating look at how the county fair began in 1841 and moved to its current site in 1889.

How does history help us navigate the present? How can we handle uncomfortable chapters of our past? A free panel discus...
08/18/2026

How does history help us navigate the present? How can we handle uncomfortable chapters of our past?

A free panel discussion, open to the public at the CCHS Museum, will tackle these and other questions at 2 p.m. Saturday, August 29.

Please join us for an engaging discussion, moderated by CCHS Board President Dusty Hurst. We’re fortunate to have a panel of four local professionals who have made history their life’s work:

• AMANDA GOODWIN, seventh grade social studies teacher and department chair at Urbana City Schools. She holds degrees in political science and social studies education, grades 7-12, and has been honored to attend teacher institutes at Mount Vernon, Colonial Williamsburg, and Salem, Massachusetts.

• SCOTT MARSH, middle school world and American studies, freshman world studies, and research methodology teacher at Mechanicsburg Exempted Village Schools.

He has served as Education Advisory Committee Co-Chair with Friends of Flight 93. In 2023, he and his team, including members of the Flight 93 National Memorial, were awarded the National Parks Service Northeast Region of Excellence in Education Award: Teach to Remember 9/11.

He authored a chapter, "Understanding Children's Visits to Difficult Heritage Sites: Children's Sense of Place,” in the 2022 book “Children, Young People and Dark Tourism” (Routledge Cultural Heritage and Tourism Series).

• MARGARET PIATT, who began and is ending her career at her family’s museum, Piatt Castle Mac-A-Cheek, in Logan County, where she works with a professional staff and a board for the Mac-A-Cheek Foundation.

She worked her way from museum teacher to Associate Director of Education at the living history museum Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. She also served as site manager for Historic Hudson Valley in New York, as a nationwide consultant in museum education and interpretation, living history, and theatre, and taught speech and theatre at Urbana University.

• KANE STRATTON, playwright and projects manager with Caesar’s Ford Theatre (CFT) of Xenia, an American Indian-led performing arts nonprofit organization. CFT is dedicated to improving American Indian historical drama and lifting the standard of historically accurate interpretations.

Stratton wrote and directed “Caesar: An American Maroon,” the first film produced in Ohio with a cast of Shawnee Tribal citizens and dialogue in the Shawnee language.

More recently he wrote and directed “Stomping Freedom,” which premiered earlier this year in Yellow Springs. The film, he says, shares the “other side” of history that took place in Ohio 250 years ago, before this land was a part of the United States. Specifically, it captures the tension between Shawnee villagers and American settlers in 1778, during the American Revolution.

08/11/2026

We have no power so we're closing for the day

This Krag-Jorgensen r***e, made in 1896, has been in the CCHS collection for many years, tucked away where visitors were...
08/06/2026

This Krag-Jorgensen r***e, made in 1896, has been in the CCHS collection for many years, tucked away where visitors were unlikely to notice.

But that’s no longer the case. The r***e now stands out. It's exhibited in a new display case, in the museum's military gallery, designed and crafted by Gates Brothers Glass Shops, against the backdrop of an enlarged CCHS archival photograph skillfully applied to the case by Streamline Design + Print.

The photograph, of Camp Sheridan in Arkansas, includes a formation of soldiers from Champaign County.

In its day, the Krag-Jorgensen was used extensively during the Spanish-American War. By the time the United States entered World War I, this type of r***e had made way for newer fi****ms.

Krag-Jorgensen r***es, however, had a role in training soldiers stateside for World War I in places like Camp Sheridan. The formation of soldiers who appear in the photograph, under the barrel of the gun, is Company “C,” which included men from Champaign County.

The particular r***e in the display was purchased at a surplus store and later donated to CCHS, where it has become part of our community’s shared history and now helps illustrate our county’s role in American history.

This new display is part of a larger effort at the CCHS Museum to improve how we exhibit our collection. We invite you to visit and take a look. Our hours: Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The 185th running of the Champaign County Fair starts this Friday, August 7. Be sure to celebrate this signature event o...
08/05/2026

The 185th running of the Champaign County Fair starts this Friday, August 7. Be sure to celebrate this signature event of our community.

And be sure to join us Saturday, August 22 at 2 p.m. at the CCHS Museum, 809 East Lawn Ave., Urbana, to learn about the history of the Champaign County Fair.

Ward Lutz, a CCHS volunteer and retired veterinarian who has a deep interest in the fair and harness racing, will share a fascinating look at how the county fair began in 1841 and how it moved to its current site in 1889. His presentation is free and open to the public.

1889 was a pivotal year for the fair, which had outgrown its site at the intersection of Routes 68 and 55. Members of the Champaign County Agricultural Society could feel the eyes of Champaign County residents cast upon them as they weighed the advantages and disadvantages of four properties presented as the fairground’s possible new address.

Ward will share the drama of how the competitive decision was made and the amazing story of how fair leaders, well within the span of a year, purchased 41 acres of land, mostly farmland, and transformed them into a fully functioning fairgrounds in time for the 1889 exposition.

While you’re at the CCHS Museum be sure to view our updated local history exhibits.

(The accompanying 1891 photograph, from the Historical Society archives, shows a standardbred racehorse passing the racing judge’s stand in front of the grandstand, which was completed in 1889.)

Address

809 E Lawn Avenue
Urbana, OH
43078

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 2pm

Telephone

(937) 653-6721

Website

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