SHANDON - To celebrate the Ohio and Butler County bicentennials, historians will present a tour of commercial, educational and religious landmarks built from 1811 through World War I in Morgan Township.

Visitors will meet at 10 a.m. Nov. 15 at the Morgan Township Administration Building on Chapel Road to see a slide show and receive tour booklets and refreshments. They may take the "Self-Guided Driving Tour of Historic Morgan Township" at their leisure.

Jill Evans, president of the township historical society, said the tour represents decades of local heritage and culture.

"The winding country roads provide an opportunity to explore the beautiful rural landscape that has become a haven for generations of families who were born here and for those who in recent years have visited and decided to call the township home," she said.

The tour will feature 48 locations, including:

• The tiny community called Alert, where a post office operated from 1850-1904. The name? It originated with area farmers, who said the townspeople were "alert" because they had their own town library.

• Shandon Telephone Exchange, from the early 1900s.

• A.R. Robinson's General Store, opened in 1905. The building has since been a meat market and antiques shop.

• Old Welsh Meetinghouse in Shandon, 1823. It later became the Congregational Church, complete with the Welsh death door leading to the cemetery and services conducted in Welsh and English.

• Isis. What a name for a town! Today it is a ghost town, but at one time it was the home of a post office and manufacturing plant.

To obtain a driving-tour brochure, call Evans at 738-0910.

Or write to the Morgan Township Historical Society, P.O. Box 20, Shandon OH 45063.