Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
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  • 117parks & forests
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Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

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Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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New Straitsville Mine Fire

New Straitsville · Perry County · Southeast Ohio
A coal-strike fire that has burned underground since 1884
Ohio Historical Society markerBuckeye Trail: New Straitsville Section
Robinson's Cave and museum site, OH-93, New Straitsville (mine-fire marker area) Directions →Official source →

A coal-country fire set during a miners' strike in 1884 that burned under southeast Ohio for generations and is said to be burning still.

Strike
The nine-month Hocking Valley Coal Strike began in June 1884
Fire
Started in the fall of 1884, by different accounts on October 11 or November 13, when unknown men pushed burning mine cars into six mines near New Straitsville
Why
In protest at being replaced by non-union workers, whom strikers called 'scabs'
Damage
Estimates of the coal burned range from 13 square miles to more than 200 square miles; by 1936 the fire had burned all the coal in a 36-square-mile area
Fight
The WPA built fire barriers in the 1930s, with nearly 350 workers in 1938
Still burning
Smoke rose again in the Wayne National Forest in 2003

The story

New Straitsville was founded in 1870 as a coal-mining town by the New Straitsville Mining Company, and by 1880 it had more than 4,000 people. In June 1884, coal miners in the Hocking Valley went on strike over wages, and the strike lasted nine months. Its organizer, the union leader Christopher Evans, met with miners in Robinson's Cave, and those meetings helped shape the national federation of miners that became the National Progressive Union. In the fall, after the company brought in replacement workers, unknown men soaked coal cars in oil, set them alight and pushed them into six mines around New Straitsville. The date is given as October 11 in the historical marker and November 13 in Ohio Memory.

The fire spread into the coal seam and could not be put out. Operators plugged fissures without success, the ground collapsed under houses and roads, and mine gases seeped into schools and homes. Families were evicted and homes demolished, and residents drew hot water from their wells. Flames rose 100 feet in the air and could be seen from five miles. Landowners advertised it as the 'World's Greatest Mine Fire,' Ripley's Believe It or Not broadcast about it, and thousands of tourists paid 25 cents to watch guides cook eggs over the fire holes. By 1936 the coal in a 36-square-mile area had burned, and in 1936 to 1938 the WPA put men to work building barriers of clay and water across the burning veins. The fire is still described as burning, and smoke came up from the Wayne National Forest again in 2003. The Buckeye Trail's New Straitsville Section passes through the area.

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Verified entrance or visitor center
Robinson's Cave and museum site, OH-93, New Straitsville (mine-fire marker area)
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The Fire That Was Sold as a Sideshow

The miners set it as a protest, and it could never be put out. Within a few years the men who owned the land where it burned realized that people would pay to see it. Guides took tourists to the hot ground to fry eggs over the fire holes and brew coffee from a heated well, and for a quarter you could watch the hillside smoke.

Meanwhile the families whose houses were sinking into it were evicted. The coal seam ate more than a century of a region's living.

Behind the legend

The strike dates, the marker, the eviction and tourism history are from the 2011 marker text and the Southern Perry Network's history page. The area burned varies hugely by source: 13 square miles, 36 and 'more than two hundred' in Ohio Memory. Whether the fire still burns is stated flatly in some sources and complicated in others, including a report that federal crews bulldozed over some smoking spots.

If you go

Read the historical marker, visit Robinson's Cave and the local museum and walk the Buckeye Trail through the Wayne National Forest, but stay away from smoking ground.

Visiting

Status
Site is a marker and museum; the burn area is not a visitor attraction
Managed by
New Straitsville History Group and the Wayne National Forest
Hours
Robinson's Cave Museum and Dunkle Hall are local museums with limited hours; confirm with the village. The 2011 historical marker is on public land near New Straitsville.
Admission
See the museum.
Phone
See the village of New Straitsville
Please note
The burn area may be unsafe, with hot ground, collapse and gases, so do not go looking for the fire; view the marker and museum.
Address
New Straitsville, OH 43766 (Robinson's Cave Museum behind the fire department)
Official information →DirectionsFind trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.

Parks nearby

Wayne National Forest: Athens Unit
About 5 miles · National forest land where smoke has risen above the burn.
Open
Burr Oak State Park
About 20 miles · A lodge and lake park with Buckeye Trail camps.
Open
Lake Logan State Park
About 15 miles · A lake park near Hocking Hills.
Open

Buckeye Trail

New Straitsville Section
61 miles · on or near the Buckeye Trail
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.