Next History Share: Thursday, April 16, 2026 at 6pm. Next Meeting: Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 6pm, Mecca Town Hall
If you have photos, articles, objects, etc. related to Mecca Twp. that you no longer have use for, please contact us! We are actively building our collection and setting up displays for our museum in the town hall. The above 1980 Eastlake sign is our newest acquisition and we thank Nick Pappas for gifting it to us.
Also, if you have photos and information relating to Mecca, past or present, please email us or come to a meeting. We look forward to speaking with you!
We want to hear from you! As we work on plans for a historical marker celebrating Captain Dan Galbincea's Erie Dearie Fishing Lure, we want to hear from the people who experienced history in the making. Whether you have memories of the early days when Dan began making the lures behind the Causeway Sport Shop, or if you or someone you know were employed at the store, or used the lure while fishing, we want firsthand accounts. Many of you grew up around the lake and saw the local fishing industry close up, and maybe even had your first job at the sport shop.
We have the news articles. We have the facts. But we want to hear memories and experiences! Don't be shy! Send us a Facebook message or email us at meccatownshiphistoricalsociety@gmail.com. Thank you!
"All roads lead to Mecca, so goes the saying, but after a long torturous walk from Connecticut to the tangled wilderness that was Mecca in Trumbull County of the great Western Reserve one woman was known to murmur, “This is Mecca?"
"How Mecca got its unusual name lies hidden somewhere in antiquity. One map of 1806 indicated the area as “Belle-eau” a French word for “beautiful water,” but another map of the same year had the name Mecca....and Mecca it remained."
- an excerpt from "Mecca" by the Alpha Delta State of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International.
Mecca is not just the name of our township. The word mecca is a synonym for aim, direction, objective, and, most importantly, heart. If Ohio is the heart of it all, could Mecca be the heart of Ohio? To us, it is.
The artery of Route 88 bisects Mosquito Creek Reservoir, the water supply of the Mahoning Valley. Completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1944, our man-made lake serves as a flood preventative, pollution reducer, and recreation area for locals and visitors near and far.
Did you know Mosquito Lake covers the only Native American burial ground in Mecca?
Our history is rich. An oil boom in the first half of the 1860s flooded our township with commerce. But it proved a whirlwind affair, and once the land was depleted of much of the good oil, so went the business. Many homes and hotels constructed in that time literally skidded out to Cortland and Warren.
We have other historic homes and buildings still here, including the original 1830s Fowler General Store (also known as the Falkner store), the Wheel Inn–once a store and stagecoach inn, and the current Monty’s–formerly an Odd Fellow’s Lodge and storefront rebuilt in replica after a 1923 fire. The 2022 fire that took our oldest building, The Lake Tavern, proved a tragic loss to our community.
Mecca is the birthplace of the Erie Dearie fishing lure. Many family-owned businesses exist here, along with a beautiful community park, Mecca Circle, an outstanding school, a boat launch and picnic area, and a causeway for fishing. All serve as gathering places for folks to create new memories. We have farms, fields, forests, and creeks. Wildlife abounds. Then, we have areas of close-knit homes with a suburban feel. We have a taste of nearly everything, and we’re minutes away from everything else.
We’re proud of our township and its history! Mecca has a healthy pulse, and it certainly has our hearts.