Ohio’s newest state park, Great Council State Park, opens this week near Xenia, Ohio

Ohio’s 76th and newest state park will open to the public for the first time Friday near Xenia, educating visitors on the history of the Shawnee tribes and Ohio’s natural history.

Great Council State Park is located off of U.S. 68 in Xenia Twp, in what used to be called “Old Chillicothe,” a vibrant Shawnee town founded in the 1770s and led by Chief Blackfish.

The state park was developed alongside three federally recognized Shawnee tribes — the Shawnee Tribe, Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Absentee Shawnee Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. The center is focused on Ohio’s native peoples, their history in their Ohio homeland, and their lives today.

The project is personal for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and his wife Fran, who both grew up near the site in Yellow Springs, and drove past the site of Old Chillicothe “thousands of times.”

“Our goal was to bring this all together, and not just, obviously, for people in Greene County. Anybody who comes in here will have the opportunity to learn about what we think is an exciting period of time, a very impactful period of time in the 1770s,” DeWine said.

“Whatever age you are, you’ll get something out of this,” he added.

The interpretive center is a 12,000-square-foot modern interpretation of a council house, the primary gathering place and traditional dwelling in a Shawnee village. Inside, visitors will find a living stream, complete with bluegills, crawdads, and other aquatic life for children to touch, a theater, and three floors of both artistic and interactive exhibits that depict the lives of the Shawnee and early settlers in the 1770s.

The DeWines and their grandchildren, Parker and Addi, toured the council house museum Monday afternoon.

“I think the kids are most excited about the living river,” Fran DeWine said. “It’s kind of a novel idea. When there’s more fish in there, the kids can reach in and touch them if they want....for me, the exciting thing is how many things there are for kids to do, and I can envision classrooms coming in of all ages of kids and learning.”

As the park continues to develop, the trails on the 14 acres of property behind the museum will allow visitors to walk down to the Little Miami River, through prairie grass and past vegetable gardens growing the “three sisters:” corn, beans and squash.

Additionally, a bridge over U.S. 68 from the Xenia bike path to Great Council State Park is planned, though it is still very much in the planning stages, DeWine said.

“You’re not going to see that for a couple of years,” he said. “We think that this will become a major attraction along the bike path.”

Great Council State Park began construction in 2022 with a budget of $11.4 million.