By Randy McNutt
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - Butler County will celebrate its past and welcome visitors to 17 historical and related sites next weekend.

Sites will be open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. May 10 as the Butler County History Collaborative previews the summer season. It's a good time to celebrate Ohio's bicentennial and learn more about how the state developed. Admission is free to all sites, including the William Holmes McGuffey Museum, 410 E. Spring St., Oxford. McGuffey edited the famous McGuffey Eclectic Reader.

At 2 p.m. May 11, the museum will celebrate the design and installation of the front hall and parlor window treatments, donated in memory of curator emeritus Sterling Cook.

Other sites will display disparate items such as old Western and crime novels by Merle Constine (Monroe Historical Society), local postcards from 1898-1910 (Trenton Historical Society) and old coins and notes (Butler County Historical Society Museum).

For more information on participating sites and their programs, call the Butler County Historical Society at 896-9930.

GREEN TWP. - St. Ignatius Cub Scout Pack 850 will celebrate Ohio's bicentennial by attempting to break the world record for the most lit candles on a cake.

They will challenge the Guinness record from 7:30-9 p.m. May 9 at the church's Hilvert Center, 5222 North Bend Road.

Cubmaster Tom Schuetz said the current record, 4,127 candles, was set in 2002 by the Alfred S. Carr Center in Zanesville. That makes candle-lighting efforts a Buckeye tradition.

DAYTON - A group of aviation figures will recount their experiences in a program at the U.S. Air Force Museum 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. May 8-9.

"The event's theme is First Flights, commemorating the 2003 Centennial of Flight and the Wright brothers' legacy," said Chris McGee, a museum spokesman.

Admission and parking are free.

Information: Mitch Cary, 937-255-2681.

COLUMBUS - Ohio: 200 Years will be broadcast at 9 p.m. May 8 on Ohio's network of public television stations.

The film is abicentennial tribute.

People interviewed for the film include Dr. Andrew Cayton, a history professor at Miami University in Oxford, and Dr. Spencer Crew of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati.

Bicentennial Notebook is published periodically. Send items to Randy McNutt, the Enquirer, 7700 Service Center Drive, West Chester OH 45069. Telephone: 755-4158. Fax: 755-4150. E-mail rmcnutt@enquirer.com.