Ohio, OH

Ohio is a Midwestern state of the United States. Part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads.

At the time of European contact and in the years that followed, Native Americans in today's Ohio included the Iroquois, Miamis, and Wyandots.

Beginning in the 1700s, the area was settled by people from New England, the Middle States, Appalachia, and the upper south. Prior to 1984, the United States Census Bureau considered Ohio part of the North Central Region.

That region was renamed "Midwest" and split into two divisions. Ohio is now in the East North Central States division.

Ohio also has the highest density of population of any state not on the Atlantic Ocean. Ohio was the first state admitted to the Union under the Northwest Ordinance.

Its U.S. postal abbreviation is OH; its old-style abbreviation was O. Natives of Ohio are known as Ohioans.

Origin of the name

The name "Ohio" derives from the Seneca word ohi:yo’, meaning "beautiful river" or "large creek", which was originally the name of both the Ohio River and Allegheny River.

Geography

Ohio's geographic location has proved to be an asset for economic growth and expansion. Because Ohio links the Northeast to the Midwest, much cargo and business traffic passes through its borders on 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, Lake Erie gives Ohio 312 miles (502 km) of coastline, which allows for numerous seaports. Ohio's southern border is defined by the Ohio River (with the border being at the 1793 low-water mark on the north side of the river), and much of the northern border is defined by Lake Erie.

Ohio's neighbors are Pennsylvania to the east, Michigan to the northwest, Ontario 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 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 the Pennsylvania line aforesaid. ”

Note that Ohio is bounded by the Ohio River, but nearly all of the river itself 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 that 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 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 plains, with an exceptionally flat area in the northwest being known as 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. The rugged southeastern quadrant of Ohio, stretching in an outward bow-like arc along the Ohio River from the West Virginia Panhandle to the outskirts of Cincinnati, forms a distinct socio-economic unit. Known somewhat erroneously as Ohio's "Appalachian Counties" (they are actually in the Allegheny Plateau), this area's coal mining legacy, dependence on small pockets of old manufacturing establishments, and even distinctive regional dialect set this section off from the rest of the state and, unfortunately, create a limited opportunity to participate in the generally high economic standards of Ohio.

In 1965 the United States Congress passed the Appalachian Regional Development Act, at attempt to "address the persistent poverty and growing economic despair of the Appalachian Region."

This act 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 rivers within the state include the Cuyahoga River, Great Miami River, Maumee River, Muskingum River, and Scioto River.

The rivers in the northern part of the state drain into the northern Atlantic Ocean via Lake Erie and the St. Lawrence River, and the rivers in the southern part of the state drain into the Gulf of Mexico via the Ohio and then the Mississippi.

The worst weather disaster in Ohio history occurred along the Great Miami River in 1913. Known as the Great Dayton Flood, the entire Miami River watershed flooded, including the downtown business district of Dayton.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ohio".