Ohio
State in N central USA; nicknamed Buckeye State
Area:
107,100 sq km/41,341 sq mi
Capital:
Columbus
Towns and Cities:
Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Akron, Toledo, Youngstown, Canton
Physical:
Lake Erie; Ohio River
Features:
Serpent Mound, a 1.3-m/ 4-ft embankment, 405 m/1,330 ft long and about
5 m/18 ft across, built by Hopewell American Indians in the 2nd-1st
centuries BC; Mound City Group, 23 prehistoric mounds, a burial ground
of the Hopewell American Indians; Perry's Victory and International
Peace Memorial, the site of Perry's naval victory over the British in
the war of 1812, with views into Canada; Cleveland, with the Old Arcade
(1890), the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
and Museum (1995); Cincinnati, with the William Howard Taft birthplace,
Cincinnati Art Museum, Museum Center at Union Terminal, the Carew Tower,
and Omni Netherland Plaza Hotel; Columbus, a centre for banking and
insurance, with German Village (built by 19th-century immigrants); Dayton,
with the Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop and the Wright Memorial, and the
US Air Force Museum; the National Afro- American Museum and Cultural
Center, Canton; Oberlin College (1833), the first coeducational college
in the USA; the Cleveland Orchestra; the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra;
the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum; the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
Canton
Industries:
Coal, cereals, livestock, dairy foods, machinery, chemicals, steel,
motor vehicles, automotive and aircraft parts, rubber products, office
equipment, refined petroleum
Population:
(1995) 11,150,500
Famous People:
Sherwood Anderson, Neil Armstrong, Hart Crane, Thomas Edison, James
Garfield, John Glenn, Ulysses S Grant, Zane Grey, Warren Harding, Benjamin
Harrison, William H Harrison, Rutherford B Hayes, William McKinley,
Paul Newman, Jesse Owens, John D Rockefeller, William T Sherman, William
H Taft, James Thurber, Orville and Wilbur Wright
History:
Explored for France by Robert de la Salle 1669; ceded to Britain by
France 1763; first settled at Marietta (capital of the Northwest
Territory) by Europeans 1788; became a state 1803. By 1850 Ohio
was the third-most populous state. In the Civil War, Ohio gave
the Union its greatest generals - U S Grant, W T Sherman, and
P Sheridan. In the 1870s J D Rockefeller of Cleveland organized
the Standard Oil Company, which soon controlled oil refining and
distribution throughout the nation. At the same time, Akron became
rubber capital of the world. For a century, Ohio remained a leader
in heavy industry, but manufacturing peaked in 1969; agriculture
and mining remain important. Seeking service and high- technology
industries, the state needs to overcome an ageing infrastructure
and urban pollution and decay. Tourism continues as a valuable
revenue producer.
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