[4] Serpent Mound and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, though not in Fairfield County, are nearby.

Before and immediately after European settlement, the land today comprising Lancaster and Fairfield County was inhabited by the Shawnee, nations of the Iroquois, Wyandot, and other Native American tribes.

[5] Frontier explorer Christopher Gist reached Lancaster's vicinity on January 19, 1751, when he visited the small Delaware town of Hockhocking nearby.

Having been ceded to the United States by Great Britain after the American Revolution in the Treaty of Paris, the lands north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachian Mountains were incorporated into the Northwest Territory in 1787.

As the new United States government began to cast its eye westward, the stage was set for the series of campaigns that culminated in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794 and the Treaty of Greenville in 1795.

With pioneer settlement within Ohio made legal and safe from Indian raids, developers began to speculate in land sales in earnest.

Knowing that such speculation, combined with congressional grants of land sections to veterans of the Revolution, could result in a lucrative opportunity, in 1796 Ebenezer Zane petitioned Congress to grant him a contract to blaze a trail through Ohio, from Wheeling, West Virginia, to Limestone, Kentucky (near modern Maysville, Kentucky), a distance of 266 miles (428 km).

As part of the deal, Zane was awarded square-mile tracts of land at the points where his trace crossed the Hocking, Muskingum, and Scioto Rivers.

As Zane's sons began to carve the square-mile tract astride the Hocking into saleable plots, the village of Lancaster was founded in 1800.

[citation needed] The initial settlers were predominantly German immigrants and their descendants, many from Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The two papers were ferocious competitors since they were on opposite sides of the American Civil War[citation needed], with the Adler antislavery and pro-Union.

The Fairfield County Fair also includes food, animals, exhibits, games, and rides for people of all ages.

Its mission is to provide a hands-on, interactive, playful, and educational environment that invites curiosity, allows exploration, encourages participation, and celebrates the child-like wonder in everyone.

[15] Originally built in 1832 for the Maccracken Family, this Federal-style home is constructed predominantly of brick and local limestone.

Converted into a museum, it is now furnished as it would have been in the 1830s with some original pieces and numerous early Fairfield County items.

Located in one of Lancaster's three national historic districts, the structure mixes elements of American, Georgian, and Regency architecture.

[20] The city's main shopping district is centered around River Valley Mall, or downtown Lancaster.