EXPLORE
Builders, Traders & Trailblazers
June 1 – July 13, 2026 | Mondays at 10:00 AM
Builders, Traders & Trailblazers is a self-guided scavenger adventure through nine authentic 1830s buildings at Historic Roscoe Village
Your family follows clue cards from character to character, collects a Trailblazer Card at every stop, and earns a Trailblazer Badge at the end. Along the way you’ll discover how a canal-era village actually worked — who built it, who traded in it, and who kept it alive.
Add a canal boat ride pulled by real draft horses. Punch tin the way a craftsman did in 1835. Dip your own candle to take home. There’s a full day here for families who want one.
The Trailblazer Trail is included with general admission. Canal boat rides and hands-on crafts are available as add-ons.
Plan Your Visit
- All ages — best for families with kids ages 6 and up
- Self-guided — follow the clue cards at your own pace, no reservation required
- Trailblazer Trail — included with general admission
- Canal Boat Ride — separate add-on ticket, seasonal availability
- Hands-on crafts — drop-in anytime, separate add-on
- Rain or shine — most Trail stops are indoors
- Indoor and outdoor lunch space available
- Easy parking for cars and buses
Questions? Contact us at (740) 622-7644.
Trailblazer Trail
Follow the Clues. Collect the Cards. Earn the Badge.
At the Visitor Center, every child receives a clue card, a key ring, and a string backpack. The first clue sends your family into the village. From there, you’re on the trail, solving clues, stepping into buildings, and piecing together the story of how this canal town stayed alive.
At each stop, a Trailblazer Card goes on the key ring. Each card names a real historical character, their role in the village, and the virtue it took to live it — grit, perseverance, teamwork, responsibility. At some buildings, a staff member or interpreter may be on hand to bring the story to life.
Nine stops. Nine cards. One badge at the end.
- Visitor Center — Canal Lock Model & History Room
- Blacksmith Shop — guide-led demonstrations
- Hay Craft Building — print shop & broom shop, guide-led demonstrations
- Doctor’s Office
- Doctor’s Kitchen & House
- Craftsman’s House — Weaver
- One-Room Schoolhouse
After completing all nine stops, your family returns to the Visitor Center for the Trailblazer Badge Ceremony. Every child who finishes the Trail earns a Trailblazer Badge, and takes home a key ring full of canal-era history.
“Follow the clang of hot iron…”
— Tommy, Blacksmith’s Apprentice
Your family steps into the Blacksmith Shop and discovers that every nail, mule shoe, wagon wheel rim, and canal lock part in this village was forged here by hand, at a blazing coal fire. Apprentices spent years making nails before they were trusted with anything more. The skill came through repetition. The reliability came through practice.
Trailblazer Card: Great skills are forged one steady swing at a time.
Add to Your Day
The Trailblazer Trail is the heart of the visit, but there’s more to do if you want a full day in the village. Each add-on is priced separately and available without advance reservation.
Hands-On Craft Experience
Try your hand at three authentic canal-era crafts, available throughout the day:
- Tin Punching — create a decorative pattern the way 1830s craftsmen lit their homes
- Weaving — work a loom and feel how every yard of cloth in the village was made by hand
- Candle Dipping — dip your own taper candle in the traditional method and take it home
Nine Crafts to Choose From
All nine crafts are available daily at the Raymond Hay Craft & Learning Center.
$5 per Craft, or 5-Craft Bundle for $20 per person
*A small per-ticket booking fee is added at check-out to help cover ticketing costs.
Candle Dipping
Before electricity, every home in Roscoe was lit by candles made exactly this way — dipped by hand, layer by layer, until the taper took shape. It required patience and produced something every household depended on.
What you’ll do: Dip a wick repeatedly into melted wax, building up layers until your candle is complete — exactly as families did in the 1800s.
Take home: A finished hand-dipped taper candle.
Tin Punching
Canal-era craftsmen punched decorative patterns into tin to make lanterns and household items that let light shine through without exposing an open flame. The work is precise, rhythmic, and immediately rewarding.
What you’ll do: Punch small holes into a tin sheet to create your own decorative pattern — a skill used throughout the 1800s to make both functional and beautiful objects.
Take home: A hand-punched tin piece.
Rope Making
Weaving was a vital household skill in the 1800s — producing the cloth for clothing, blankets, and everyday use that families couldn’t buy in a store. Every yard of fabric in Roscoe was made by hand on a loom.
What you’ll do: Use a loom to interlace threads and create fabric, learning the technique that kept canal-era families clothed and households running.
Take home: A woven fabric piece.
Quilt Square
Quilting was one of the most important communal skills of the 19th century — bringing neighbors together to make something practical, warm, and meaningful from whatever fabric was available.
What you’ll do: Create a quilt square using fabric pieces and classic 1800s designs, using the same patterns that connected communities across Ohio.
Take home: A finished quilt square.
Mini Broom
Broom making was a common trade and household industry in canal-era Ohio — families grew broomcorn, harvested it by hand, and bound finished brooms to use at home or trade for goods they needed.
What you’ll do: Assemble a small broom using natural fibers and wire, following the traditional technique that made brooms one of the most traded items in the canal economy.
Take home: A hand-assembled mini broom.
Leather Punching
Leatherworking was essential to the canal era — belts, harnesses, saddlebags, and work gear were all produced by hand by craftsmen who learned the trade through years of apprenticeship.
What you’ll do: Stamp and punch decorative patterns into leather using period tools, creating a piece that reflects the 1800s leatherworking tradition.
Take home: A hand-punched leather piece.
Top Painting
Toys in the 1800s were handmade — carved from wood, painted with whatever colors were available, and treasured because they were the only ones a child had. A spinning top was a beloved object in canal-era homes.
What you’ll do: Decorate a wooden spinning top with bright colors and your own patterns, the way children’s toys were made and personalized in the 1830s.
Take home: A painted spinning top.
Yarn Doll
Yarn dolls were made from leftover materials in canal-era homes — simple, handmade, and crafted by children and adults alike from whatever was available. Nothing useful was ever wasted.
What you’ll do: Make a yarn doll using basic tying and wrapping techniques, following the same simple method that produced one of the most common handmade toys of the 1800s.
Take home: A finished yarn doll.
Craft add-ons are priced separately. Drop in at any point during your visit — no reservation needed.
Canal Boat Ride
Board a historic canal boat pulled by real draft horses along the original towpath of the Ohio & Erie Canal. The same route that once connected Roscoe to Cleveland, Columbus, and Portsmouth. The ride is approximately 45 minutes round-trip. Seasonal availability; separate ticket required.
Why Builders, Traders & Trailblazers?
Canal towns did not run on ideas alone. They ran on builders who engineered solutions, traders who understood value and exchange, and trailblazers who kept community life going.
Young people in the canal era didn’t watch history happen around them. They were in it — apprenticing in blacksmith shops, running kitchens, learning in one-room schools, contributing to a village that only worked because everyone did their part.
The Trailblazer Trail puts your family inside that story. Not behind glass. Not on a screen. In the actual buildings, following the actual clues, collecting the cards that connect a real historical character to a value that still means something today.
Your kids won’t just learn about the past. They’ll earn their place in it.
General admission gives your family access to Roscoe’s open historic buildings and interpretive kiosks throughout the village — with or without the full Trailblazer Trail.
Flexible. Family-paced. Rooted in place.
Pricing
- Builders, Traders & Trailblazers Experience | $13 per person
- 5 Hands-On Crafts | $20 per person
- Builders, Traders & Trailblazers Experience + Crafts Combo | $30 per person
*A small per-ticket booking fee is added at check-out to help cover ticketing costs.
Builders, Traders & Trailblazers Experience Tickets
Advance online purchase encouraged.
*A small per-ticket booking fee is added at check-out to help cover ticketing costs.