The following article is by naturalist Beth Theisen, who retired from the Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Park District in August after 13 years of service. Theisen provided Nature Pals, Go Outside & Play, Imaginature Playgroup, and Just For Kids Stream Stroll programs as well as numerous school programs and summer day camps.

The park district notes, "Beth’s dedication, compassion, creativity and love for environmental education will be greatly missed. Congratulations and best wishes on your next chapter! We’ll miss you!"

I have a secret.  Something most of you don’t know about me.  Something I’ve been reluctant to share.  Okay . . . deep breath . . . I’m not an Ohio Buckeye by birth!  WHAT?!  Please don’t ridicule me the next time we meet. 

I grew up two states over to the west in Illinois and had no idea what it meant to be a Buckeye until I moved to Ohio 28 years ago. I never grew up with chocolate buckeye candy at Christmas. I never wore scarlet and gray as a kid, and I had never seen a buckeye necklace until I moved here. I even had trouble learning how to spell OH-IO!

You native Ohioans are buckeye crazy, as evidenced in the fact that the official state tree is the Ohio Buckeye and the state’s largest university’s mascot is the OSU Buckeyes. A buckeye as a school mascot? For not having legs, arms, or sharp teeth, those nut-like seeds sure can torment wolverines!

As a non-native Ohioan I was curious to find out about why almost 12 million people living in Ohio would be so enamored with buckeyes. I found the information to be fascinating.

First things first. Buckeye “nuts” are produced by . . . wait for it . . . buckeye trees. They aren’t botanically classified as true nuts but are instead considered nut-like seeds. There are 6 native species of buckeye trees in North America with two species being native to Ohio–the Ohio Buckeye and the Yellow Buckeye. The seeds, which fall to the ground in autumn, are covered in a prickly greenish-gold leathery husk that, as it dries and turns brown in color, opens to reveal one to three glossy mahogany-colored seeds. The spherical seeds, which are one-inch or more in diameter, have a pale tan spot called a hilum which is said to resemble a deer’s eye, hence the name “buck-eye.”

Buckeye seeds contain a naturally produced chemical called glycoside which is toxic to humans and livestock. American Indians living in the Ohio Valley were able to eat the buckeye seeds by first roasting the seeds, mashing them into a pulp, and then leaching the toxic tannins out with water over several days. (The extracted tannins were then used in leather-making.) According to legend, the indigenous people also took advantage of the seed’s toxicity by placing crushed, raw buckeye seeds into a basket and submerging it into slow-moving bodies of water. The glycoside leached out of the seeds and stunned the nervous systems of fish causing them to float to the water’s surface, ready for easy collection for dinner.

To figure out why residents of Ohio, in general, are referred to as buckeyes, we must go back in history to 1788. Colonel Ebenezer Sproat, a delegate at the first Northwest Territory court held in Marietta was nicknamed “Hetuck” by the local American Indians. Sproat, a large man with a commanding presence, proudly accepted this moniker which translated to “eye of the buck deer.” Eventually the term “hetuck” or “buck-eye” became synonymous with the early white settlers in the Ohio area. The 1840 presidential election solidified the buckeye as a symbol of Ohio when candidate William Henry Harrison adopted the buckeye tree and seeds as his campaign symbol. “From that time on, buckeyes were associated so closely with Ohio that the state just adopted them as a statewide symbol,” stated Julie Petersen from The Ohio State University Archives, in a November 2000 edition of The Lantern, an independent OSU news source.

Buckeye seeds are so emblematic of Ohio that the state flag has a buckeye symbol on it. (Maybe you native Ohioans know that, but I had no idea!)  The next time you look at the state flag, notice the white “O” representing the first letter in “Ohio”.  Notice, also, a red disc superimposed on the white circular “O”.  The combination of the two circles represents, of all things, a buckeye. The flag truly represents the “Buckeye State”!

According to many folktales, buckeye seeds can do amazing things.  Early settlers in Ohio believed that rubbing a buckeye seed could cure asthma, headaches, arthritis, and rheumatism. (Although if you truly wanted to cure your rheumatism, you had to carry the buckeye in your left pants pocket.) Many people nowadays have held on to the legend that rubbing buckeye seeds will bring good luck. So, as you partake in the tradition of cheering on the Ohio State University football team this fall, make sure to have at least one lucky buckeye in your pocket!  

From this non-native Ohioan to all of you natives:  OH . . .  

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