139-507: The Ohio Bicentennial was a series of events and programs held in the U.S. state of Ohio to coincide with the 200th anniversary of statehood on March 1, 2003. The Ohio Bicentennial Commission was established by the Ohio General Assembly in 1995 to sponsor commemorative barn paintings, bells, and historical markers throughout the state in the years leading up to the celebration. Other state and federal agencies also marked
278-541: A 500% increase in mercury discharges between 2007 and 2013. For several decades beginning in the 1950s, the Ohio River was polluted with hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA , a fluoride-based chemical used in making teflon , among other things, by the DuPont chemical company from an outflow pipe at its Parkersburg, West Virginia , facility. The Ohio was listed among America's Most Endangered Rivers of 2023 on
417-776: A French architect and surveyor whose survey was the first mapping of the Ohio River, led an expedition of French troops from Fort Niagara down the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers as far as the mouth of the Great Miami River near Big Bone Lick and possibly the Falls of the Ohio (present-day Louisville ). Chaussegros de Lery mapped the Great Lakes in 1725, and engineered the Niagara fortifications in 1726. I am indebted for
556-613: A bill in Congress to admit Ohio to the Union retroactive to March 1, 1803, the date on which the Ohio General Assembly first convened. At a special session at the old state capital in Chillicothe , the Ohio state legislature approved a new petition for statehood, which was delivered to Washington, D.C. , on horseback, and approved that August. Ohio has had three capital cities: Chillicothe, Zanesville , and Columbus . Chillicothe
695-789: A conclusion. In 1774, Britain passed the Quebec Act , which formally annexed Ohio and other western lands to the Province of Quebec in order to provide a civil government and to centralize British administration of the Montreal -based fur trade. The prohibition of settlement west of the Appalachians remained, contributing to the American Revolution. By the start of the American Revolutionary War ,
834-686: A decisive victor. In the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain ceded all claims to Ohio Country to the new United States after its victory in the American Revolutionary War . The United States created the Northwest Territory under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Slavery was not permitted in the new territory. Settlement began with the founding of Marietta by the Ohio Company of Associates , which had been formed by
973-752: A group of American Revolutionary War veterans. Following the Ohio Company, the Miami Company (also referred to as the " Symmes Purchase ") claimed the southwestern section, and the Connecticut Land Company surveyed and settled the Connecticut Western Reserve in present-day Northeast Ohio . Territorial surveyors from Fort Steuben began surveying an area of eastern Ohio called the Seven Ranges at about
1112-429: A large decline in union membership: 17.4% of Ohioan workers were union members in 2000, while 12.8% were union members in 2022. In the wake of these economic changes, Ohio's state government has looked to promoting new industries to offset manufacturing losses, such as the production of solar energy and electric vehicles . One major program the state government launched was the "Third Frontier" program, created during
1251-541: A national model of success. Ohio's economy was also heavily afflicted by the Great Recession , as the state's unemployment rate rose from 5.6% in the first two months of 2008 up to a peak of 11.1% in December 2009 and January 2010. It took until August 2014 for the unemployment rate to return to 5.6%. From December 2007 to September 2010, Ohio lost 376,500 jobs. In 2009, Ohio had 89,053 foreclosures filings,
1390-592: A point south of the Ohio River and north of the Falls: "Place where one found the ivory of Elephant in 1729" ( French : endroit ou on à trouvé des os d'Elephant en 1729 ). De Lery's men found teeth weighing ten pounds (4.5 kg) with a diameter of five to seven inches (130 to 180 mm), tusks 11 feet (3.4 m) long and 6–7 inches (150–180 mm) in diameter, and thigh bones 5 feet (1.5 m) long. The bones were collected and shipped to Paris, where they were identified as mastodon remains; they are on display at
1529-660: A potential market for Ohio machinery exports. In July 1979, Rhodes led a State of Ohio Trade Mission to China. The trip resulted in developing economic ties, a sister state-province relationship with Hubei province , long-running Chinese exhibitions at the Ohio State Fair , and major academic exchanges between Ohio State University and Wuhan University . Beginning in the 1980s, the state entered into international economic and resource cooperation treaties and organizations with other Midwestern states, as well as New York , Pennsylvania , Ontario , and Quebec , including
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#17327729264491668-729: A riot in downtown Kent and the burning of an ROTC building. The main cause of the protests was the United States' invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War . Ohio was an important state in the developing ties between the United States and the People's Republic of China in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Relations between the two countries normalized in 1979, during the second term of Ohio governor Jim Rhodes . Rhodes sought to encourage economic ties, viewing China as
1807-678: A southern route to his home in Augusta County, Virginia , in May 1745. John Howard was extradited to France to stand trial. His ship was intercepted by the English and, as a free man, he reported his adventures after landing in London; however, his account has been lost. Salling's detailed account of Virginia's adjacent lands was used in Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson's 1751 map. In 1749,
1946-403: A then-record for the state. The median household income dropped 7% from 2006–07 to 2008–09, and the poverty rate ballooned to 13.5% by 2009. By 2015, Ohio gross domestic product was $ 608.1 billion, the seventh-largest economy among the 50 states . In 2015, Ohio's total GDP accounted for 3.4% of U.S. GDP and 0.8% of world GDP. Politically, Ohio has been long regarded as a swing state , but
2085-847: A whole is ranked as the most polluted river in the United States, based on 2009 and 2010 data. The more industrial and regional West Virginia/Pennsylvania tributary, the Monongahela River , ranked 17th for water pollution , behind 16 other American rivers. The Ohio again ranked as the most polluted in 2013, and has been the most polluted river since at least 2001, according to the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). The Commission found that 92% of toxic discharges were nitrates , including farm runoff and waste water from industrial processes such as steel production. The Commission also noted mercury pollution as an ongoing concern, citing
2224-595: Is 1,310 miles (2,110 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any tributary of the Mississippi. The Indians and early European explorers and settlers of the region often considered the Allegheny to be part of the Ohio. The forks (the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh) were considered a strategic military location by colonial French and British, and later independent American military authorities. The Ohio River
2363-553: Is credited with being the first European to travel and explore western Pennsylvania and the upper Ohio Valley. Viele made contact with Native American nations as far west as the Wabash River , in present-day Indiana. He and his company left Albany , traveling southbound and crossing portions of present-day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. They apparently followed the west branch of the Susquehanna River into
2502-588: Is defined by the Ohio River . Ohio's neighbors are Pennsylvania to the east, Michigan to the northwest, Lake Erie to the north, Indiana to the west, Kentucky on the south, and West Virginia on the southeast. Ohio's borders were defined by metes and bounds in the Enabling Act of 1802 as follows: Bounded on the east by the Pennsylvania line, on the south by the Ohio River, to the mouth of
2641-552: Is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Point State Park in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania . From there, it flows northwest through Allegheny and Beaver counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia –Ohio–Pennsylvania triple-state line (near East Liverpool, Ohio ; Chester, West Virginia ; and Ohioville, Pennsylvania ). From there, it forms
2780-417: Is fully aquatic and breathes almost entirely through its skin. Due to this, it is only found in pristine, cool, clear, fast flowing streams and rivers. It is highly threatened by habitat loss , water pollution , and sedimentation due to logging and other human activities. The climate of Ohio is a humid continental climate ( Köppen climate classification Dfa/Dfb ) throughout most of the state, except in
2919-574: Is known as the Tornado Alley . Severe lake effect snowstorms are also not uncommon on the southeast shore of Lake Erie , which is located in an area designated as the Snowbelt . Although predominantly not in a subtropical climate, some warmer-climate flora and fauna do reach well into Ohio. For instance, some trees with more southern ranges, such as the blackjack oak , Quercus marilandica , are found at their northernmost in Ohio just north of
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#17327729264493058-524: Is not to be confused with the Ohio Department of Agriculture 's Bicentennial Farm program.) The Commission also commissioned The Verdin Company of Cincinnati to cast a bronze bell on site, out in the open, in each county throughout the bicentennial year. Each 250-pound (110 kg) bell took two days to cast using a mobile foundry. During the summer of 2003, a wagon train traveled across
3197-459: Is the most beautiful river on earth. Its current gentle, waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken by rocks and rapids, a single instance only excepted." After the French and Indian War , Britain's trans-Appalachian Indian Reserve was divided by the river into colonial lands to the south and Native American lands to the north. In the late 18th century, the river became the southern boundary of
3336-559: The 1763 Treaty of Paris . The 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with several tribes opened Kentucky to colonial settlement and established the Ohio River as a southern boundary for American Indian territory. In 1774 the Quebec Act restored the land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec , in effect making the Ohio the southern boundary of Canada . This appeased French Canadians in Quebec but angered
3475-467: The American Civil War . One antebellum slave trader reported that they kept slaves chained two-by-two while navigating the Ohio, only when they reached the Mississippi could the slaves be unchained for a time, because "there was slavery on both sides of the boat." The expression "sold down the river" originated as a lament of Upper South slaves, especially from Kentucky, who were shipped via
3614-740: The Appalachian Regional Development Act , an attempt to "address the persistent poverty and growing economic despair of the Appalachian Region". It defines 29 Ohio counties as part of Appalachia. While 1/3 of Ohio's land mass is part of the federally defined Appalachian region, only 12.8% of Ohioans live there (1.476 million people.) Significant Ohio rivers include the Cuyahoga River , Great Miami River , Maumee River , Muskingum River , and Scioto River . The rivers in northern Ohio drain into
3753-648: The Batts and Fallam expedition of 1671, and the Needham and Arthur expedition of 1673–74. In early autumn 1692, loyal English-speaking Dutchman Arnout Viele and a party of eleven companions from Esopus —Europeans, Shawnee , and a few loyal Delaware guides—were sent by the governor of New York to trade with the Shawnee and bring them into the English sphere of influence. Viele understood several Native American languages, which made him valuable as an interpreter. He
3892-689: The Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument and Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial . Ohio has wide variety of unique animal species. Rare and endangered species include the Eastern Hellbender , which is found in the Southeastern Appalachian region of Ohio and is classified as state endangered. The Eastern Hellbender is the 3rd largest amphibian in the world, and can grow up to 27 inches in length. It
4031-841: The Dayton Triangles beat the Columbus Panhandles 14–0 in Dayton. Canton was enshrined as the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1963. During the 1930s, the Great Depression struck the state hard. By 1933, more than 40% of factory workers and 67% of construction workers were unemployed in Ohio. Approximately 50% of industrial workers in Cleveland and 80% in Toledo became unemployed, with
4170-648: The Enabling Act of 1802 . In regard to the Leni Lenape natives, Congress decided that 10,000 acres on the Muskingum River in the present state of Ohio would "be set apart and the property thereof be vested in the Moravian Brethren ... or a society of the said Brethren for civilizing the Indians and promoting Christianity". Rufus Putnam served in important military capacities in both
4309-639: The French National Natural History Museum . Charles III Le Moyne , second Baron de Longueuil (later the governor of Montreal and interim governor of New France ), commanded Fort Niagara from 1726 to 1733. He led an expedition of 442 men, including Native Americans, from Montreal to war against the Chickasaw who occupied territory on the lower part of the Mississippi River in the area claimed as La Louisiane . According to Gaston Pierre de Lévis , Duke de Mirepoix,
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4448-566: The French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War . He was one of the most highly respected men in the early years of the United States. In 1776, Putnam created a method of building portable fortifications, which enabled the Continental Army to drive the British from Boston. George Washington was so impressed that he made Putnam his chief engineer. After the war, Putnam and Manasseh Cutler were instrumental in creating
4587-506: The Great Black Swamp . This glaciated region in the northwest and central state is bordered to the east and southeast first by a belt known as the glaciated Allegheny Plateau , and then by another belt known as the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau . Most of Ohio is of low relief, but the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau features rugged hills and forests . Ohio's rugged southeastern quadrant, stretching in an outward bow-like arc along
4726-548: The Great Dayton Flood , the entire Miami River watershed flooded, including the downtown business district of Dayton . As a result, the Miami Conservancy District was created as the first major floodplain engineering project in Ohio and the United States. The highest recorded temperature was 113 °F (45 °C ), near Gallipolis on July 21, 1934. The lowest recorded temperature
4865-847: The Great Lakes Charter , Great Lakes Compact , and the Council of Great Lakes Governors . Ohio's economy has undergone significant change in the 21st century, as the trend of deindustrialization has greatly impacted the American Midwest and the Rust Belt . Manufacturing in the Midwest experienced a stark decline during the early 21st century, a trend that greatly impacted Ohio. From 1990 to 2019, it lost over 300,000 manufacturing jobs, but added over 1,000,000 non-manufacturing jobs. Coinciding with this decline, Ohio has seen
5004-469: The Great Miami River , on the west by the line drawn due north from the mouth of the Great Miami aforesaid, and on the north by an east and west line drawn through the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan , running east after intersecting the due north line aforesaid, from the mouth of the Great Miami until it shall intersect Lake Erie or the territorial line, and thence with the same through Lake Erie to
5143-781: The Kanawha River , they entered the Ohio River 444 miles (715 km) above the falls. The Virginia pioneers traced the northern boundary of Kentucky for five hundred miles (800 km), reaching the Mississippi River on June 7. They descended just below the mouth of the Arkansas River , where they were ambushed by a large company of Native Americans, Blacks and Frenchmen on July 2, 1742; one or two of Howard's men were killed. The rest were brought to New Orleans and imprisoned as spies. After two years in prison, Salling escaped on October 25, 1744, and returned on
5282-645: The Lenape and Iroquois , considered the Ohio and Allegheny rivers as the same, as is suggested by a New York State road sign on Interstate 86 that refers to the Allegheny River also as Ohi:yo' . Similarly, the Geographic Names Information System lists O-hee-yo and O-hi-o as variant names for the Allegheny. An earlier Miami-Illinois language name was also applied to the Ohio River, Mosopeleacipi ("river of
5421-628: The Midwestern Great Lakes states from the Upper South states, which were historically border states in the Civil War. The Ohio River is a left (east) and the largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River in the United States . At the confluence , the Ohio is considerably bigger than the Mississippi, measured by long-term mean discharge. The Ohio River at Cairo is 281,500 cu ft/s (7,960 m /s); and
5560-436: The Mississippi River at the city of Cairo, Illinois . Where the Ohio joins the Mississippi is the lowest elevation in the state of Illinois, at 315 feet (96 m). The Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic Ocean . Among rivers wholly or mostly in the United States, the Ohio is the second largest by discharge volume and the tenth longest and has the eighth largest drainage basin. It serves to separate
5699-436: The Mosopelea " tribe). Shortened in the Shawnee language to pelewa thiipi , spelewathiipi or peleewa thiipiiki , the name evolved through variant forms such as "Polesipi", "Peleson", "Pele Sipi" and "Pere Sipi", and eventually stabilized to the variant spellings "Pelisipi", "Pelisippi" and "Pellissippi". Originally applied just to the Ohio River, the "Pelisipi" name later was variously applied back and forth between
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5838-463: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's Ohio River Forecast Center. The water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio River basin in five reports as follows: The water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam to Cairo, Illinois, are predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center. The largest tributaries of
5977-408: The Northwest Ordinance , which opened up the Northwest Territory for settlement. This land was used to serve as compensation for what was owed to Revolutionary War veterans. Putnam organized and led the Ohio Company of Associates , who settled at Marietta, Ohio , where they built a large fort, Campus Martius . He set substantial amounts of land aside for schools. In 1798, he created the plan for
6116-443: The Northwest Territory . The river is sometimes considered as the western extension of the Mason–Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania from Maryland , and thus part of the border between free and slave territory, and between the Northern and Southern United States or Upper South . Where the river was narrow, it was crossed by thousands of slaves escaping to the North for freedom; many were helped by free blacks and whites of
6255-402: The Ohio Company was established in Virginia Colony to settle and trade in the Ohio River region. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks brought white colonists from both Pennsylvania and Virginia across the mountains, and both colonies claimed the territory. The movement across the Allegheny Mountains of Anglo-American settlers and the claims of
6394-412: The Ohio River that forms its southern border, which, in turn, originated from the Seneca word ohiːyo' , meaning "good river", "great river", or "large creek". The state was home to several ancient indigenous civilizations, with humans present as early as 10,000 BCE. It arose from the lands west of the Appalachian Mountains that were contested by various native tribes and European colonists from
6533-411: The Potomac River to the Ohio River. The Wheeling Suspension Bridge was built over the river at Wheeling from 1847 to 1849, making the trip west easier. For a brief time, until 1851, it was the world's largest suspension bridge. The bridge survived the American Civil War , after having been improved in 1859. It was renovated again in 1872, and remains in use as the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in
6672-484: The Tennessee River , the basin includes several states of the southeastern U.S. It is the source of drinking water for five million people. The river became a primary transportation route for pioneers during the westward expansion of the early U.S. The lower Ohio River just below Louisville was obstructed by rapids known as the Falls of the Ohio where the elevation falls 26 feet (7.9 m) in 2 miles (3.2 km) restricting larger commercial navigation, although in
6811-461: The Underground Railroad resistance movement. The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical and humid continental climate areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates. Today, the Ohio River is one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. In winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely farther south towards Cincinnati and Louisville . Further down
6950-410: The Western Confederacy , was forced to cede extensive territory, including much of present-day Ohio, in the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. Under the Northwest Ordinance , areas could be defined and admitted as states once their population reached 60,000. Although Ohio's population was only 45,000 in December 1801, Congress determined that it was growing rapidly enough and accelerated the process via
7089-417: The Whittlesey Culture and the Monongahela Culture . All three disappeared in the 17th century. Their origins are unknown. The Shawnees may have absorbed the Fort Ancient people. It is also possible that the Monongahela held no land in Ohio during the Colonial Era. The Mississippian culture was close to and traded extensively with the Fort Ancient people. Indians in the Ohio Valley were greatly affected by
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#17327729264497228-518: The first American to orbit the Earth , and Neil Armstrong becoming the first human to walk on the Moon . In 1967, Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland and became the first African American mayor of one of the nation's 10 most populous cities. In 1970, an Ohio Army National Guard unit fired at students during an antiwar protest at Kent State University , killing four and wounding nine. The Guard had been called onto campus after several protests in and around campus became violent, including
7367-485: The fur trade . Some of the Indigenous nations that historically inhabited Ohio include the Iroquoian, the Algonquian, and the Siouan. Ohio country was also the site of Indian massacres, such as the Yellow Creek massacre and the Gnadenhutten massacre . After the War of 1812 , when Natives suffered serious losses such as at Tippecanoe , most Native tribes either left Ohio or had to live on only limited reservations. By 1842, all remaining Natives were forced out of
7506-406: The keelboats used for commerce in the early days of American settlement. The Ohio River boatmen inspired performer Dan Emmett , who in 1843 wrote the song " The Boatman's Dance ". Trading boats and ships traveled south on the Mississippi to New Orleans , and sometimes beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and other ports in the Americas and Europe. This provided a much-needed export route for goods from
7645-401: The "canalization" of the river in 1929, the Ohio has not been a natural free-flowing river; today, it is divided into 21 discrete pools or reservoirs by 20 locks and dams for navigation and power generation. The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca , Ohi:yo' , lit. "Good River". In his Notes on the State of Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas Jefferson stated: "The Ohio
7784-437: The 17th century through the Northwest Indian Wars of the late 18th century. Ohio was partitioned from the Northwest Territory , the first frontier of the new United States, becoming the 17th state admitted to the Union on March 1, 1803, and the first under the Northwest Ordinance . It was the first post-colonial free state admitted to the union and became one of the earliest and most influential industrial powerhouses during
7923-407: The 18th and early 19th century its three deepest channels could be traversed by a wide variety of craft then in use. In 1830, the Louisville and Portland Canal (now the McAlpine Locks and Dam ) bypassed the rapids, allowing even larger commercial and modern navigation from the Forks of the Ohio at Pittsburgh to the Port of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico. Since
8062-433: The 20th century. Although it has transitioned to a more information- and service-based economy in the 21st century, it remains an industrial state, ranking seventh in GDP as of 2019 , with the third-largest manufacturing sector and second-largest automobile production. Modeled on its federal counterpart, Ohio's government is composed of the executive branch, led by the governor ; the legislative branch, consisting of
8201-401: The Adena culture is the Great Serpent Mound , located in Adams County, Ohio . Around 100 BC, the Adena evolved into the Hopewell people, who were also mound builders. Their complex, large and technologically sophisticated earthworks can be found in modern-day Marietta , Newark , and Circleville . They were also a prolific trading society, their trading network spanning a third of
8340-517: The American Revolution, Britain thinly exercised sovereignty over Ohio Country by lackadaisical garrisoning of the French forts. Just beyond Ohio Country was the great Miami capital of Kekionga , which became the center of British trade and influence in Ohio Country and throughout the future Northwest Territory . By the Royal Proclamation of 1763 , British lands west of Appalachia were forbidden to settlement by colonists. The Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768 explicitly reserved lands north and west of
8479-425: The East to migrate west against their will, including all remaining tribes in Ohio. In 1835, Ohio fought with the Michigan Territory in the Toledo War , a mostly bloodless boundary war over the Toledo Strip. Only one person was injured in the conflict. Congress intervened, making Michigan 's admittance as a state conditional on ending the conflict. In exchange for giving up its claim to the Toledo Strip, Michigan
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#17327729264498618-424: The Lenape Indian capital of Coshocton ; a detachment of one hundred of George Rogers Clark 's troops that were ambushed near the Ohio River by Indians led by Joseph Brant in the same year; a British and Native American attack on the U.S.' Fort Laurens ; and the 1782 detainment and murder of 96 Moravian Lenape pacifists by Pennsylvania militiamen in the Gnadenhutten massacre . The western theatre never had
8757-464: The Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois , which is upstream of the confluence, is 208,200 cu ft/s (5,897 m /s). The Ohio River flow is greater than that of the Mississippi River, so hydrologically the Ohio River is the main stream of the river system. The Ohio River is a naturally shallow river that was artificially deepened by a series of dams . The natural depth of the river varied from about 3 to 20 feet (1 to 6 m). The dams raise
8896-408: The Natural Bridge), crossing Greenbrier River and landing at the New River . At New River, the Virginia explorers built a large bull boat frame and covered it with five buffalo skins. The first Englishmen to explore the region then followed the New River for 250 miles (400 km), until it became too dangerous to navigate. At a large waterfall, they traveled overland to the Coal River . Following
9035-461: The Northeast to the Midwest, much cargo and business traffic passes through its borders along its well-developed highways. Ohio has the nation's 10th-largest highway network and is within a one-day drive of 50% of North America's population and 70% of North America's manufacturing capacity. To the north, Ohio has 312 miles (502 km) of coastline with Lake Erie, which allows for numerous cargo ports such as Cleveland and Toledo. Ohio's southern border
9174-515: The Ohio River and the Clinch River in Virginia and Tennessee . In his original draft of the Land Ordinance of 1784 , Thomas Jefferson proposed a new state called "Pelisipia", to the south of the Ohio River, which would have included parts of present-day Eastern Kentucky , Virginia and West Virginia . The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans , as numerous prehistoric and historic civilizations formed along its valley. For thousands of years, Native Americans used
9313-402: The Ohio River from the West Virginia Panhandle to the outskirts of Cincinnati, forms a distinct socioeconomic unit. Geologically similar to parts of West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania, this area's coal mining legacy, dependence on small pockets of old manufacturing establishments, and distinctive regional dialect set this section off from the rest of the state. In 1965, Congress passed
9452-514: The Ohio River opened about the same time. Although such boats cruised on the Ohio River in an oval pattern up and down, the state of Kentucky soon protested. Other states had to limit their cruises to going forward, then reversing and going backward on the Indiana shore only. Both Illinois and Indiana have long since changed their laws to allow riverboat casinos to be permanently docked, with Illinois changing in 1999 and Indiana in 2002. The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia , collapsed into
9591-406: The Ohio River was called the " River Jordan " by slaves crossing it to escape to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad . More escaping slaves, estimated in the thousands, made their perilous journey north to freedom across the Ohio River than anywhere else across the north-south frontier. Harriet Beecher Stowe 's Uncle Tom's Cabin , the bestselling novel that fueled abolitionist work,
9730-449: The Ohio River were attacked and ransacked in Morgan's Raid , starting in Harrison in the west and culminating in the Battle of Salineville near West Point in the far east. While this raid was overall insignificant to the Confederacy, it aroused fear among people in Ohio and Indiana as it was the furthest advancement of troops from the South in the war. Almost 35,000 Ohioans died in the conflict, and 30,000 were physically wounded. By
9869-461: The Ohio River's rapids and tributaries in that area. However, the 1783 Treaty of Paris gave the entire Ohio Valley to the United States , and numerous white settlers entered the region. The economic connection of the Ohio Country to the East was significantly increased in 1818 when the National Road being built westward from Cumberland, Maryland , reached Wheeling, Virginia , (now West Virginia ), providing an easier overland connection from
10008-546: The Ohio River. Also evidencing this climatic transition from a subtropical to a continental climate, several plants such as the Southern magnolia ( Magnolia grandiflora ) , Albizia julibrissin (mimosa), Crape Myrtle , and even the occasional Needle Palm are hardy landscape materials regularly used as street, yard, and garden plantings in the Bluegrass region of Ohio; but these same plants will simply not thrive in much of
10147-525: The Ohio Valley was inhabited by nomadic people as early as 13,000 BC. These early nomads disappeared from Ohio by 1,000 BC. Between 1,000 and 800 BC, the sedentary Adena culture emerged. The Adena established "semi-permanent" villages because they domesticated plants, including sunflowers, and "grew squash and possibly corn"; with hunting and gathering, this cultivation supported more settled, complex villages. The most notable remnant of
10286-570: The Ohio and Mississippi to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South . Changes in crops cultivated in the Upper South resulted in slaves available to be sold to the South, where the expansion of cotton plantations was doing very well. Invention of the cotton gin made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable throughout the Black Belt of this region. Before and during the Civil War,
10425-533: The Ohio as Native lands. British military occupation in the region contributed to the outbreak of Pontiac's War in 1763. Ohio tribes participated in the war until an armed expedition in Ohio led by Brigadier General Henry Bouquet brought about a truce. Another colonial military expedition into the Ohio Country in 1774 brought Lord Dunmore's War , kicked off by the Yellow Creek massacre in Ohio, to
10564-424: The Pennsylvania line aforesaid. Ohio is bounded by the Ohio River, but nearly all of the river belongs to Kentucky and West Virginia. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, based on the wording of the cessation of territory by Virginia (which at the time included what is now Kentucky and West Virginia), the boundary between Ohio and Kentucky (and, by implication, West Virginia) is the northern low-water mark of
10703-776: The Shawnee, excluding the Pekowi in Southwest Ohio, were forcibly relocated west. Ohio played a key role in the War of 1812, as it was on the front line in the Western theater and the scene of several notable battles both on land and in Lake Erie . On September 10, 1813, the Battle of Lake Erie , one of the major battles, took place near Put-in-Bay, Ohio . The British eventually surrendered to Oliver Hazard Perry . Ultimately, after
10842-480: The U.S. Louisville was founded in 1778 as a military encampment on Corn Island (now submerged) by General George Rogers Clark at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio . The Falls were a series of rapids where the river dropped 26 feet (7.9 m) in a stretch of about 2 miles (3.2 km). In this area, the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone . The outpost
10981-542: The U.S. government used the Indian Removal Act of 1830 to force countless Native American tribes on the Trail of Tears , where all the southern states except for Florida were successfully emptied of Native peoples, the government panicked because most tribes did not want to be forced out of their own lands. Fearing further wars between Native tribes and American settlers, they pushed all remaining Native tribes in
11120-655: The Virginia mountains to the Mississippi River. The elder Howard had a promised reward of 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land for a successful expedition from the Virginia Royal Governor's Council to reinforce British claims in the west. Howard offered equal shares of the 10,000 acres to the four other members of his expedition. The party of five left John Peter Salling's house in August County on March 16, 1742, and traveled west to Cedar Creek (near
11259-599: The aggressive tactics of the Iroquois Confederation , based in central and western New York. After the Beaver Wars in the mid-17th century, the Iroquois claimed much of the Ohio country as hunting and, more importantly, beaver-trapping ground. After the devastation of epidemics and war in the mid-17th century, which largely emptied the Ohio country of Indigenous people by the mid-to-late 17th century,
11398-475: The anniversary with special events and designations. From 1997 to September 2002, the Committee commissioned Scott Hagan of Belmont County to paint a barn in each county with the committee's logo and colors. Nearly 2,000 barn owners volunteered their barns to be painted. In the end, Hagan painted 101 barns freehand, including one in each county . One was destroyed by a tornado shortly after its painting and
11537-586: The area near modern-day Pittsburgh led to conflict with the French, who had forts in the Ohio River Valley . This conflict was called the French and Indian War , and would merge into the global Anglo-French struggle, the Seven Years' War . In 1763, following its defeat in the war, France ceded its area east of the Mississippi River to Britain and its area west of the Mississippi River to Spain in
11676-584: The bicameral Ohio General Assembly ; and the judicial branch, led by the state Supreme Court . Ohio occupies 15 seats in the United States House of Representatives , the seventh-largest delegation. Seven presidents of the United States have come from Ohio , earning it the moniker "the Mother of Presidents". Archeological evidence of spear points of both the Folsom and Clovis types indicate that
11815-401: The border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia . The river follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course until Cincinnati, before bending to a west-southwest course for most of the remainder of its length. The course forms the northern borders of West Virginia and Kentucky ; and the southern borders of Ohio , Indiana and Illinois , until it joins
11954-545: The colonists of the Thirteen Colonies . Lord Dunmore's War south of the Ohio river also contributed to cession of land north to Quebec to prevent colonial expansion onto Native American territory. During the Revolutionary War . in 1776 the British military engineer John Montrésor created a map of the river showing the strategic location of Fort Pitt , including specific navigational information about
12093-541: The construction of the Muskingum Academy (now Marietta College ). In 1780, the directors of the Ohio Company appointed him superintendent of all its affairs relating to the settlement north of the Ohio River. In 1796, President George Washington commissioned him as Surveyor-General of United States Lands. In 1788, he served as a judge in the Northwest Territory's first court. In 1802, he served in
12232-598: The continent. The Hopewell disappeared from the Ohio Valley about 600 AD. The Mississippian culture rose as the Hopewell culture declined. Many Siouan-speaking peoples from the plains and east coast claim them as ancestors and say they lived throughout the Ohio region until approximately the 13th century. There were three other cultures contemporaneous with the Mississippians: the Fort Ancient people,
12371-544: The convention to form a constitution for the State of Ohio. On February 19, 1803, U.S. President Thomas Jefferson signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. But Congress had not passed a formal resolution admitting Ohio as the 17th state. Although no formal resolution of admission was required, when the oversight was discovered in 1953, as Ohio began preparations for celebrating its sesquicentennial, Ohio congressman George H. Bender introduced
12510-433: The end of the Civil War, the Union's top three generals— Ulysses S. Grant , William Tecumseh Sherman , and Philip Sheridan —were all from Ohio. During much of the 19th century, industry was rapidly introduced to complement an existing agricultural economy. One of the first iron manufacturing plants, Hopewell Furnace, opened near Youngstown in 1804. By the mid-19th century, 48 blast furnaces were operating in Ohio, most in
12649-412: The expedition used the Ohio River as a corridor to the Mississippi. Among the officers who accompanied this party were Major de Lignery; Lieutenants, de Vassan, Aubert de Gaspe, Du Vivier, de Verrier, Le Gardeur de St. Pierre, Chevalier de Villiers, de Portneuf, de Sabrevious; Father Vernet, chaplain; Cadets, Joncaire de Closonne , Le Gai de Joncaire, Drouet de Richarville the younger, Chaussegros de Lery
12788-492: The extreme southern counties of Ohio's Bluegrass region section, which are located on the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ) and Upland South region of the United States. Summers are typically hot and humid throughout the state, while winters generally range from cool to cold. Precipitation in Ohio is moderate year-round. Severe weather is not uncommon in the state, although there are typically fewer tornado reports in Ohio than in states located in what
12927-519: The first reported eyewitness accounts of Shannoah , a Shawnee town, was by le Moyne III in July 1739. On their journey down the Ohio River toward the Mississippi, they met with local chiefs in a village on the Scioto River . John Howard, a pioneer from Virginia, led a party of five— John Peter Salling (a Pennsylvania German), Josiah Howard (John's son), Charles Sinclair, and John Poteet (Vizt)—from
13066-783: The first successful airplane. Ohio was hit by its greatest natural disaster in the Great Flood of 1913 , resulting in at least 428 fatalities and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage, particularly around the Great Miami River basin. The National Football League was originally founded in Canton, Ohio in 1920 as the American Professional Football Conference. It included Ohio League teams in five Ohio cities (Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Columbus, and Dayton), none of which still exist. The first official game occurred on October 3, 1920, when
13205-596: The fur trade from the Iroquois nations to the northeast, they migrated west of the Mississippi River in the 17th century to the territory now defined as Missouri , Arkansas , and Oklahoma . Several accounts exist of the discovery and traversal of the Ohio River by Europeans in the latter half of the 17th century: Virginian colonist Abraham Wood 's trans-Appalachian expeditions between 1654 and 1664; Frenchman Robert de La Salle 's putative Ohio expedition of 1669; and two expeditions of Virginians sponsored by Colonel Wood:
13344-703: The governorship of Bob Taft , which aimed to increase investment in Ohio and boost its technology sector. As of 2010, the Ohio Department of Development attributes the creation of 9,500 jobs to this program, with an average salary of $ 65,000, while having a $ 6.6 billion economic impact with a return on investment of 9:1. In 2010 the state won the International Economic Development Council 's Excellence in Economic Development Award, celebrated as
13483-531: The heels of contamination from a high-profile train derailment , and following years as one of the most polluted watersheds in the United States. The Ohio River is extensively industrialized and populated. Regular barge traffic carries cargoes of oil, steel and other industrial goods produced in the region. Major cities located along the northern and southern banks of the river include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Louisville, Kentucky ; Evansville, Indiana ; and Cincinnati, Ohio . The combined Allegheny-Ohio river
13622-473: The increasing size of steamships and barges on the river meant that the outdated locks could serve only the smallest vessels until well after the Civil War when improvements were made. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improvements were expanded again in the 1960s, forming the present-day McAlpine Locks and Dam . During the nineteenth century, emigrants from Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky traveled by
13761-453: The land gradually became repopulated by the mostly Algonquian . Many of these Ohio-country nations were multiethnic (sometimes multi-linguistic) societies born out of the earlier devastation brought about by disease, war, and subsequent social instability. They subsisted on agriculture (corn, sunflowers, beans, etc.) supplemented by seasonal hunts. By the 18th century, they were part of a larger global economy brought about by European entry into
13900-658: The largest inhabited island in the Ohio River, belongs to West Virginia, although it is closer to the Ohio shore than to the West Virginia shore. Kentucky sued the state of Indiana in the early 1980s because of their construction of the never-completed Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. This would have adversely affected Kentucky's water supplies. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia) extended only to
14039-523: The low-water mark of 1793 (important because the river has been extensively dammed for navigation so that the present river bank is north of the old low-water mark). Similarly, in the 1990s, Kentucky challenged Illinois's right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis , citing its own control of the entire river. A private casino riverboat that docked in Evansville, Indiana , on
14178-738: The mountains, traversing the Tioga River and reaching a tributary of the Allegheny River before floating down to the Shawnee towns along the Ohio River. Viele and his expedition spent most of 1693 exploring the Ohio River and its tributaries in northern Kentucky with their Shawnee hosts. Gerit Luykasse, two of Viele's Dutch traders, and two Shawnee reappeared in Albany in February 1694 "to fetch powder for Arnout [Viele] and his Company"; their party had been gone for fifteen months, but Viele
14317-546: The mouth of the Ohio, settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri . There, some continued on up the Missouri River , some up the Mississippi, and some farther west over land routes. In the early 19th century, river pirates such as Samuel Mason , operating out of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois , waylaid travelers on their way down the river. They killed travelers, stealing their goods and scuttling their boats. The folktales about Mike Fink recall
14456-525: The movement of Natives and Americans between the Ohio Country and Thirteen Colonies had resulted in tension. Fort Pitt in Pennsylvania had become the main fort where expeditions into Ohio started. Intrusions into the area included General Edward Hand 's 1778 movement of 500 Pennsylvania militiamen from Fort Pitt towards Mingo towns on the Cuyahoga River , where the British stored military supplies which they distributed to Indian raiding parties; Colonel Daniel Brodhead 's invasion in 1780 and destruction of
14595-596: The northern Atlantic Ocean via Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence River , and those in southern Ohio drain into the Gulf of Mexico via the Ohio River and the Mississippi . Ohio also includes Bass Islands and Kelleys Island . Grand Lake St. Marys in the west-central part of the state was constructed as a supply of water for canals in the canal-building era of 1820–1850. This body of water, over 20 square miles (52 km ),
14734-497: The northwest. Of the 50 U.S. states , it is the 34th-largest by area . With a population of nearly 11.8 million, Ohio is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated state . Its capital and most populous city is Columbus , with other large population centers including Cleveland , Cincinnati , Dayton , Akron , and Toledo . Ohio is nicknamed the "Buckeye State" after its Ohio buckeye trees , and Ohioans are also known as "Buckeyes". Ohio derives its name from
14873-471: The original Warner Brothers , who set up their first movie theatre in Youngstown before the company relocated to California. The state produced many popular musicians, including Dean Martin , Doris Day , The O'Jays , Marilyn Manson , Dave Grohl , Devo , Macy Gray and The Isley Brothers . Two Ohio astronauts completed significant milestones in the space race in the 1960s: John Glenn becoming
15012-483: The rest of the state. This interesting change may be observed while traveling through Ohio on Interstate 75 from Cincinnati to Toledo ; the observant traveler of this diverse state may even catch a glimpse of Cincinnati's common wall lizard , one of the few examples of permanent "subtropical" fauna in Ohio. The worst weather disaster in Ohio history occurred along the Great Miami River in 1913. Known as
15151-493: The river and settled along its northern bank. Known as butternuts , they formed the dominant culture in the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois with a society that was primarily Southern in culture. Largely devoted to agricultural pursuits, they shipped much of their produce along the river to ports such as Cincinnati. Because the Ohio River flowed westward, it became a convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from western Pennsylvania. After reaching
15290-681: The river as a major transportation and trading route. In the five centuries before European colonization, the Mississippian culture built numerous regional chiefdoms and major earthwork mounds in the Ohio Valley like the Angel Mounds near Evansville, Indiana as well as in the Mississippi Valley and the Southeast. The historic Osage , Omaha , Ponca , and Kaw peoples lived in the Ohio Valley. Under pressure over
15429-535: The river as it existed in 1792. Ohio has only that portion of the river between the river's 1792 low-water mark and the present high-water mark. The border with Michigan has also changed, as a result of the Toledo War , to angle slightly northeast to the north shore of the mouth of the Maumee River. Much of Ohio features glaciated till plains , with an exceptionally flat area in the northwest being known as
15568-578: The river in places like Paducah and Owensboro , Kentucky, closer to its confluence with the Mississippi, the Ohio is ice-free year-round. The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca language (an Iroquoian language ), Ohi:yo' (roughly pronounced oh-hee-yoh, with the vowel in "hee" held longer ), a proper name derived from ohiːyoːh ("good river"), therefore literally translating to "Good River". "Great river" and "large creek" have also been given as translations. Native Americans , including
15707-624: The river on December 15, 1967. The collapse killed 46 people who had been crossing when the bridge failed. The bridge had been built in 1929, and by 1967 was carrying too heavy a load for its design. The bridge was rebuilt about one mile downstream and in service as the Silver Memorial Bridge in 1969. In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Clarksville, Indiana . The Ohio River as
15846-431: The river. The colonial charter for Virginia defined its territory as extending to the north shore of the Ohio, so that the riverbed was "owned" by Virginia. Where the river serves as a boundary between states today, Congress designated the entire river to belong to the states on the east and south, i.e., West Virginia and Kentucky at the time of admission to the Union, that were divided from Virginia. Thus Wheeling Island ,
15985-684: The same time. The old Northwest Territory originally included areas previously known as Ohio Country and Illinois Country . As Ohio prepared for statehood, the Indiana Territory was created, reducing the Northwest Territory to approximately the size of present-day Ohio plus the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan and the eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula and a sliver of southeastern Indiana called "The Gore". The coalition of Native American tribes, known as
16124-583: The southern part of the state. Discovery of coal deposits aided the further development of Ohio's steel industry, and by 1853 Cleveland was the nation's third-largest iron and steel producer. The first Bessemer converter was purchased by the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company , which became part of the U.S. Steel Corporation after the merger of Federal Steel Company and Carnegie Steel , the first billion-dollar American corporation. The first open-hearth furnace used for steel production
16263-518: The southern tip of Illinois . It is the third largest river by discharge volume in the United States and the largest tributary by volume of the north-south flowing Mississippi River, which divides the eastern from western United States. It is also the sixth oldest river on the North American continent. The river flows through or along the border of six states , and its drainage basin includes parts of 14 states. Through its largest tributary,
16402-521: The state on the historic National Road from Martins Ferry to the Indiana state line at New Paris . The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles also issued a radical redesign of the state ’ s license plate that bore the Commission's logo to the left, the words "1803 Ohio Bicentennial 2003" across the top, and a new six-digit numbering scheme. Previously, commemorative license plates had been issued for
16541-424: The state throughout the 20th century and often moved to other cities that were larger centers for their work. They included Zane Grey , Milton Caniff , George Bellows , Art Tatum , Roy Lichtenstein , and Roy Rogers . Alan Freed , who emerged from the swing dance culture in Cleveland, hosted the first live rock 'n roll concert in Cleveland in 1952. Famous filmmakers include Steven Spielberg , Chris Columbus and
16680-680: The state unemployment rate reaching a high of 37.3%. American Jews watched the rise of Nazi Germany with apprehension. Cleveland residents Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the Superman comic character in the spirit of the Jewish golem . Many of their comics portrayed Superman fighting and defeating the Nazis . Approximately 839,000 Ohioans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II , of whom over 23,000 died or were missing in action. Artists, writers, musicians and actors developed in
16819-476: The state's sesquicentennial in 1953 and for the Northwest Territory 's sesquicentennial in 1938. Ohio Ohio ( / oʊ ˈ h aɪ . oʊ / oh- HY -oh ) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States . It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the west, and Michigan to
16958-569: The state, sometimes assimilating in part. Starting around 1809, the Shawnee pressed resistance to encroachment again. Under Chief Tecumseh , Tecumseh's War officially began in Ohio in 1811. When the War of 1812 began, the British decided to attack from Upper Canada into Ohio and merge their forces with the Shawnee. This continued until Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813. Most of
17097-553: The state. During the 18th century, the French set up a system of trading posts to control the fur trade in the region. Beginning in 1754, the Kingdom of France and Kingdom of Great Britain fought in the French and Indian War , with various Native American tribes on each side. As a result of the Treaty of Paris , the French ceded control of Ohio and the remainder of the Old Northwest to Great Britain in 1763. Before
17236-615: The success of many Republican candidates in Ohio since the late 2000s has led many to question whether Ohio remains an electoral battleground. On March 9, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic reached Ohio, with three cases reported. As of February 2023, over 41,600 Ohioans have died from COVID-19. Ohio's economy was also heavily impacted by the pandemic, as the state saw large job losses in 2020, as well as large amounts of subsequent stimulus spending . Ohio's location has proven to be an asset for economic growth and expansion. Because it links
17375-516: The topographical details of the course of this River to M. de Lery, Engineer, who surveyed it with the compass at the time that he descended it with a detachment of French troops in 1729. A map of the Ohio River valley, drawn by Bellin from observations by de Lery, is in Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix 's History of New France . The 1744 Bellin map, "Map of Louisiana" ( French : Carte de La Louisiane ), has an inscription at
17514-482: The war. It contributed more soldiers per capita than any other state in the Union. In 1862, the state's morale was badly shaken in the aftermath of the Battle of Shiloh , a costly victory in which Ohio forces suffered 2,000 casualties. Later that year, when Confederate troops under the leadership of Stonewall Jackson threatened Washington, D.C., Ohio governor David Tod recruited 5,000 volunteers to provide three months of service. From July 13 to 26, 1863, towns along
17653-466: The water level and have turned the river largely into a series of reservoirs , eliminating shallow stretches and allowing for commercial navigation. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average depth is approximately 15 feet (5 m). The largest immediate drop in water level is below the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, Kentucky , where flood stage is reached when
17792-443: The water reaches 23 feet (7 m) on the lower gauge. However, the river's deepest point is 168 feet (51 m) on the western side of Louisville, Kentucky. From Louisville, the river loses depth very gradually until its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois , where it has an approximate depth of 19 feet (6 m). Water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream to Pittsburgh are predicted daily by
17931-476: The west since the trek east over the Appalachian Mountains was long and arduous. The need for access to the port of New Orleans by settlers in the Ohio Valley is one of the factors that led to the United States' Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Because the river is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was part of the border between free states and slave states in the years before
18070-574: The younger, de Gannes, Chev. Benoist, de Morville, de Selles, and seventeen others. The rank and file consisted of three sergeants, six corporals, six lance corporals, twenty-four soldiers, forty-five habitants , one hundred and eighty-six Iroquois from the Sault, forty-one from the Lake of Two Mountains , thirty-two Algonquin and Nipissing , fifty Abenaqui from St. Francois and Bécancour, Quebec; Father La Bretonnier, Jesuit; Queret, missionary. One of
18209-542: Was away for about two years. He and his companions returned from the Pennsylvania wilderness in August 1694, accompanied by diplomats from "seven Nations of Indians" who sought trade with the English (or peace with the powerful Iroquois nations of New York and Pennsylvania), and hundreds of Shawnee who intended to relocate in the Minisink country on the upper Delaware River . In 1729, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry ,
18348-648: Was constructed by the Otis Steel Company in Cleveland, and by 1892, Ohio was the second-largest steel-producing state, behind Pennsylvania. Republic Steel was founded in Youngstown in 1899 and was at one point the nation's third-largest producer. Armco , now AK Steel, was founded in Middletown in 1899. The state legislature officially adopted the flag of Ohio on May 9, 1902. Dayton natives Orville and Wilbur Wright made four brief flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina , on December 17, 1903, inventing
18487-405: Was given the western two-thirds of the Upper Peninsula , in addition to the eastern third, which was already considered part of the territory. Ohio's central position and its population gave it an important place in the Civil War . The Ohio River was a vital artery for troop and supply movements, as were Ohio's railroads. Ohio's industry made it one of the most important states in the Union during
18626-536: Was moved that same year to the south shore where Fort-on-Shore was constructed. It proved insufficient within 3 years, and the mighty Fort Nelson was constructed upriver. The town of Louisville was chartered in 1780, in honor of King Louis XVI of France. The first locks on the river – the Louisville and Portland Canal – were built between 1825 and 1830 to circumnavigate the falls. Fears that Louisville's transshipment industry would collapse proved ill-founded: but
18765-407: Was replaced. The barn painting program was conceived as a cost-effective way to advertise: each barn cost $ 1,500 to paint, about $ 500 less than the rent for a billboard. The painted barns celebrated the state's 200th anniversary in 2003. By 2013, many of the painted barns had faded or been repainted or torn down. Hagan went on to paint barn advertisements across the country. (The barn painting program
18904-486: Was the best known of the anti-slavery novels that portrayed such escapes across the Ohio. The times have been expressed by 20th-century novelists as well, such as the Nobel Prize -winning Toni Morrison , whose novel Beloved was adapted as a film of the same name. She also composed the libretto for the opera Margaret Garner (2005), based on the life and trial of an enslaved woman who escaped with her family across
19043-403: Was the capital from 1803 to 1810. The capital was then moved to Zanesville for two years as part of a state legislative compromise to get a bill passed. The capital was then moved back to Chillicothe from 1812 to 1816. Finally, the capital was moved to Columbus, to be near the state's geographic center. Although many Native Americans migrated west to evade American encroachment, others remained in
19182-750: Was the largest artificial lake in the world when completed in 1845. Ohio's canal-building projects were not the economic fiasco that similar efforts were in other states. Some cities, such as Dayton, owe their industrial emergence to their location on canals, and as late as 1910 interior canals carried much of the bulk freight of the state. Areas under the protection of the National Park Service include Cuyahoga Valley National Park , Hopewell Culture National Historical Park , Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park , First Ladies National Historic Site , James A. Garfield National Historic Site , William Howard Taft National Historic Site , and
19321-401: Was −39 °F (−39 °C), at Milligan on February 10, 1899, during the Great Blizzard of 1899 . Ohio River The Ohio River is a 981-mile-long (1,579 km) river in the United States . It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States , flowing in a southwesterly direction from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at
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