Allan W. Eckert was a legendary writer. He lived right in our region in Bellefontaine, but I only had this one opportunity to interview him. It was 23 years ago and he was on book tour for his historical novel "That Dark and Bloody River." The river he referred to in his title was of course, the Ohio River. Eckert was an authority on the early history of our region and he wrote numerous books about it.
In this interview the author talked about the original inhabitants of our area and how they were ultimately driven out of Ohio by the white settlers. He recounted how the Shawnee tribe had a huge village down the road from Yellow Springs along what is now US Highway 68 just north of Xenia. Did you know that the native people had mined silver in the vicinity of the Clifton Gorge? On that day in 1995 Eckert talked about the silver mines and how nobody has been able to locate them since they were abandoned.
Eckert's early works were subject to massive rejections by publishers but he endured. He describes how he made the realization about what he was doing wrong and how he figured out the secrets to becoming the successful writer that he eventually became.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.