Old Chillicothe was a Shawnee community on the Little Miami River at present-day Oldtown near Xenia. It should be distinguished from the modern city of Chillicothe in Ross County. The Shawnee Tribe’s account describes Oldtown as one of the region’s largest known Shawnee settlements and places its community here approximately between 1777 and 1780. Daniel Boone spent a period of captivity in the village. Its history concerns a populated homeland and community, as well as events recorded in accounts of frontier warfare.

In 1779, John Bowman led an expedition from Kentucky against the settlement. Recollections published by the Ohio Historical Society describe the attackers dividing their force around the town and the inhabitants taking shelter in the council house. The defenders resisted, and the expedition withdrew. The account also describes plundering and damage to the village. Published narratives vary in their dates and details, but they establish an attack against this community during the Revolutionary War.

The council house played a central role in the defense. The published recollection describes occupants cutting openings through which they could fire and Chief Blackfish urging his warriors to resist. The building offered shelter and a position the attackers could not readily overcome. These descriptions place the community’s defense alongside the expedition’s movements. They also connect the park’s council-house architectural reference with a structure that mattered to the people who lived in Old Chillicothe.

Great Council State Park opened in June 2024 after cooperation among Ohio agencies, Ohio History Connection, and the three federally recognized Shawnee tribes. Its interpretive center takes its form from a traditional council house and includes exhibitions about the past and present. Tribal participation connects the former village with Shawnee communities today. The modern center commemorates and interprets the historic settlement, while its architecture should be understood as a contemporary cultural reference rather than an original building recovered from the village.