On a day set aside for thanksgiving, I found myself thinking about what it must have been like for a settler first reaching the Ohio country in the late 1700's. For what would he have given thanks?

Food was bountiful. Ohio was virtually blanketed with hardwood trees, and the nut harvest supported a huge community of animals. The rivers and lake were full of fish, including huge sturgeon in the Lake Erie tributaries. Passenger pigeons roosted in flocks numbered in the millions. Wild turkey, grouse, waterfowl and 225 other species of birds could be found. Fifty species of mammals roamed the hardwood forest, including black bear, river otters, beaver, woodland bison, deer, rabbits, and squirrels. The creeks were virtually paved with clams and mussels.

Water was abundant. The thick forest floor formed a seine from which water emerged crystal clear. The larger rivers, such as the Muskingum and Maumee, allowed settlers to use pirogues to travel far inland. The water allowed the building of mills convenient to most of the state.

The weather was temperate. Summers were hot, but not too hot, winters cold but not lethally so. Torandos, hurricanes, floods and fires were not common tormentors.

Building materials grew everywhere. There was no lack of wood for heating and cooking, either. Later, coal and iron ore would provide even better materials.

Sure, there were hardships aplenty. The Native Americans were not pleased with their invasion. Malaria waited for them, and harsh winters, and the oppressive darkness of the deep forest.

But compared to Europeans back home that were locked into lives of scarcity without the opportunity to improve their lot, Ohio must have seemed like a dream. Thanksgiving seems like an appropriate sentiment.

Just as it does now.