(Photo by Art Smith) The large amount of development along Pike Street in Marietta happened after Interstate 77 was built in the 1960s. Efforts by a local businessman helped to get the highway approved.

If you have read my column for any amount of time it will come as no surprise to you that I love history. I’ve always felt that if you don’t understand what took place before, it is harder to figure out what will happen in the future.

As a journalist, I have been able to witness a lot of recent history of the area. Through reading and research, I feel like I have witnessed a lot of the rest of the local history.

The interesting thing about our area is that much of the past remains to one degree or another. It’s easy to see the connection to the past when part of it is right there in front of you.

Some examples

¯ Marietta once had a vibrant streetcar system that ran all over town. You could also take it to Parkersburg. The system is long gone, but the tracks remain on Putnam Street, tying the street into the past. They crossed the Ohio River on the former Williamstown Bridge, which was located where it was so the street cars would go through the business district on their way to the bridge. The bridge we use today was built at the same place in order to reuse some of the stone piers of the old bridge.

¯ Marietta has parks that are where they are because the people setting up the city in the 1700s set aside several areas as public lands. Several of those areas had mounds created around 1,000 years ago by a native American culture. Sacra Via, Camp Tupper, the Washington County Public Library and Mound Cemetery are where they are because the population 1,000 years ago decided they were important, and the population 238 years ago agreed with them.

¯ We all take Interstate 77 for granted. It not only ties us to larger cities to the north and south but also provides an avenue for economic development in the area. S. Durward Hoag, who owned the Lafayette Hotel in 1957, convinced the federal government that the road made sense. Pike Street was mostly farmland in 1957, it is now the center of commerce in Marietta with restaurants, grocery stores, hotels and car dealerships filling the area for several miles. In Parkersburg the proximity to the Mineral Wells exit has promoted a huge amount of development on the south side of Parkersburg including the recent addition of a FedEx distribution center. Most of this development would have likely not happened if the Interstate had never been built.

Both Marietta and Parkersburg have museums and libraries to help all of us understand our past better. Campus Martius, the Ohio River Museum (under reconstruction), The Castle and the Toy and Doll Museum in Marietta; Henderson Hall in Boaz; the Oil and Gas Museum and the Blennerhassett Museum in Parkersburg all offer ways for you to learn more about our collective past and help you understand how it connects to the present.

The public libraries in both Washington and Wood counties have rich resources about the area’s past. The Marietta College Legacy Library has an extremely strong special collection with much of it being shared online. The Washington County Historical Society also has an incredible collection available to the public.

Understanding the past helps us better understand the now and, in some cases, helps us to better predict the future.