Also see Specific Destinations, Travel and Location Humor.

Page Toppers

• Beautiful Ohio
• Dusk in Upper Sandusky
• The Heart of it All
• Lights of Cincinnati
• Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio
• Spring Day in Ohio

Quotes

• As a boy, because I was born and raised in Ohio, about 60 miles north of Dayton, the legends of the Wrights have been in my memories as long as I can remember. (Neil Armstrong)
• Cincinnati is a beautiful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated. I have not often seen a place that commends itself so favorably and pleasantly to a stranger at first glance as this does. (Charles Dickens)
• If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati. Everything comes there ten years later. (Will Rogers)
• What we don't talk about enough is Ohio's unique and remarkable quality of life. We are a state of cities, small towns and growing suburbs where life is affordable and destinations within reach. There is no better place to raise a family. (Bob Taft)

Ohio Symbols

• Nicknames: The Buckeye State, Mother of Modern Presidents
• Slogan: The Heart of it All
• Motto: With God all things are possible
• Song: Beautiful Ohio (words by Ballard MacDonald, music by Mary Earl)
• Rock Song: Hang on Sloopy
• Dance: Charleston
• Animal: White-tailed Deer
• Reptile: Black Racer Snake
• Bird: Cardinal
• Insect: Ladybug
• Tree: Ohio Buckeye
• Flower: Scarlet Carnation
• Wildflower: Large White Trillium
• Fossil: Isotelus
• Gemstone: Ohio Flint
• Beverage: Tomato Juice
• Fruit: Tomato
• Pro Sports Teams: Cleveland Cavaliers (men's basketball), Cincinnati Bengals (football), Cleveland Indians (baseball), Cincinnati Reds (baseball), Columbus Quest (women's basketball)

Facts About Ohio

• Capital: Columbus
• Residents: Ohioans, Buckeyes
• State Name Origin: named for an Iroquois word meaning "beautiful river" or "good river"
• Admitted to Statehood: 1 Mar 1803
• Order of Admission: 17th state
• Length: 220 miles
• Width: 220 miles
• Area: 44,824 square miles
• Size Rank: 34
• Number of Counties: 88
• Streams and Rivers: 29,113 miles
• Geographic Center: 25 miles NNE of Columbus in Delaware Co.
• Mean Elevation: 850 feet
• Highest Point: Campbell Hill, 1,550 feet
• Lowest Point: Ohio River, 433 feet
• Agricultural Products: food products, greenhouse and nursery plants, corn, soybeans, livestock, milk
• Commercial Products: plastics and polymers, rubber products, roller bearings, jet engines, fabricated metal products, industrial machinery, electronic equipment, printing and publishing
• Average Annual Rainfall: 37.8 inches
• Average Winter High Temperature: 25 degrees
• Record Low Temperature: -39 degrees (10 Feb 1899 Milligan)
• Average Summer High Temperature: 80 degrees
• Record High Temperature: 113 degrees (21 Jul 1934 Gallipolis)
• More information about Ohio

Items of Interest

• Ohio is the birthplace of 24 astronauts, more than any other state.
• The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Cleveland, OH.
• Clifton Mill, built in 1802, is the nation's largest water-powered grist mill.
• The first ambulance service was established in Cincinnati in 1865.
• Cleveland boasts America's first traffic light. It began on Aug. 5, 1914.
• Ermal Fraze invented the pop-top can in Kettering.
• James J. Ritty, of Dayton, invented the cash register in 1879 to stop his patrons from pilfering house profits.
• Cincinnati Reds were the first professional baseball team.
• The Y Bridge in Zanesville is the only bridge in the world which you can cross and still be on the same side of the river.
• Akron was the first city to use police cars.
• Cincinnati had the first professional city fire department.
• Cleveland is home to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• The first full time automobile service station was opened in 1899 in Ohio.
• In 1852 Ohio was the first state to enact laws protecting working women.
• Ohio gave America its first hot dog in 1900. Harry M. Stevens was the creator.
• East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland was the site of the first pedestrian button for the control of a traffic light in 1948.
• Fostoria is the only city to be situated in three counties (Seneca, Hancock and Wood).
• Oberlin College, founded in 1833, was the first interracial and coeducational college in the US.
• Cleveland became the world's first city to be lighted electrically in 1879.
• John Lambert of Ohio City made America's first automobile in 1891.
• Charles Kettering of Loundonville invented the automobile self-starter in 1911.
• W.F. Semple of Mount Vernon patented chewing gum in 1869.

Notable Natives

Some of these were born here, others just lived a while in the state.

• Sherwood Anderson - author
• Neil Alden Armstrong (1930- ) - astronaut, first man to walk on the moon (Wapakoneta)
• Halle Berry (1966- ) - actress (Cleveland)
• Daniel Beard (1850-1941) - founded the Boy Scouts of America (Cincinnati)
• Willard H. Bennett - inventor (Findlay)
• Ambrose Bierce - journalist (Meigs County)
• Bill Boyd - actor, played Hopalong Cassidy (Cambridge)
• Erma Bombeck - columnist
• William Jennings Bryan - presidential candidate (Salem)
• William Meriam Burton - inventor (Cleveland)
• Drew Carey (1958- ) - actor, writer, comedian (Cleveland)
• Milton Caniff - cartoonist (Hillsboro)
• Hart Crane - poet (Garrettsville)
• George Armstrong Custer - army officer (New Rumley)
• Dorothy Dandridge - actress (Cleveland)
• Clarence Seward Darrow - attorney (Kingsman)
• Ruby Dee - actress (Cleveland)
• Doris Day (1924- ) - actress, singer (Cincinnati)
• Hugh Downs - television broadcaster (Akron)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar - poet (known as the poet laureate of African Americans)
• Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) - inventor with more than 1,000 patents; developed the incandescent light bulb, phonograph, and early motion picture camera (Milan)
• Daniel D. Emmett - entertainer
• Clark Gable (1901-1960) - actor (Cadiz)
• James Abram Garfield (1831-1881) - 20th U.S. president (Cuyahoga County)
• Cass Gilbert - architect (Zanesville)
• Lillian Gish - actress (Springfield)
• John Herschel Glenn (1921- ) - astronaut, U.S. senator; 1962 - first American to orbit the earth; 1998 - oldest man to go into space (Cambridge)
• Charles Goodyear - developed the process of vulcanizing rubber in 1839.
• Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822-1885) - 18th president (Point Pleasant)
• Zane Grey (1875-1939) - author of western novels (Zanesville)
• Arsenio Hall (1958- ) - actor, talk show host (Cleveland)
• Charles Martin Hall - inventor (Thompson)
• Warren Gamaliel Harding (1865-1923) - 29th president (Morrow County)
• Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901) - 23rd president (North Bend)
• William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) - U.S. president
• Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) - 19th president (Delaware, OH)
• Robert Henri - painter (Cincinnati)
• Bob Hope (1903-2003) - entertainer, comedian (grew up in Cleveland)
• William Dean Howells - author, critic (Martins Ferry)
• DeHart Hubbard - first African American to earn an Olympic Gold Medal (set the record for long-jumping in 1924)
• Charles F. Kettering - inventor (Loudonville)
• Kenisaw Mountain Landis - first baseball commissioner (Millville)
• John Mercer Langston - first African American elected to public office, elected clerk of Brownhelm in 1854
• Maya Lin - artist, sculptor (Athens)
• Dean Martin - entertainer (Steubenville)
• Toni Morrison - author (Lorain)
• William McKinley (1843-1901) - 25th president (Niles)
• Paul Newman - actor
• Jack Nicklaus - golfer
• George W. Norris - U.S. Senator (Sandusky)
• Annie Oakley (1860-1926) - sharpshooter, entertainer, performed in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (Darke County)
• Jesse Owens (1913-1980) - won four gold medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics (grew up in Cleveland)
• Norman Vincent Peale - clergyman (Bowerville)
• Roy J. Plunkett - chemist, invented Teflon in 1938 (New Carlisle)
• Tyrone Power - actor (Cincinnati)
• Judith Resnik (1949-1986) - astronaut, second American woman to go into space (Akron)
• Edward V. Rickenbacker - aviator (Columbus)
• Pete Rose (1941- ) - baseball player (Cincinnati)
• Philip Henry Sheridan - soldier
• William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) - army general (Lancaster)
• Steven Spielberg (1941- ) - director, screenwriter (Cincinnati)
• Gloria Steinem - feminist (Toledo)
• R. L. Stine (1943- ) - author of children's books
• Robert A. Taft - public official
• William Howard Taft (1857-1930) - 27th president (Cincinnati)
• Tecumseh - Shawnee chief (Oldtown)
• Lowell Thomas - explorer, radio commentator, author (Woodington)
• James Grover Thurber - humorist (Columbus)
• Ted Turner - businessman (Cincinnati)
• Orville (1871-1948) and Wilbur (1867-1912) Wright - inventors of the airplane (Dayton)
• Cy Young - baseball player (Gilmore)

The Ohio State Flag
Ohio has the only pennant-shape state flag. Adopted in 1902, it was designed by John Eisemann. The colors honor the US flag. The blue triangle represents Ohio's hills and valleys. The stripes represent roads and waterways. The 13 stars around the circle represent the original colonies; the other 4 stars represent the states added before Ohio became a state. The white circle with red center represents the "O" in Ohio and also Ohio's nickname, "The Buckeye State."

You know you are from Ohio if...

• "Toward the lake" means "north" and "toward the river" means "south."
• "Vacation" means spending a day at Cedar Point or King's Island.
• All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, or grain.
• Down south to you means Kentucky.
• Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
• Schools close for the state basketball tournament. Deer season, too.
• Stores don't have bags; they have sacks.
• The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page but requires six pages for sports.
• You always visit more than two amusement parks in one summer.
• You can spell words like Cuyahoga and Olentangy and you know which letter is doubled in "Cincinnati."
• You carry jumper cables in your car.
• You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
• You don't think of Florida first when someone mentions Miami.
• You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where's my coat at?"
• You find -20 degrees F "a little chilly".
• You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
• You know all four seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, and Construction.
• You know if other Ohioians are from southern or northern Ohio as soon as they open their mouths.
• You know several people who have hit a deer.
• You know that Serpent Mound was not made by snakes.
• You know what "cow tipping" or "Possum Kicking" is.
• You know what a real buckeye is, and have a recipe for candy ones.
• You know what game they're playing when the Mud Hens take on the Clippers.
• You know what pop is.
• You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
• You know which leaves make good toilet paper.
• You live less than thirty miles from some college or university.
• You measure distance in minutes.
• You only own three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.
• You root for a college team though you've never taken a class there.
• You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it no matter what time of the year.
• You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.
• You snicker when someone's from Tiffin, because you think of the State Hospital.
• You think ethanol makes your truck "run a lot better."
• You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.
• You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows.
• You think Pro football teams are supposed to wear orange!
• You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie.
• You think that deer season is a national holiday.
• You thought that the Michael Stanley Band was the most popular band in the country.
• Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.
• Your school classes were canceled because of cold.
• Your school classes were canceled because of heat.
• You're proud of your state fair, but would rather go to Cedar Point.
• You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
• You've heard of 3.2 percent beer.
• You've heard of the Great Nickel Beer Night Riot.
• You've never met any celebrities.
• You've ridden the school bus for an hour each way.
• You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
• You actually get these jokes and forward them to all your Ohio friends.

Songs about Ohio

• All the Lilacs in Ohio - John Hiatt (2001)
• Banks of the Ohio - Mark O'Connor (1977)
• Beautiful Ohio - Tony Martin (1949)
• Betty Jo From Ohio - Bobby Hebb (1966)
• Girl From Ohio - The Outlaws (1976)
• Look at Miss Ohio - Gillian Welch (2003)
• My Ohio Home - Frankie Laine (1953)
• Ohio - Neil Young (1972)
• Spring Day in Ohio - Continental Drifters (1999)

Songs about Ohio Cities

• Beachwood City - Freddy 'Boom Boom' Cannon (1965)
• Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter (1979)
• Dayton, Ohio - Jack Barlow (1971)
• Dayton, Ohio 1903 - Harry Nilsson (1970)
• Dusk in Upper Sandusky - Jimmy Dorsey (1949)
• Hello, Cleveland - Mono (1998)
• Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio - John Denver (1975)

Songs about Cincinnati

• Cincinnati - The New Seekers (1971)
• Cincinnati Dancing Pig - Red Foley (1950)
• Cincinnati Lou - Merle Travis (1946)
• Cincinnati, Ohio - Connie Smith (1967)
• Cincinnati Stranger - Buddy Cagle (1967)
• Cincinnati Woman - Freddy Cannon (1967)
• Lights of Cincinnati - Scott Walker (1969)
• South of Cincinnati - Freakwater (1995)