Learning
Students, faculty publish new book, Salt Fork State Park
Two Muskingum College students, with the help of a faculty advisor, have released a new local history book, Salt Fork State Park, published by Arcadia Publishing as a part of its Images of America series. The book is available now from the Muskingum College bookstore or at www.arcadiapublishing.com.
With more than 120 pages of historic photos and captions, the book was compiled by Meredith A. Bowman ’06 and Alicia Seng '07. They were advised in the project by Associate Professor of History Dr. Bil Kerrigan, who in 2004 received the Ohio Academy of History Teaching Award.
This is the second book that Muskingum College students have co-authored with Kerrigan’s advice, the first being Cambridge, Ohio in 2006, which was also published by Arcadia’s Images of America series.
Kerrigan, Seng and Bowman credit many sources with the completion of Salt Fork. Specifically, they cite Pauli Cornish and the Friends of the Kennedy Stone House, who provided photographs, names and contact information for people who once lived in the region. In fact, they say, the book actually represents a completion of the work started by those involved with the Friends of the Stone House, and proceeds from the sale of the new book will benefit the Kennedy Stone House Museum.
Additional help, they say, came from the Guernsey County Historical Society and the Finley Local History Room at the Cambridge Library. All three agree, though, that the greatest help came from many families in the area who invited the researchers into their homes and agreed to share materials and be interviewed.
The trio is quick to point out that the publication of the newest book was heavily supported by Muskingum’s Center for Regional Planning, which provided the physical work space necessary, as well as the needed technology.
Since its inception in 1993, Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series has preserved and shared the histories of hundreds of individual communities through the country. For more information on “Salt Fork State Park” and the “Images of America” series, log on to www.arcadiapublishing.com.
