This is the fourth in our series profiling the hometowns of current (and past) members of the Penn State Women’s Volleyball team. Today we look at Zanesfield, Ohio, the hometown of former Penn State All American Nicole Fawcett

As Nicole Fawcett will tell you, Zanesfield is small — a population of 220, with 96 households and 57 families as of the 2000 census. Not surprisingly, it’s the smallest incorporated village in Logan County. [Editor’s note: Readers from Leland, MI, home of Alisha Glass, might ask themselves, if Zanesfield’s 220 residents can pull it together to incorporate, why not us?]

Here’s an aerial photo of Zanesfield.

Zanesfield may be small, but it’s history is anything but dull (though it can be a bit confusing). Zanesfield is named for Isaac Zane, who was born in 1753 in what is now Hardy County, West Virginia. The confusion comes from the fact that Isaac’s older brother, Ebenezer Zane, who was an American pioneer, road builder and land speculator and who, as a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, voted in favor of ratification of the United States Constitution, also has a town named after him — Zanesville, Ohio.

[Editors reminder: Zanesfield — Nicole Fawcett’s hometown — is named for Isaac Zane. Zanesville — not Nicole Fawcett’s hometown — is named for Isaac’s older brother, Ebenezer Zane.]

The Zane brothers both led eventful lives, but on balance, if we were looking for adventure, we’d pick Isaac’s. He was captured at age nine by Native Americans of the Wyandot tribe, was adopted into the tribe, married Myeerah (White Crane), daughter of Chief Tarhe, lived with the Wyandots for 17 years, and was known as the White Eagle of the Wyandots. Sorry Ebenezer, but that tops road building and land speculation, even when we take Constitution ratification into account.

But, back to Zanesfield. Isaac Zane’s knowledge of the Wyandott language (he was bilingual) and frontier experience enabled him to help the United States government on many occasions. The United States Congress thanked him in 1795 by granting him a tract of 1,800 acres. This land, located along the Mad River, was the original site of Zanesfield, Ohio.

Let’s take of quick tour of Zanesfield. Here’s a detailed map. Let’s start at Zanesfield’s village limits. This is a photo of Zanefield’s Historic Sloan Library (named for Dr. Earl Sloan (1848-1923), a native of Zanesfield, who made a fortune selling Sloan’s Ointment, a horse liniment that also was touted as an elixir for human aches and pains. It’s possible.) Here’s the Zanesfield United Methodist Church. Our final two photos, both taken near Zanesfield, are of horse riding at Marmon Valley Farm, and of llama grazing.

[Editor’s note: there must be more to this llama story, but that’s for another day.]

There’s much more to Zanesfield, but our crack team of researchers and statisticians are eager for us to show this video they claim to have made last December at Mad River Mountain, a ski resort outside of Zanesfield. Personally, we think they got it from YouTube, but here it is:

Nice! We’d take a visit.