Ohio

I

Introduction

Ohio, one of the Great Lakes states of the United States, bordered on the north by Michigan and Ontario, Canada; on the east by Pennsylvania and West Virginia; on the south by West Virginia and Kentucky; and on the west by Indiana. Lake Erie forms most of the northern boundary, and the Ohio River forms much of the eastern and all of the southern boundaries.

Ohio entered the Union on March 1, 1803, as the 17th state. It has been a major manufacturing state since the 19th century and in the early 1990s was especially associated with the production of transport equipment, iron and steel, and rubber items. The state also has a large farming industry. Presidents Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, William Howard Taft, and Warren G. Harding were born in Ohio. The state’s name is taken from the Ohio River, the name of which is derived from an Iroquoian term for “fine” (or good) “river”. Ohio is known as the “Buckeye State”.

II

Land and Resources

Ohio has an area of 116,104 sq km (44,828 sq mi); the state is roughly square in shape; its extreme dimensions are about 360 km (225 mi) from east to west and about 344 km (215 mi) from north to south. Elevations range from 139 m (455 ft), along the Ohio River in the south-west, to 472 m (1,550 ft), from the top of Campbell Hill in the west-central part of the state. Ohio’s shoreline along Lake Erie is about 500 km (310 mi) long.

A

Physical Geography

The physical landscape of Ohio is composed of four distinct regions: the Eastern Great Lakes Lowland, the Till Plains, the Interior Low Plateaux, and the Appalachian Plateau region. In the north is a part of the Eastern Great Lakes Lowland, an area of relatively flat topography with few steep-sided valleys. Most of the western half of Ohio is made up of a section of the Till Plains, which is generally composed of a gently undulating landscape formed by glacially deposited material. In the southern portion of the state is a small part of the Interior Low Plateaux. Almost all of the eastern half of the state forms part of the Appalachian Plateau region. Generally hilly, with steep valley sides and narrow valley bottoms, it makes up the most rugged section of Ohio. The northern part of the Appalachian Plateau region was somewhat smoothed by glaciation and has soils of glacial till. The southern portion, unaffected by glaciers, is more rugged.

Principal rivers are the Maumee, Sandusky, Vermilion, Cuyahoga, Great Miami, Scioto, Hocking, and Muskingum. A small area in the west drains into the Wabash river system of Indiana. Besides a portion of Lake Erie, Ohio has many lakes, most of which are comparatively small. Some of the bigger bodies of water—including the largest, Grand Lake St Marys, in the west—were formed by dams on rivers.

B

Climate

Ohio has two main climate regions. The southern portion of the state has a humid subtropical climate, with a frost-free season of 180 to 240 days; the northern section has a humid continental climate, with a frost-free season of between 120 and 200 days. As examples of the state’s climate, Cincinnati, in the south-west, has an average annual temperature of about 12.8° C (55° F) and receives some 1,020 mm (40 in) of precipitation per year; Columbus, in the centre, has a mean annual temperature of 10.8° C (51.5° F) and receives some 940 mm (37 in) of moisture each year; and Cleveland, in the north-east, has an average annual temperature of 10° C (50° F) and gets about 889 mm (35 in) of precipitation per year. The recorded temperature in Ohio has ranged from -39.4° C (-39° F), in 1899 at Milligan, to 45° C (113° F), in 1897 at Thurman and in 1934 near Gallipolis.