Fun Facts

Elevation -- Highest point: near Bellefontaine, 1,550 ft. above sea level; lowest point: near Cincinnati, 440 ft. above sea level; average elevation: 800 ft. above sea level.

Watershed -- Ohio has two general slopes: the shorter one to Lake Erie (largest contributing rivers are Maumee, Sandusky, Cuyahoga and Grand) and the longer one to the Ohio River (largest contributing rivers are the Mahoning, Muskingum, Hocking, Scioto and Great Miami).

Ohio River -- The most dominating physical feature in the vast area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi river; 968.5 miles from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois; made Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati and Louisville important military posts and, later, commercial centers in early America.

Mother of eight American presidents -- Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William H. Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft and Warren G. Harding.

Ohios statehood -- 17th state admitted to the Union, on March 1, 1803.

Area -- 41,330 square miles

Number of counties -- 88

State Seal -- There have been at least 10 official seals throughout Ohios statehood.

Ohios capitals: Chillicothe, 1803-1810 1812-1816; Zanesville, 1810-1812; Columbus, 1816-present.

Alliance -- the only town in the US to have its main street dead end at both ends.

Marietta -- the first permanent settlement in Ohio

Largest basket -- in Dresden, houses the offices of the Longaberger Basket company.

Famous Ohioans: Clark Gable/Cadiz/Hopedale; Bob Hope/Cleveland; Annie Oakley/Darke County; Orville Wright/Dayton; Cy Young/Gilmore; Dorothy Lillian Gish/Mansfield/Springfield; John Glenn/Cambridge; Neil Armstrong/Wapakoneta; Erma Bombeck/Dayton; Hopalong Cassidy/Cambridge; William Jennings Bryan/Salem; George Custer/New Rumley; Doris Day/Cincinnati; Clarence Darrow/Kingsman; Hugh Downs/Akron; Zane Grey/Zanesville; Dean Martin/Steubenville; Paul Newman/Cleveland; jack nicklaus/columbus; Norman Vincent Peale/Bowersville; Tyrone power/Cincinnati; Judith Resnik/Akron; Eddie rickenbacker/columbus; William Tecumseh Sherman/Lancaster; Steven Spielberg/Cincinnati; Gloria Steinem/Toledo; Ted Turner/cincinnati; Lowell Thomas/Woodington; James Thurber/Columbus.

Annual weather information -- mean temperature, 53 degrees F ; average precipitation, 37 inches ; range of number of growing-season days, 140-200.

Ohio Firsts

1st traffic light -- in Cleveland, in 1914

1st professional baseball team -- Cincinnati Red Hose, began playing informally in 1866

1st man to walk on the moon -- Neil Armstrong, in 1969

1st successful airplane -- Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, of Dayton

1st professional city fire department -- Cincinnati

1st full-time automobile service station -- 1899

1st state to enact laws protecting working women -- 1852

1st hot dog in America -- in 1900, by Harry M. Stevens

1st pedestrian button for the control of a traffic light -- at E. 105th Euclid Ave. in Cleveland, in 1948

1st university in Ohio and the Northwest Territory -- Ohio University, in Athens, founded in 1804

1st interracial and coeducational college in the US -- Oberlin College, in Oberlin, founded in 1833.

1st city in the world to be lighted electrically -- Cleveland, in 1879.

1st automobile in America -- made by John Lambert, of Ohio City, in 1891

1st African American to earn an Olympic Gold Medal -- long-jumper DeHart Hubbard, in the 1924 Paris Olympics

Ohio Inventions

Pop-top can -- by Ermal Fraze, of Kettering

Cash register -- by James J. Ritty, of Dayton, in 1879

Incandescent light bulb, phonograph and early motion picture camera -- by Thomas A. Edison, from Milan

Automobile self-starter -- by Charles Kettering, of Loudonville, in 1911

Vulcanization of rubber -- by Charles Goodyear, of Akron, in 1839

Teflon -- aka tetrafluoroethylene resin, by Roy J. Plunkett, of New Carlisle, in 1938

Chewing gum -- patented by W.F. Semple of Mount Vernon, in 1869

Florescent lighting tube -- by Arthur Compton, of Wooster, in 1892

State Symbols

State animal -- white-tailed deer

State bird -- cardinal

State drink -- tomato juice

State flower -- red carnation

State fossil -- trilobite

State gemstone -- flint

State insect -- ladybug

State motto -- With God, all things are possible

State name -- Ohio, an Iroquoian word for great river

State reptile -- black racer snake

State rock song -- Hang on Sloopy

State song -- Beautiful Ohio

State tree -- buckeye

State wildflower -- trillium grandiflorum

How Ohio Came to Be

13,000 to 7000 BC -- Paleoindians were the hunting and gathering peoples who lived in Ohio during the last century of the Ice Age.

8000 to 500 BC -- Archaic hunters and gatherers continued the successful way of life of their Paleoindian ancestors, but moved about in a smaller area; they found new ways to harvest the natural bounty of Ohio's forests.

800 BC to 100 AD -- The Adena people were Ohio's first farmers; they continued to hunt and gather, but they became more settled by learning to grow plants.

800 BC to 1,200 AD -- The Woodland Era witnessed the appearance of pottery, cultivated plants, settled village life and mound building.

100 BC to 400 AD -- Many of Ohio's mounds came from the Hopewell culture; the Mound Builders left several thousand mounds and forts (more than in any other state), mainly in central and southwestern Ohio..

100 to 1650 -- Late Prehistoric Era; people lived in large villages often surrounded by stockade walls; maize and beans became their most important foods.

1640 to 1700 -- Iroquois Era; Iroquois Indians claimed the land we now call Ohio from the descendants of Ohio's prehistoric cultures.

1700 to 1760 -- French Era; the power of the Iroquois declined and other tribes moved into Ohio, including Mingoes, Wyandots, Delawares, Shawnees, Miamis.; French traders built trading posts in Ohio and attempted to control the fur trade with the Indians.

1760 -- Great Britain defeated France in the French and Indian War; the French surrendered their claim to the Ohio country.

1760 to 1775 -- British Era; after the French and Indian War, Britain believed the Ohio country belonged to them but the Indian tribes didnt agree; they fought many wars to decide where British land stopped and Indian lands began; the Treaty of Fort Stanwix established the Ohio River as the border.

1776 to 1886 -- American Frontier; began with the declaration of American Independence in 1776.

1787 to 1802 -- The Northwest Territory was formed in 1787 and included the areas that would become Ohio.

1803 -- In 1803, Ohio became the 17th state in the U.S.A.

Ohio Population

1800 -- 45,365

1900 -- 4,147,545

2000 -- 11,353,140

Local County Info

Ashland -- Established Feb. 24, 1846, from parts of Richland, Wayne, Huron Lorain counties; named after Ashland,Kentucky home of the Whig candidate for president, Henry Clay; land area, 424.37 sq. mi.; population, 52,523; county seat, Ashland.

Holmes -- Established Jan. 4, 1825, from parts of Coshocton, Tuscarawas Wayne counties; named for Andrew Hunter Holmes, a major in the US Army killed during the War of 1812; land area, 423 sq. mi.; population, 38,943; county seat, Millersburg.

Medina -- Established Feb. 18, 1812; named for Arabian city where Mohammed is buried; land area, 421.6 sq. mi.; population, 151,095; county seat, Medina.

Stark -- Established Feb. 13, 1808; named for Gen. John Stark, Revolutionary War hero; land area, 576.2 sq. mi.; population, 378,098; county seat, Canton.

Tuscarawas -- Established in 1808; name means open mouth of the river; land area, 567.6 sq. mi; population, 90,914; county seat, New Philadelphia.

Wayne -- Established in 1812; named for Gen. Mad Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary War hero; land area, 551 sq. mi; population, 111,564; county seat, Wooster.

State Song -- Beautiful Ohio

Written by Ballard MacDonald, with special lyrics by Wilbert B. McBride; composed by Mary Earl

I sailed away; wandered afar;

Crossed the mighty restless sea;

Looked for where I ought to be.

Cities so grand, mountains above,

Led to this land I love.

Chorus:

Beautiful Ohio, where the golden grain

Dwarf the lovely flowers in the summer rain.

Cities rising high, silhouette the sky.

Freedom is supreme in this majestic land;

Mighty factories seem to hum in tune, so grand.

Beautiful Ohio, thy wonders are in view,

Land where my dreams all come true!

(March/April 2003 Edition)

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