About Ohio

Ohio takes its name from the Ohio River, the great tributary of the Mississippi that forms the state's southern boundary. The name comes from the Seneca language of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. "Ohio" is believed to mean "great river," "large creek," or "great water" in Seneca. French explorers in the 17th century recorded the Seneca name for the river and applied it to the region. The Ohio River was one of the most important geographical features of early American expansion, serving as the primary route for settlers moving west and as the boundary between the Northwest Territory (where slavery was prohibited by the Northwest Ordinance of 1787) and the slave states to the south. Ohio was the first state carved from the Northwest Territory, admitted in 1803.

Ohio is the state where the American experiment has been tested most repeatedly, in the most consequential ways, at the most important moments. It was the first state carved from the Northwest Territory, the first application of the Northwest Ordinance's ban on slavery that drew the line between free and slave America. It produced eight presidents, more than any state except Virginia. Its sons made the first powered flight, orbited Earth first, and walked on the Moon first. Its industrial cities built the Arsenal of Democracy in two world wars and then became the face of deindustrialization.

Ohio sits at the geographic and demographic center of the country in ways that go beyond location. Its eleven million people are more racially, economically, and culturally diverse than any simple narrative can capture: the cosmopolitan growth of Columbus, the industrial heritage and genuine cultural sophistication of Cleveland and Cincinnati, the proud and battered working-class communities of the Mahoning Valley, the Amish farms of Holmes County, and the Appalachian poverty of the southeastern hills all exist within the same state borders.

The opioid epidemic hit Ohio harder than almost anywhere else. The political realignment of the working class has reshuffled Ohio's electoral map more dramatically than almost any other state. And yet Columbus keeps growing, Cleveland keeps producing world-class medicine and music, and Ohio keeps finding itself at the center of whatever America is arguing about. It earns its reputation as the bellwether state not by being average, but by containing multitudes.