Stephen Thomas

I wanted to know more about the state I have lived in for the past 30+ years.  Many of you either no longer live in Ohio (e.g., alumni) or have recently moved here from out of state (e.g., current students). Our program is truly a national/international program and attracts students from Maine to Washington, from North Dakota to the tip of Texas, and from around the world.  Some of you will be here for only a short time; others will learn to love the state and its people, as I have, and elect to remain.  Either way, it is nice to know a little about the place where you live, even if only for a short time.  I have accumulated some of the more interesting facts and organized them below.  Some "official" sources disagree on some of the details (e.g., square miles of the state), but nonetheless, the facts below proved interesting to me. Many of the facts were taken verbatim from the sources listed at the bottom of the page.

General Facts About Ohio & Ohio Cities

• Let me begin with an important statistic: the average temperature in Ohio in January is 28 degrees F. 
• Ohio was first explored by the French explorer Ren�-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (1643-1687) in 1669. The French-British rivalry for control of the area led to the last of the French and Indian Wars (1754-1763). Ohio was part of the vast area ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and became part of the Old Northwest by the Ordinance of 1787. It became a separate territory in 1799. On March 1, 1803, Ohio became the 17th state of the Union. 
• The origin of the name "Ohio" is from an Iroquoian word and means "beautiful river."
• Ohio has an area of 116,103 sq miles. It ranks 34th in state size. 
• Founded in 1788 by General Rufus Putnam, Marietta--named after the then Queen of France Marie Antoinette--was Ohio's first permanent settlement. 
• Columbus is Ohio's state capital (even though Chillicothe was the 1st) & largest city. 
• Cleveland is spelled differently than its founder's name Moses Cleaveland.  In 1832, the editor of the Cleaveland Gazette newspaper dropped the first "a" to fit the title on one line.  
• Serpent Mound State Memorial, a famous earthen mound in the shape of a serpent, winds for a length of 1,348 feet near Peebles.
• The name of the state song is "Beautiful Ohio."  The words of the song were written by Ballard MacDonald and the music was composed by Mary Earl.
• Ohio's state tree is the Ohio Buckeye.  The large, brown seeds of this tree look like the eyes of a male white-tailed deer, Ohio's state animal. The tallest buckeye tree in the state is in Hamilton County and is 82 feet high.
• The state gemstone is the Ohio Flint. Flint is a smooth, hard type of quartz. Ohio's Native Americans chipped flint to make knives, spear points, and arrowheads. 
• The official state rock song is "Hang On Sloopy." (Yes, the state legislature voted on this.)
• The Ladybug is the state insect.  (One of the few bugs that qualifies as "cute as a bug.")
• The state fossil is the trilobite, a now-extinct invertebrate arthropod, which is named for its three-lobed body. Trilobites lived in Ohio during the Ordovician period, about 440 million years ago. 
• Ohio state reptile is the Black Racer Snake. It lives in all counties in Ohio and is known as the "farmer's friend" because it eats rodents. (The largest I have seen was 7 feet long--it was resting on my back porch.)
• The state wildflower is the White Trillium. The white trillium is a member of the lily family. Its leaves grow in groups of three.
• The state bird is the Cardinal. Cardinals live in the state of Ohio all year round. 
• Five states border Ohio: Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana.

Interesting facts:

• The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Cleveland. 
• The American Federation of Labor was founded in Columbus. 
• The Glacial Grooves on the north side of Kelleys Island are the largest easily accessible glacial grooves in the world. 
• The Y Bridge in Zanesville was first built in 1814 to span the confluence of the Licking and Muskingum Rivers. "Ripley's Believe It or Not" proclaimed it the only bridge in the world which you can cross and still be on the same side of the river.
• Neil Armstrong of Wapakoneta Ohio became the first man to walk on the moon.
• Ohio senator John Glenn became the oldest man to venture into outer space. On February 20, 1962 he was the first American to orbit the earth. In October of 1998 at age 77, he traveled back into space.
• Seven U.S. presidents were born in Ohio: Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William H. Taft, and Warren G. Harding. 
• Well-known personalities from Ohio include: Steven Spielberg, Drew Carey, Annie Oakley, Paul Newman, Arsenio Hall, and Clark Gable. 

The following represent things created in Ohio or were the first to be created anywhere:

• The first professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was established in 1869.
• The famous inventor from Milan Ohio, Thomas Edison, invented or developed the incandescent light bulb, phonograph, and the early motion picture camera. (An interesting fact is that he was afraid of the dark.)
• Harry M. Stevens in 1900 created the first hot dog. 
• Roy J. Plunkett of New Carlisle in 1938 invented Teflon. 
• W.F. Semple of Mount Vernon Ohio in 1869 created a patent for chewing gum. 
• Clarence Crane in Cleveland created Life Savers in 1912. 
• As a solution to halting the pilfering of his profits by patrons, James J. Ritty, of Dayton Ohio, invented the cash register in 1879.
• Cincinnati had the first professional city fire department and the first ambulance service. 
• In 1891, John Lambert of Ohio City made America's first automobile, though he was unable to sell one. 
• The first full-time automobile service station was opened in Ohio in 1899. 
• Charles Kettering of Loundonville in 1911 created the automobile self-starter.
• The Wright Brothers from Dayton are credited as inventors of the first gasoline powered airplane. 
• Akron was the first city to use police cars. 
• In 1879, Cleveland became the first city to be lighted by electricity.  
• Cleveland also had the first traffic light in 1914. 
• Oberlin College, founded in 1833, was the first college in the United States to admit women.
• Ohio is the leading state in the production of nursery and greenhouse plants. 
• Ohio leads the United States in the production of tomato juice and is second only to California in actual tomato production.

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Of course this list could be longer, but given the space available, these seemed most interesting. Enjoy your time in our great state.

Sources:

http://www.action-controls.com/ohio-facts.asp

http://www.thingstodo.com/states/OH/facts.htm

http://www.findfast.org/places-us-state-ohio.htm

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/Geography/Ohio-3941.html

http://www.interestingstatefacts.com/interesting-facts-about-ohio.php