TheReportingProject.org is the nonprofit news organization of the Denison University Journalism Program, covering Licking County, Ohio, and neighboring regions. We publish work by students, faculty, and community members.
Licking County is rich in history and diversity in its people and its economy — a place where both agriculture and industry provide employment to its more than 180,000 people, nearly a third of whom live in Newark, the county seat. Covering 682 square miles, it is the third largest county by land mass in Ohio, following Ashtabula and Ross counties. Before settlers arrived in the late 1700s and early 1800s (Licking County was established in 1808), this land was home to Native Americans — the Shawnee, Wyandotte, and Delaware people.
And before them were the Adena and Hopewell people, who left behind earthworks of such magnitude and engineering significance that the Newark Earthworks and others in Ohio have been collectively nominated for World Heritage Site designation.
The work of The Reporting Project in this community is supported in part by the “Writing in Place” initiative, a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Send story ideas to thereportingproject@denison.edu