The Grand American currently consists of 24 events over 11 days.
The annual event was held in Vandalia from 1923 until 2005, and more than 5,000 participants would compete each year. Here’s a look at that history.
***
For this edition of Vintage Dayton, we went back in the archives to see how the Grand American ended up in Dayton and what the event was like in the early days.
• TODAY’S FEATURED STORY: When the world came to shoot in Dayton: History of the Grand American trapshooting championships
More on Dayton sports history
• Baseball’s history in Dayton: From the ‘Gem Citys’ of 1884 to the Dragons of today
• 12 of Dayton’s most notable athletes
• When Dayton hosted the first-ever NFL game at Triangle Park
Did you know?
Here are a few great Dayton history facts we’ve learned from our stories:
• During a time of revitalization in the 1960s and ‘70s, the city of Dayton renamed the Oregon District the Burns-Jackson Historic District.
The name was later changed to the Oregon Historic District, and the area was placed on the Nation Register of Historic Places in 1974.
• In 1983, Daytonian Bill Human produced the first Dayton Medieval Fair, which was held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.
The four-day event started with chariot races, jousting matches and elephant rides and later transformed into the Ohio Renaissance festival.
• Polen Farm, a historic 19th-century farmhouse, barn and gazebo on 15 acres, operated by the city of Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department traces its roots to early pioneer days.
In the early 1800s, John Bigger Sr., born in Ireland in 1760, came to the part of the Northwest Territory that became Montgomery County. He had served in the Revolutionary War and, in 1813, was awarded land for this service.
• A Scottish immigrant who moved to Dayton in 1874 saw a need for educating factory workers and founded what many years later became known Sinclair Community College.
David A. Sinclair started a night training school at the Dayton YMCA with 55 students.
Credit: Archive collection of Sinclair
Credit: Archive collection of Sinclair
We want your help!
Do you have any requests or ideas that you would like to see us cover in this history newsletter?
What about cool old photos or stories of your own?
Let us know and we’ll include them in future newsletters.
A reader has asked for some information of locally produced children’s shows from the 1960s and 70s. Not all that long ago we did a story on the shows that some Daytonians remember watching when they were children.
• Click here for our story: 11 kids TV shows that entertained generations of Dayton children, from Uncle Orrie to Clubhouse 22
And if you like what you’re getting each week in the Vintage Dayton newsletter, please consider subscribing to the Dayton Daily News for as little as 99 cents.
Thank you for reading.
