Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Nelsonville, OH

Nelsonville is a city in northwestern Athens County, Ohio, sitting on the Hocking River about 60 miles southeast of Columbus.

Nelsonville was first settled in 1814 by Daniel Nelson and incorporated in 1838, with Charles Cable serving as its first mayor.

Nelsonville grew into a classic Appalachian town on the extractive industries of coal, clay and salt, and its population peaked at 6,440 in 1920.

During Morgan's Raid in July 1863, Confederate cavalry burned ten wooden canal boats in Nelsonville, but townspeople saved the covered bridge over the Hocking Canal, allowing Union cavalry to keep up the pursuit.

In 1888 Nelsonville became the first city in the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains to have citywide electric street lights.

Nelsonville's brickmaking heritage is still visible in the star-pattern paving bricks in its Public Square sidewalks, and the Nelsonville Block brick won first prize at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.

Stuart's Opera House, built in 1879 on the Public Square, is Ohio's last remaining fully operating second-story opera house and hosts the annual Nelsonville Music Festival.

Nelsonville is home to Hocking College, a two-year technical college whose campus includes Robins Crossing, a restored pioneer village of log cabins.

Rocky Brands, the footwear and outdoor gear company founded in Nelsonville in 1932 as the Wm. Brooks Company, still keeps its corporate headquarters in the city.

Nelsonville is surrounded by the Wayne National Forest, Ohio's only national forest, whose headquarters sit just outside the city limits on U.S. Route 33.