Our region and the men and women who have lived here have had the chance to play significant roles in our nation’s history.

We received a couple of reminders about that during the past week or so.

One came during last week’s meeting of the Brooke County commissioners, when it was announced that a military marker will recognize a soldier who served in the early part of the 19th century.

Patrick Gass had been a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition and had fought in the War of 1812 before settling in Wellsburg. Gass, who lost an eye during the fighting; his wife, Maria, whom he married when he was 60; and their family made their home in the Pierce Run area. They are buried in Brooke Cemetery.

His adventures and service will be recognized at noon on June 12 when a marker near the gazebo overlooking the Wellsburg Wharf is dedicated. It will be a special day, featuring war re-enactors and descendants of Gass. And, it will fall on the250th anniversary of his birth.

There have been a few detours along the way to the latest recognition of Gass, whose bust and another marker already are located near the gazebo. The latest marker, which had been slated to have been placed at his grave, had been damaged in shipping, but officials with the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs were able to provide a replica, which has been installed at the gazebo.

The original marker will be displayed at the Brooke County Museum, according to Ruby Greathouse, volunteer curator for the facility.

In Steubenville, meanwhile, the traveling exhibition Ohio Pioneers is on display at Historic Fort Steuben through June 30.

On loan from the Legacy Library at Marietta College, the 12 panels of the installation offer a glimpse of the expansion of the country from the original states into the Northwest Territory. The story is told through original artwork, rare books and key historical documents.

Fort Steuben, which was built in part to help protect surveyors who were laying out that territory, played a role early in that expansion.

It’s a display, organizers said, that was inspired by the book “The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West,” written by David McCullough.

Keeping history alive is important, and that makes the work done at Historic Fort Steuben and in facilities like the Brooke County Museum important, not just for those who study it today, but for the people who will come in the future.