Defiance, OH

[Thundertubs]

Defiance is a city of 16,000 near the northwestern corner of Ohio.





Confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers






Clinton St, the main drag downtown.








Mistakes were made.

[Evergrey]

Incredible name for a town!

Love the cladding on the antique shop building.

[Robert Pence]

Getting close to my home turf! That was within bike distance for me when I was younger and the back roads between here and there hadn't become infested with subdivisions and Soccer Moms going 70mph in their Yukons and Expeditions.

The courthouse is one of several near-identical ones in Ohio and Indiana designed by Fremont, Ohio, architect John Carlton Johnson and built in the mid-1870s. Originally all had Mansard roofs and centrally-located towers, and all had identical major structural problems with their towers. The one in Winchester, Indiana, made it into the 1950s before being desecrated with a "modernization," but all have been modified, some appallingly like the one in Defiance.

Originally Posted by Evergrey

Incredible name for a town!

Love the cladding on the antique shop building.

Fort Defiance, at the confluence of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers, was General "Mad" Anthony Wayne's base for raids against Native American villages over a wide area, and was the farthest-west American outpost in Ohio until the War of 1812. It's not far from the site of the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

Charles Scott, who led Kentucky Militiamen supporting General Wayne, declared, "I defy the English, Indians, and all the devils of hell to take it." Hence, the name.

Defiance is home to Defiance College, a small (< 1000 students) coeducational liberal arts college affiliated with the United Church of Christ.

[photoLith]

It sure does have some nice architecture, its also the name of a band I love that has a song about suburban sprawl.

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[Expat]

Nice looking town.

[OhioGuy]

I grew up in this area of Ohio (about a 30 minute drive north). When I was in high school, we'd always head to the Defiance mall to watch movies.

[Centropolis]

Cool. Reminds me that there is a Defiance, MO just outside of St. Louis...it's a tiny village, though.

[sopas ej]

Great photos! The downtown looks like a movie set.

[gothamite]

Did you take any pics of Defiance College? I had a high school friend who went there but stayed only a year (that was in the early 70's). He really didn't care for the town. I would say it was because it was so small, but we were both from a similarly-sized community ourselves in northeast Ohio. Maybe it was the relatively flat terrain and the fact that it's not really that close to any larger city. Looks pleasant enough though.

[LSyd]

ah, beautiful brick and stone.

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[Robert Pence]

Originally Posted by gothamite

Did you take any pics of Defiance College? I had a high school friend who went there but stayed only a year (that was in the early 70's). He really didn't care for the town. I would say it was because it was so small, but we were both from a similarly-sized community ourselves in northeast Ohio. Maybe it was the relatively flat terrain and the fact that it's not really that close to any larger city. Looks pleasant enough though.

It's about mid-way (50 miles either way) between Fort Wayne and Toledo on US 24. Toledo still had a fairly active downtown then, and Fort Wayne was much less sprawly than it is now.

[ColDayMan]

It is the only county seat in the state I've never been to. Thanks.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. That second picture reminds me of NW Ohio from I-90. That is probably the flattest, more boring part of the country that I've ever seen. The scenery was the same for hours.

[ColDayMan]

^I take it you've never been west of the Ohio border

Try I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago; most interstates in Illinois not in Chicagoland; or even worse, try I-70 west of Kansas City. Or I-35 going from Kansas to Dallas.

You'll be thankful for that Toledo Turnpike .

[stepper77]

Nice photos. That brick three story with the add on on top is both sad and beautiful.

[Segun]

Defiant.

[Robert Pence]

Originally Posted by xzmattzx

Nice pictures. That second picture reminds me of NW Ohio from I-90. That is probably the flattest, more boring part of the country that I've ever seen. The scenery was the same for hours.

Where I grew up:

It's all relative; in different landscapes, beauty manifests itself in different ways. In some places it thrusts itself dramatically forward and upward in rolling surf and white sand beaches or in soaring, snow-capped mountains. Growing up in midwestern farmland I've found it in the woodlots and in the slow-moving creeks and rivers that provide fishing holes and attract creatures like deer and in recent years, increasing numbers of beaver.

On my home place, one of those streams flows through a shady woodlot where springtime color arrives on redbud trees. Dutchmen's britches and trilliums bloom among the leaf litter and blue-eyed marys thrive in a moist clearing. As a kid, I used to spend my down time from farm chores sitting as still as I could on the creek bank, waiting to see wary old turtles, some with shells well over a foot long, haul themselves up on a mud flat on the opposite side to sun themselves. Sometimes I'd see as many as a half-dozen at one time, and the slightest movement on my part would send them all back into the water in a flash, defying popular conceptions of how quickly they can cover short distances.

When I'd come home on leave from the USAF, sometimes a friend who grew up in Renovo, Pennsylvania, would accompany me. He could never get over how beautiful he thought the area was, with its open skies and broad vistas.

[flar]

Great tour. You didn't happen to hit Toledo on this expedition, did you? I'd like to see your take on it.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

^I take it you've never been west of the Ohio border

Try I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago; most interstates in Illinois not in Chicagoland; or even worse, try I-70 west of Kansas City. Or I-35 going from Kansas to Dallas.

You'll be thankful for that Toledo Turnpike .

I70 west of KC has some moments of majesty, occasionally at least. The Flint Hills , and some other non crop-land big sky spots in KS and eastern CO. Konza Prairie, as seen in my KC-Lawrence thread is bueatiful. I don't think there is an open grassy hilly landscape like that east of the Mississippi.

[ColDayMan]

Yeah, I'm not aware of any such area east of the Mississippi either.