National Road Museum 2

The pottery business in this area of Ohio was big because of the special type of clay that was readily availabe. When the National Road was being built the locals would steal this clay from the road bed at night by filling pots and hauling it away leaving a hole . The word "pot hole" was coined here because of this.

The first "National Road" originally ran from Cumberland MD into Ohio and then to Maysville Ky. It was built by Ebaneezer Grey , Zanes grandfather. The next "National Rd" was originally intended to run from Cumberland to St. Louis but because of political turmoil stirred up by a new congressman named Abe Lincoln in the state of Illinois over whether the state capital should be Vandalia or Springfield , the road stopped in Vandalia. It eventually stretched all the way to California but a lot of history is packed into that stretch from Cumberland to Vandalia.

There is a full sized Conestoga wagon on display and what is interesting is that the brakes were blocks of wood that would press against the iron covered wheel. Eventually this block of wood would get very slick and make stopping problamatical. Many times folks would nail old worn out shoes to the block of wood and the leather made for better stopping power. This is where the term "brake shoe" originated.

This is a model of the Y bridge in Zanesville. Originally all the bridges were covered in order to protect the wood they were made from.