Fernweh, An Ache for Distant Places

How to Explain It
Waynesville, Ohio is a small town in Wayne Township, inside Warren County, which is known as Ohio’s Largest Playground. While Waynesville is an official city inside an official county, locals refer to Waynesville as their “village” within a township.

If you are from the Midwest, you are probably nodding along; if you are not, it really does not matter all that much for tourism purposes.

How it Started
British immigrant Samuel Heighway founded Waynesville in 1797 after co-buying 30,000 acres from John Symmes with his pal Dr. Evan Banes.

They laid out the town plan like a village back home in England, first called Terraceville, and sold lots for six dollars each.

The name Waynesville was a nod to the famous General “Mad Anthony” Wayne, just like the city of Waynesville in North Carolina.

The center of the village is Washington Square, surrounded by additional squares named Miami, Ohio, Wabash, Wayne, Town, and so on.

Each of the twelve squares has four acres and still holds the original name given to them by Heighway. That would be just one reason PBS listed Waynesville as one of America’s Most Walkable Communities.

Antiques Capital of the Midwest
Waynesville is proudly billed as the Antiques Capital of the Midwest, with nearly 30 different shops within its twelve village squares.

Something incredibly unique about Main Street is that a large number of the original homes have been converted into retail shops, rather than having a lot of modern stores in old retail properties.

You may not even realize it is a commercial zone the first time you drive through unless you really read the signs closely.

Around 3,000 people live in this village of less than 2.5 square miles, but most of the historic homes on Main Street are not residential dwellings.

There are over 200 officially recognized historic buildings there, concentrated around Main Street between Third, Fourth, and Fifth Streets.

Quakers, Abolitionists, & the Underground Railroad
Waynesville has an enormous Quaker (aka “Friends”) community, bolstered by the Miami Monthly Meeting. Its central white brickhouse was built in 1811 and is the oldest place of worship located west of the Allegheny Mountains. You can learn more about Waynesville and Quaker History by visiting the Museum at the Friends Home.

With the Quakers/Friends and so many other abolitionists who rushed into Waynesville since the 1800s, the village played a significant role in the Underground Railroad. A series of tunnels connected safe homes to the Little Miami River where enslaved people could escape north to freedom.

Museum at the Friends Home (MFH) offers an Underground Railroad Walking Tour available that will direct you to more than a dozen sites from that period.

Additionally the MFH hosts Christmas and holiday home tours, historical walking tours, ghost tours, ice cream socials, and other community events.

Main Street also has several cafes too, like The Village Family Restaurant, the Hammel House Inn, Mami Finas, Bentino’s Pizza, Hubbard’s Cupboard, Waynesville Candy Shoppe, and the Butter Churn Cafe that sells products by the regionally famous Youngs Dairy.

Ohio Sauerkraut Festival
Despite having a Youngs Dairy dealer, the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival is what brings the most boys to Waynesville’s yard.

In 1970, members of the Waynesville Retail Merchants were brainstorming how to build the town’s economy. What was first suggested as a community dinner serving sauerkraut exploded into dreams of an entire festival dedicated to this delicacy.

More than 1,500 people attended the first Sauerkraut Festival and now nearly half a million show up each year. German folk bands, dance troupes, local musicians, artists, and crafters show up to entertain and sell their work.

Lots of weird, and totally normal German, contests including the largest cabbage, spelling bees, and other feats reward prizes to the GoaTs of Waynesville.

The best part of the festival is the food. You can buy fresh stuffed cabbage rolls, fried cabbage balls, “German” sundaes, and pizza, all made with sauerkraut.

German sundaes are one of the most popular dishes here, essentially a scoop of warm German-style potato salad topped with sauerkraut, cheese, sour cream, bacon bits, and an olive. I stand strongly against fake bacon bits but the rest of it is perfection.

Stuffed cabbage rolls are, without question, one of my favourite dishes. They are wildly popular in southwestern Ohio, especially around Dayton and Columbus where two of the largest populations of Germans, Hungarians, and other cabbage lovers and their progeny reside.

You can also try and buy several varieties of homemade sauerkraut, and last but not least, brats with fresh kraut.

I saw signs for “Brauts” and was really about to be offended by the misspelling of my people’s dietary staple until I realized it is a clever nickname for the brats-n-kraut dish some of the vendors were slinging. Cute, y’all.

One booth was selling pound after pound of homemade chocolate fudge or caramel fudge made with sauerkraut. I liked the chocolate best.

Another booth had everything from brownies, pie, fudge, “German” chocolate cake, pumpkin rolls, bread, and pinwheels made with sauerkraut.

I talked with several of the vendors, and the general consensus is that rather than using the sauerkraut brine in place of liquids in a given recipe, they prepare the ingredients normally then add dehydrated sauerkraut, which has the consistency of dry, saltier, shredded coconut.

The sauerkraut pie is essential a creamy vanilla custard with a coconut-like topping that we all now know is dehydrated sauerkraut. Delish.

The Ohio Sauerkraut Festival is held on the second weekend of October each year, on both Saturday and Sunday.

During this time, many of the local businesses on Main Street are closed, either to observe religious practices or to work the festival.

If you want to see more of Waynesville during your stay, I would make sure you arrive or linger at least one day outside the festival dates.

Other awesome things to do near Waynesville include a trip to Caesar Creek State Park, where more than 230 birds can be found among the reserve. The Pioneer Village at Caesar Creek is a living museum and cultural site that hosts a giant collection of Ohio artifacts.

Hop on the Little Miami Scenic Trail that spans nearly 80 miles, making it the fourth longest paved trail in the country. The Little Miami Scenic River is one of only 156 rivers in the USA that has been designated as a National Wild and Scenic River.

Mid-October really is the perfect month for visiting Waynesville, hitting up the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival, walking the trail, visiting Caesar Creek, celebrating at Waynesville Fall Fest, and taking in all the spooky season festivities around town.

In the area for a while? Follow me to Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighbourhood!

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