By: 1812Blockhouse
In the years that 1812Blockhouse has been on the Internet, we have launched several “series.”
Some we have continued throughout that time. Others we have launched and paused for a bit after several stories have been posted. You may well see at least one of those series come back and we are planning new series in the coming weeks. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
It’s our gift to our readers this holiday season — it’s the 2021 edition of “Christmas in North Central Ohio.”
We have taken a trip up and down and around the internet, looking for happenings and events that celebrate the season in Ashland, Crawford, and Richland Counties. Once we found them, we collected links and organized them by date. We have to post this early as planning becomes awfully important this time of the year.
It’s now available and easy to find on 1812Blockhouse — just look for the link in our Richland News section.
More…
By 1812Blockhouse
When Richland Roast, 1812Blockhouse’s weekday free “e newsletter,” started earlier this year we hoped to tap into the area’s strong interest in becoming and staying informed.
Before we began, we took the opportunity to gain insight into how newsletters can fit into a news operation. As a member of LION Publishers, the country’s leading consortium of local, independent, online news operations (hence the name), we learned from examples and ideas from other sites.
That shared, we also wanted to know what would work locally. A local Mansfield-based marketing consultant was gracious in freely sharing some insights that proved valuable in choosing a direction for the publication.
More…
By 1812Blockhouse
During the time we have been publishing, we have posted hundreds of original photos on 1812Blockhose of Richland County scenes and Richland County people.
It’s always been a bit part of what we do — attempting to convey the amazing variety of what makes life in this part of Ohio incredibly worthwhile.
From time to time, that has included photo essays as we visit a specific location. We store those essays in a variety of places, but more than once we have used Flickr, which is an ideal medium for photo storage and display.
On a Sunday, we thought that we would share photo albums with you that include trips to St. Matthew Lutheran Church, a Veterans Day celebration in downtown Mansfield, experiencing fall at Malabar Farm, North Lake Park, a stroll through downtown Mansfield, and Kingwood Center Gardens.
All photos included were taken by and belong to 1812Blockhouse.
By 1812Blockhouse
Yes, you read that headline correctly. We’re “going greater” here at 1812Blockhouse. Here’s what we mean.
From the time of our launch back in 2016, we told readers that our focus was going to be on sharing news about Richland County and for Richland Countians.
We’ve stayed true to that mission.
From time to time during that period we have shared stories about other locations, ones that people here might find relevant and interesting. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
We’re going to be taking a very rare “day off” Friday at 1812Blockhouse, and for good reason.
On Thursday afternoon, we installed brand new hardware designed to make our site bigger, faster, and better. That, in turn, requires us to move over all non-cloud based information from one system to the other.
That is true for the three sites we currently operate. It’s a big operation. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
Publisher’s Note: It has been a year unlike any other in our lifetimes, as a pandemic which struck without regard to social or economic status not only ravaged populations worldwide, but altered the ways in which Americans, Ohioans, and Richland Countians live and work. The changes have been dramatic and many continue.
It was during these weeks last year that the news broke and the world changed. We are marking that anniversary with a repeat of an article we ran back on New Year’s Eve, looking back at 2020.
Coincidentally, on Wednesday I obtained my own vaccination in Ontario. — Thomas Palmer
On the last day of the year we look back at the story of this public health crisis as told in the pages and posts of 1812Blockhouse. More…
By: Thomas Palmer, 1812Blockhouse Owner/Publisher
For the last several months, we have been connected here at 1812Blockhouse with the pacesetting association for independent online news sites across the country, LION Publishers.
It can be great stuff, being part of a team. Joining others with similar interests can provide opportunities to share enthusiasm, best practices, and advice. We have learned much and made new connections, with our Associated Press Report for America coverage being one component of that.
As this sector of the media world grows, LION has chosen to update its membership criteria, and asked each local publication involved to re-apply for membership. We are happy to share that we have been approved to continue our affiliation. More…
By 1812Blockhouse — who else?
After 1,042 posts, 2,500 links to stories from other local media, and countless lessons learned, we’re ready to say good-bye to 2020.
As we do so, we’re taking a day off so that Thursday night can be a night of celebration and looking ahead. We will see you bright and early on Saturday morning, January 1.
We will be sending out a New Year’s Day edition of our Richland Roast newsletter, which is bound to have one or two unique posts included. We will also be updating Richland Tweets on Friday, although we suspect that the “tweetflow” will be reduced as locals celebrate the holiday.
We close our 2020 not with our words, but with the words of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, particularly these three stanzas from his poem “Ring Out, Wild Bells:”
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
By 1812Blockhouse
We doubt that it would come as a surprise that the most-read story of 2020 on 1812Blockhouse would have to do with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It would be difficult to overestimate the impact that that public health crisis has had on north central Ohio and, or course, the rest of the country and world. The largest audience for any single post this year dealt with that topic.
We’ll be talking about that subject a bit later in the week, however we’re beginning the last week of 2020 in a different place. We are first looking at the top stories of the year in terms of site traffic that dealt with subjects other than the Coronavirus.
Those most-read posts cover a wide range of subjects. In no particular order, they were: More…
By 1812Blockhouse
The next handful of days will see a couple of big changes here at 1812Blockhouse.
You might call it a bit of a Christmas present, both for our readers and for ourselves.
First, we are launching our first official enewsletter later this week. It’s called “Richland Roast,” and it’s a one-of-a-kind digital product that builds on 1812Blockhouse’s mission of combining our original reporting while bringing our readers posts from all Richland County media. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
Today, we’re sharing our 1812Blockhouse Annual Report for 2020 with the Richland County community. You will find it below. For a full size version, click the “2020 Annual Report” link underneath the image.
This has been a powerfully different year for all of us. In the midst of it, local news sites like ours have had to pivot and become instant experts in new fields.
We’ve done our best to meet the community’s need for information — not only through our coverage, but through connecting readers with important stories published in other local media. More…
By 1812Blockhouse
At this time of the year, 1812Blockhouse creates and shares Richland Holiday Central, a place where local holiday events and more are shared for our readers.
On Saturday evening, the 2020 Edition went live and can be accessed here and via the link on our home page.
You will find a regularly updated list of Richland County Christmas happenings — including a note when, as happened twice this past week, a planned-for event is canceled.
There’s more — a collection of local holiday scenes from the last four years; a Christmas music player to set the mood; and a secret collection of fun holiday links hidden on our website, where you can track Santa via NORAD radar (NOTE — that goes live on December 1) or visit the jolly guy’s workshop with several online games!
We all know that 2020 has brought all of us a different kind of holiday season. Not here. There’s not the slightest mention of viruses, or politics, or anything of the kind. We wish our readers a beautiful and meaningful time as we remember together that there are things larger than ourselves worth remembering and celebrating.
1812Blockhouse, Featured, Holidays, Richland Holiday Central
By 1812Blockhouse
From its launch, 1812Blockhouse has been about two things — first, sharing our own original writing and coverage of local news; and second, connecting our readers with stories from other local media.
That’s why WMFD, Richland Source, the Mansfield News Journal, and the Shelby Daily Globe links appear almost every single day on 1812Blockhouse, as well as links to Richland County-related stories from other online publications.
We’ve also run Richland Tweets since the beginning, a regularly updated collection of tweets from almost 100 area non-profit organizations, local governments, schools, and more. More…
By Thomas Palmer, 1812Blockhouse Owner/Publisher
Not only is the entire world reeling from the impact of the pandemic, but it has impacted things close to home as well. Richland County schools, businesses, local governments, churches, and more are facing unique and difficult scenarios on a daily basis. People are struggling with illness and uncertainty everywhere you look.
Here at 1812Blockhouse, the specter of COVID-19 struck about a week and a half ago and became all too real. It’s a long story, but suffice it to say that it prompted not only concerns, but was part of what prompted a week-long hospital stay — something completely out of the blue. More…
