Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we were
putting a state under the microscope, one that
for many people remains this, well, this complicated
mix of Rust Belt heritage and maybe flyover country.
Right, but it's so much more. It's arguably the
most essential geographical and political hinge
in the entire United States. Exactly. We're undertaking
a comprehensive deep dive into Ohio, the Buckeye
State. It's the perfect subject for this kind
of intense analysis because Ohio has, well, it's
always functioned as a sort of microcosm of America.
A microcosm. How so? Well, you have the historical
anchor. It's the mother of presidents, the birthplace
of aviation. But it is also right now a testing
ground for modern American challenges. So it
connects the industrial northeast and the agricultural
Midwest. And its identity is just constantly
being forged by economic transformation and these
pretty volatile political shifts. Absolutely.
Our mission today is to take this massive stack
of sources detailing everything from ancient
earthwork. to contemporary voting patterns and
just distill the key fascinating takeaways. Right.
We want to uncover the surprising facts that
really make Ohio the crucial geographical and
cultural link that it is. And that starts with
its very name, which grounds the entire state
identity and its most vital resource, water.
Okay. The name Ohio is derived from the Seneca
word ohizio, and it translates powerfully to...
Good river, great river, or large creek. So right
from the beginning, it's about the river. It
tells you that from the start, this place was
defined by its access to that essential flow
of life and commerce. It sets the stage perfectly.
Now, before we jump into the deep past, we have
to share a few snapshot facts that really captured
the paradoxical nature of the state's identity.
Okay. Everyone knows the nickname, the Buckeye
State. after the tree. But the official state
beverage since 1965 is something else entirely.
That would be tomato juice. Tomato juice. It's
one of those wonderfully peculiar details. And
it speaks volumes about the historical importance
of, you know, truck farming and the canning industries
in Ohio's agricultural past. Especially in the
northwest region. Exactly. It's a nostalgic nod,
maybe, to an era that came before the rise of
steel and automotive production. And then there's
the state fossil. It's not some massive dinosaur.
It's Isotilus maximus, a trilobite. A trilobite.
I mean, think about that. A 450 million year
old sea creature, a fossil from the Paleozoic
era, is the official state fossil of a landlocked
modern industrial state. It just gives you a
sense of the sheer scope of history we have to
cover. It really does. It reminds us that this
industrial heartland was... unimaginably long
ago, actually beneath a shallow, vibrant sea.
OK, let's start the clock on that history and
see how it moves from an ancient sea to a political
swing state. So when we talk about Ohio history,
we are not starting with colonial maps. We are
starting with indigenous settlements stretching
back, what, 12 ,000 years? That's right. The
sources indicate humans were actively present
in the Ohio Valley as early as 10 ,000 B .C.
And we know this from things like Folsom and
Clovis spear points. Exactly. Sophisticated tools
from some of the earliest North American inhabitants.
That continuous human presence shows that the
Ohio Valley, with its fertile river systems,
has been a central hub for human activity almost
since the last great glaciers receded. But what
really stands out in the archaeological record
is the establishment of these highly organized,
very distinct cultures. The Edina and the Hopewell.
Let's focus on the Adena culture first. Yeah.
They're emerging somewhere between 1000 and 800
BC. And this period is a major turning point.
It is because they made the crucial shift to
supporting semi -permanent villages. This stability
wasn't an accident. Right. It was supported by
the domestication of native plants. They were
cultivating sunflowers, squash, and probably
some early varieties of corn. And this shift
from a purely nomadic hunting and gathering life
to established communities is what allowed them
to undertake these massive, deliberate engineering
feats. The most visible of which is the Great
Serpent Mount in Adams County. I mean, it's a
quarter mile long effigy mound shaped like an
uncoiling snake. It's believed to have astronomical
alignments. Which just demands a level of complex,
centralized social organization. Well, it fundamentally
rewrites any simplistic notion we might have
of pre -Columbian societies. And the complexity
only increases with the Hopewell people who evolved
from the Edina around 100 B .C. The term mound
builders almost feels too simple for what they
achieved. It really does. They left behind these
large and incredibly complex geometric earthworks
near modern -day Marietta, Newark, and Circleville.
The Newark earthworks, for example, once covered
several square miles. And these weren't just
burial mounds. Not at all. They were used for
huge social gatherings, religious ceremonies,
and possibly as massive astronomical observatories.
But what's truly breathtaking about the Hopewell
isn't just their local structures. It's their
continental reach. Yes. They ran a prodigious
trading society that spanned an astonishing third
of the North American continent. A third of the
continent. They weren't just trading local goods.
They were sourcing copper from the shores of
Lake Superior, mica from the Appalachian Mountains,
and seashells and shark teeth from the Gulf Coast.
So this suggests a highly organized network of
exchange and diplomacy. A sophisticated continental
economy operating centuries before European contact.
It's incredible. Yet, like the Adena before them,
the Hopewell ultimately declined and disappeared
from the Ohio Valley around 600 A .D. And the
sources note this is a profound cultural shift
and depopulation event that remains largely unexplained
by modern archaeology. And that pattern of cultural
succession and decline just kept going. It did.
After the Hopewell, you get the Mississippian
culture, the four ancient people, the Whittlesea
culture, and the Monongahela culture. But here's
the second great historical mystery. All of these
later thriving indigenous cultures also largely
disappeared in the 17th century. And we know
the Shawnees may have absorbed some of the Fort
Ancient people, but the cause was often external.
That external cause was the Beaver Wars in the
mid -1600s. This conflict, which was driven by
the incredibly lucrative European fur trade,
had catastrophic consequences for the Ohio Valley.
It led to a second major depopulation. Yes. The
Iroquois Confederacy, based in present -day New
York, was heavily armed through its trade relationship
with the Dutch and the English. So they launched
these aggressive conquests to seize control of
the fur hunting grounds. They effectively claimed
the entire Ohio country as their exclusive beaver
-trapping territory, pushing out or assimilating
the nations who were already living there. So
between that aggressive Iroquois expansion...
european introduced diseases and all the social
instability the ohio country was rendered largely
empty of permanent indigenous settlements by
the mid to late 17th century right the subsequent
groups that repopulated the area like the shawnee
and the delaware were often these multi -ethnic
societies that migrated back into the region
later in the 18th century which demonstrates
remarkable resilience and social flexibility
and it was into this contested recently vacated
but strategically vital land that the European
powers arrived. Initially that meant the French,
who set up trading posts primarily to control
the valuable fur trade routes that led back to
Montreal. And this colonial rivalry, of course,
culminates in the French and Indian War, which
began in 1754. And the Treaty of Paris in 1763
settled that rivalry decisively. France ceded
control of Ohio and the rest of the Old Northwest
to Great Britain. But that victory for Britain
was immediately complicated by managing a restless
colonial population that was just eager to move
west. The British response was, from the perspective
of the American colonists, a policy disaster.
First came the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which
strictly forbade any colonial settlement west
of the Appalachians. It reserved those lands
as native territory. American settlers and land
speculators saw this as a direct denial of the
spoils of war they had just fought for. But the
British doubled down with the Quebec Act of 1774.
Right, which annexed the entire Ohio country
to the province of Quebec. And that move was
intended to centralize British administration
of the crucial fur trade, putting the whole Ohio
Valley under Quebec's authority. For the colonists,
it was an intolerable restriction on westward
expansion. And the source material frames it
as one of the key legislative acts that directly
contributed to the American Revolution. Absolutely.
The colonists saw the Ohio Valley as their future,
and the crown was actively blocking it. So even
though the Western theater of the Revolutionary
War never produced a really decisive victor,
when the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783,
Britain ceded all its claims to the Ohio country
to the new United States. It was now U .S. territory.
But the question remained. What kind of territory
was it going to be? And this is where the political
DNA of Ohio was really established. The Northwest
Ordinance of 1787. This established the Northwest
Territory, and it included a provision that would
forever define Ohio's identity, the prohibition
of slavery. The economic and political consequences
of that provision were just immense. Oh, absolutely.
It immediately set Ohio on a trajectory that
was fundamentally different from its southern
neighbors, Kentucky and Virginia, which relied
on slave labor. So it guaranteed that the settlement
of Ohio would be based on free labor, small land
ownership and industrial development. Rather
than plantation agriculture. And on top of that,
the ordinance established the systematic grid
system for land division, creating those organized,
rectangular land plots we associate with the
Midwest, which ensured clear titles and promoted
orderly settlement. But settlement couldn't be
entirely orderly because the indigenous groups
were still there, still powerful and... you know,
rightly resisting. Which led to the Northwest
Indian Wars. The U .S. fought a brutal, decade
-long campaign against the Western Confederacy,
which was a coalition of Native American tribes.
And this conflict eventually forced the indigenous
groups to cede huge amounts of territory, including
much of present -day Ohio and the Treaty of Greenville
in 1795. That treaty marks the effective, though
tragic, end of major Native American land claims
in the region. And it cleared the way for American
statehood. And to lead that settlement, we have
to turn to the father of Ohio, Rufus Putnam.
He is such an important figure. He wasn't just
a military man. He was George Washington's chief
engineer during the Revolution. He was a master
planner. He was instrumental in drafting and
successfully lobbying for the Northwest Ordinance.
Putnam understood that successful settlement
needed to be organized and principled. He founded
the Ohio Company of Associates and organized
Marietta, the first permanent non -military settlement
in the territory. And he built that crucial fortification,
Campus Martius. But what truly demonstrates his
foresight was his commitment to education. Right.
He wasn't just thinking about survival. He was
setting up a whole civic society. The sources
emphasize his plan to set aside substantial amounts
of land explicitly for the establishment and
endowment of schools and universities. He even
created the plan for the Muskingum Academy in
1798, which would eventually evolve into Marietta
College. So this focus on education and organized,
systematic land division combined with the prohibition
of slavery. It created the core values that defined
Ohio's early population values of diligence,
organization, and a powerful sense of civic duty
that would manifest powerfully in future national
conflicts. The trajectory from territory to state
was rapid, though, as we'll see, not entirely
seamless. Ohio became the 17th state admitted
to the Union on March 1st, 1803. This made it
the first post -colonial free state under the
Northwest Ordinance. It was a huge milestone.
But there's a... magnificent administrative oversight
tied to this event. Oh, this is one of my favorite
bits of trivia. Here is where the administrative
history gets bizarre. 150 years later, in 1953,
historians in Congress realized they had never
passed a formal resolution admitting Ohio to
the Union. It was a classic bureaucratic oops.
I mean, Ohio had been functioning perfectly well
as a state for a century and a half, sending
senators, electing representatives, ratifying
amendments. But that final official piece of
paperwork. was missing. So for Ohio's sesquicentennial
celebration in 1953, Congress had to pass a bill
making statehood formally retroactive to the
original date of March 1st, 1803. It's just a
great reminder that political realities often
precede legal formalities. And speaking of formalities,
the Capitol couldn't even settle down. The state
had three capitals. Right. Chillicothe from 1803
to 1810, then Zanesville for two years, then
back to Chillicothe. Before finally selecting
Columbus in 1816. And Columbus was specifically
chosen for its geographic centrality. It underscores
the early state's commitment to uniting these
disparate regions, the Ohio River Valley settlements
in the south and the developing settlements near
Lake Erie in the north. That desire for central
administration proved prophetic, didn't it? Given
how central Ohio remains to national commerce
today. Absolutely. But that early statehood period
was immediately challenged by renewed external
conflict in the War of 1812. And Ohio, given
its location, found itself directly on the front
line of the Western theater. The war was inextricably
linked to the ongoing Native American resistance.
Tecumseh's war, led by the brilliant Shawnee
chief Tecumseh, was already underway in 1811.
So when the U .S. declared war on Britain, The
British forces sought to align themselves with
Tecumseh's coalition. They were aiming to roll
back American expansion. The most critical battle
for Ohio was the naval engagement on Lake Erie
near Pudden Bay in 1813. Commodore Oliver Hazard
Perry's victory. He famously said, we have met
the enemy. and they are ours. That victory secured
the northern border, led to a crucial British
surrender, and soon after, Tecumseh's death.
And Tecumseh's death really represented the end
of organized, widespread Native American resistance
in the Ohio Valley. It did. While some groups
remained, the majority of the Shawnee were forcibly
moved west in subsequent years. This pattern
of forced removal culminated in the final displacement
by 1842. That's when the U .S. government compelled
all remaining Native Americans out of the state.
Which directly links Ohio's history to the broader
tragic context of Indian removal across the Midwest.
Now that was a bloody conflict with existential
stakes. But just two decades later, Ohio found
itself in this bizarre, almost comical showdown
over a strip of land. The Toledo War of 1835.
This is one of the most beloved administrative
footnotes in American history. It really is.
Ohio and the Michigan Territory feuded over the
Toledo Strip, a roughly 468 square mile wedge
of land. The whole dispute was triggered by conflicting
state and territorial surveys that have been
drawn up years apart. It sounds minor, but controlling
that strip meant controlling the mouth of the
Maumee River and the critical port that would
become Toledo. And that port was viewed as essential
for future connection. and rail commerce connecting
Lake Erie to the vast Ohio Valley. So both Ohio
and Michigan mobilized their militias, laws were
passed and counterpassed, and minor scuffles
broke out. The skirmishes were largely bloodless,
which is why it gets the almost war nickname.
The largest act of violence was reportedly one
militiaman being stabbed with a penknife during
a heated argument. But the stakes were high enough
that Congress had to intervene. And they did
so brilliantly by tying the resolution to Michigan's
statehood application. The compromise was a political
masterstroke. It was. Michigan gained the western
two -thirds of the Upper Peninsula, a massive
territory that later proved rich in copper and
iron ore in exchange for formally giving up its
claim to the Toledo Strip. So the strategic insight
here is clear. Ohio prioritized access to the
port and the Lake Erie trade route. And Michigan,
eager for statehood and gaining a huge tract
of Mineral Ricks territory, agreed. It defined
that northern border forever. Moving forward
to the Civil War, Ohio's foundational values,
that legacy of the Northwest Ordinance and its
industrial base, really came to the forefront.
The sources are clear on this. Ohio contributed
more soldiers per capita than any other Union
state. It was an indispensable industrial and
agricultural engine for the Union. The Ohio River
became the vital supply artery that supported
operations in the Western Theater. But the war
wasn't fought solely on distant battlefields.
It came right to the state in 1863 with Morgan's
raid. That moment must have been terrifying for
Ohio residents. Confederate cavalry under General
John Hunt Morgan attacked and ransacked towns
all along the Ohio River. And this raid, though
militarily insignificant in the grand scheme
of things, caused widespread panic because it
represented the deepest penetration of Confederate
troops into Union territory during the entire
war. It shook the confidence of the home front.
And forced the mobilization of local militias.
But the state's lasting legacy is really its
leadership. This addresses the critique about
why Ohio produced so many leaders. The sources
highlight that the combination of that early,
organized, free settlement championed by men
like Rufus Putnam. Coupled with the constant
military demands of the frontier, it created
a unique environment. It fostered a culture of
organized civic duty and strategic thinking.
And this environment produced the mother of generals.
The union's top three military figures, Ulysses
S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman and Philip
Sheridan were all Ohio natives. Their organizational
skills, their strategic aggression, their ability
to manage massive forces. These were hallmarks
of their success. Skills perhaps forged in the
dynamic entrepreneurial environment of 19th century
Ohio. The history we just covered is directly
tied to Ohio's geography. I mean, it's not accidental
that it became an industrial and military powerhouse.
It's because of its remarkable strategic location.
Ohio functions as the physical hinge connecting
the manufacturing and population centers of the
Northeast to the agricultural and logistical
hubs of the Midwest. And that position dictates
massive economic advantages even today. Oh, absolutely.
Look at the logistics. Ohio has the nation's
10th largest highway network. But more critically,
the state is positioned to be within a one -day
drive of 50 % of North America's total population.
50%. Yeah. And 70 % of North America's manufacturing
capacity? That is staggering. It means moving
goods from Ohio is fundamentally easier than
from almost anywhere else on the continent. And
that connectivity is reinforced by its waterways.
The northern border features 312 miles of Lake
Erie coastline. Which supports major cargo ports
like Cleveland and Toledo. These ports were critical
to the rise of the steel and automotive industries,
and they remain vital international shipping
centers. But the southern border holds that major
legal and geographical quirk we need to talk
about, especially since it relates to our final
provocative thought. Right. Ohio borders Kentucky
and West Virginia via the Ohio River. But the
state... ironically, barely owns the river itself.
This is a highly technical kind of archaic legal
boundary. Can you break it down for us? Sure.
The U .S. Supreme Court ruled that the boundary
between Ohio and its southern neighbors is the
northern low watermark of the Ohio River as it
existed in 1792. OK, so what does that mean in
practical terms for you? The listener. It means
that Kentucky and West Virginia own nearly all
of the river water. If you are standing on the
Ohio Riverbank, Kentucky legally owns the water
almost up to your ankles, depending on the tide
and seasonal flow. So Ohio only controls the
small strip of land between that 1792 low watermark
and the present high watermark. Exactly. It's
a boundary defined by a surveyor's mark from
two centuries ago, effectively making Ohio a
spectator to the management of the great river
that gave the state its name. That is a fundamental
tension baked right into the state's geography.
Moving inward, the state's physical landscape
is surprisingly diverse. It is, and it's defined
primarily by glaciation. Much of the state is
characterized by the glaciated till plains. These
areas, including the famous Great Black Swamp
region in the northwest, were smoothed, flattened,
and enriched by ancient glaciers that retreated
millennia ago. And that flat, fertile land facilitated
massive agricultural output, and later, the easy
laying of rail lines and highways. But travel
to the southeast? quadrant and you hit a completely
different terrain, the unglaciated Allegheny
Plateau. This region was never covered by the
glaciers. Exactly. It's rugged, steep, heavily
forested, and geologically identical to West
Virginia. This creates a distinct socioeconomic
unit within the state. The Appalachian Regional
Development Act defines 29 Ohio counties as part
of Appalachia. And while only about 12 .8 % of
Ohioans live there, this region has a unique
Appalachian heritage, often wrestling with different
economic and infrastructural challenges compared
to the highly industrialized cities of the Plains.
We also see a significant hydrological divide
crossing the state. Right. Rivers in northern
Ohio drain north into Lake Erie and then the
St. Lawrence River out to the Atlantic. while
southern rivers drain into the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers, eventually reaching the Gulf of Mexico.
So Ohio is a key continental watershed split,
sending its water to two different oceans. This
reliance on water has also driven some incredible
historical engineering feats. Like during the
canal building boom between 1820 and 1850. The
state's efforts were surprisingly successful.
They spurred the industrial emergence of cities
like Dayton, Akron, and Cleveland. And to ensure
a consistent water supply for these canals, massive
projects were undertaken. Most famous being Grand
Lake St. Mary's. Upon its completion in 1845,
it held the distinction of being the largest
artificial lake in the entire world. It's an
incredible testament to 19th century American
engineering ambition. But that same reliance
on water brought disaster. The Great Flood of
1913 was the state's greatest natural disaster.
A massive storm system stalled over the great
Miami River basin, resulting in at least 428
fatalities and just devastating communities across
the state. But the response to that disaster
was pioneering. It was. It led to the creation
of the Miami Conservancy District, which was
the first major comprehensive floodplain engineering
project in the entire United States. It established
a model for flood control that was copied worldwide.
Let's explore the unique climate and fauna quirks.
Most of Ohio experiences a humid continental
climate, right? That's right. DFAD, DFB. which
means distinct seasons, hot summers, and reliable
cold winters. But the extreme southern bluegrass
region, particularly around Cincinnati, touches
the northern periphery of the humid subtropical
climate. And what this means in terms of nature
is that this area is a fascinating ecological
mixing zone. It allows southern flora that normally
couldn't survive the standard Ohio winter to
thrive. You see things like blackjack oak, southern
magnolia, crepe myrtle. And even the rare needle
palm taking hold in the bluegrass region. And
it hosts unique flowers. fauna as well. Like
the eastern hellbender. Which is a giant fully
aquatic salamander that is currently the state
endangered amphibian. And you also see the common
wall lizard of Cincinnati, an established permanent
example of subtropical fauna that has adapted
to the urban heat island effect. And while you
wouldn't necessarily call Ohio earthquake country,
the sources do remind us of some geological unrest.
Over 200 earthquakes of 2 .0 magnitude or higher
have occurred since 1776. Including the most
substantial known one, the Anna earthquake, which
hit magnitude 5 .4 in 1937, causing damage across
western Ohio. Moving from the natural history
to the industrial history, Ohio transformed with
lightning speed in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The early agricultural economy was almost instantly
supplemented by massive industry, particularly
steel and oil. Right. Capitalizing on its geographic
advantages, the Industrial Foundation was laid
extremely early. Hopewell Furnace, one of the
first iron manufacturing plants west of the Appalachians,
opened in 1804. And by 1853, Cleveland was already
the third largest iron and steel producer in
the nation. This early momentum was just driven
by relentless innovation. And Cleveland was the
epicenter of that innovation. The Cleveland Rolling
Mill Company, for instance, purchased the first
Bessemer converter in the U .S. A game changing
technology that allowed for the cheap. Mass production
of steel. By 1892, Ohio had cemented its status
as the second largest steel producing state right
behind Pennsylvania. And that's not the only
giant industry born there. Not at all. Cleveland
was also home to the first standard oil refinery,
established by John D. Rockefeller. He leveraged
the logistical advantage of Cleveland's rail
and water access to control the refining and
transportation of oil. And created one of the
largest corporate empires in history. Of course,
the state's legacy is also defined by innovation
and transportation. Ohio holds the enduring title
of the birthplace of aviation. Dayton natives
Orville and Wilbur Wright invented the first
successful airplane, making those four brief
but monumental flights in 1903. And this legacy
is not merely historical. It remains vital today
with major installations like the Wright -Patterson
Air Force Base near Dayton. That industrial might,
however, faced an existential challenge during
the Great Depression. The sources show the profound
human cost. Unemployment peaked statewide at
a staggering 37 .3 % by 1933. The situation was
especially dire in industrial centers, with 80
% unemployment for construction workers in Toledo.
But even during this period of intense anxiety
and economic hardship, creativity flourished.
Cleveland residents Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster
created Superman. And what's fascinating culturally
is how their early comics reflected the anxiety
of the era. They often portrayed the hero fighting
and defeating the rising specter of the Nazis
and other threats to democracy. Then that massive
industrial base was mobilized for global conflict.
Ohio became the arsenal of democracy. Contributing
enormously to the war effort. Approximately 839
,000 Ohioans served in the U .S. armed forces
during World War II, a colossal contribution.
But the transition from the mid -20th century
to the 21st has been marked by this profound
economic transformation. Often painfully referred
to as the shift from the manufacturing heartland
to the Rust Belt. Deindustrialization has been
brutal and prolonged. Between 1990 and 2019,
Ohio lost over 300 ,000 manufacturing jobs. And
these were often high paying unionized jobs that
served as the backbone of community wealth in
cities like Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland.
But the sources also compel us to look past the
narrative of pure loss. Right. During that same
30 year period, Ohio added over one million.
non -manufacturing jobs. Which signifies a fundamental
economic pivot toward information, services,
and advanced technology. The Great Recession
of 2007 -2010 certainly didn't help. Unemployment
peaked at 11 .1%, and the state lost 376 ,500
jobs during that three -year window. To spur
the necessary shift, the state launched the Third
Frontier Program. This initiative was specifically
designed to boost the technology sector, targeting
high -growth areas like IT, advanced manufacturing,
and biomedical... sciences and increased private
investment. And the sources show the program
has had tangible success. It's attributed with
creating 9 ,500 jobs with an average salary significantly
above the state average. Around $65 ,000 and
achieving a reported 9 .1 return on investment.
It suggests a successful public -private partnership
aimed at redefining the state's industrial future.
So today, Ohio's economy remains vast and diversified.
Its GDP ranks seventh among all 50 states. It's
still highly industrial, ranking as the third
largest manufacturing sector and the second largest
automobile producer in the country. But the largest
sector by employment is now trade, transportation
and utilities. Followed closely by health care
and education, anchored by institutions like
the Cleveland Clinic and the Wexner Medical Center
in Columbus. And this diverse economy is reflected
in its demographic profile. Ohio is the seventh
most populous state, approaching 12 million residents.
Ancestrally, the population is predominantly
German at 26 .5%, followed by Irish and English.
But the truly fascinating element of Ohio's demographics
lies in its unique language concentrations. Which
are direct artifacts of the immigrant labor waves
that built the industrial cities. That's right.
The state holds the distinction of having the
nation's largest population of Slovene speakers,
particularly concentrated in Cleveland. Which
was a massive magnet for Eastern European heavy
industry workers. It also has the second largest
population of Slovak speakers and the third largest
of Serbian speakers. Reflecting that same industrial
immigration pattern into Youngstown, Akron and
other manufacturing hubs. And these communities
retain powerful cultural and linguistic ties.
We also can't forget the internal migration and
unique cultural groups. Ohio has the second largest
commish population in the country. only behind
Pennsylvania. Which contributes significantly
to the population that speaks Pennsylvania Dutch,
a high concentration of Germanic speakers who
maintain their traditions in rural communities
across eastern and central Ohio. In terms of
belief, the state is still broadly Christian
at 64%, with Catholicism being the largest single
denomination. However, a critical modern demographic
shift is that nearly a third of the population,
30%, identifies as religiously unaffiliated,
which echoes national trends of increasing secularization.
This is where the confluence of history, immigration,
and industry truly shines. Ohio is a major hub
for the arts, housing over 30 major institutions.
And the wealth of these institutions is just
staggering. The Cleveland Museum of Art, for
instance, is internationally renowned, particularly
for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian
art. It's ranked the fourth wealthiest art museum
in the United States. Its collection alone encompasses
over 61 ,000 works. Then you have the Cincinnati
Art Museum in the southern part of the state,
which is just as impressive. It holds over 100
,000 works spanning 6 ,000 years of human history.
With notable pieces by European masters like
Botticelli, Rubens and Monet. And Columbus has
carved out its own unique niche in visual culture.
It's home to the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library
Museum. Which stands as the largest research
library dedicated to cartoon art in the world.
And when you connect that back to Cleveland being
the birthplace of Superman, you see a long, deep
tradition of American visual storytelling in
Ohio. Beyond visual arts, the performing arts
are massive here. Cleveland's Playhouse Square
is the nation's second largest performing arts
center. Housing 10 distinct theaters. And the
Cleveland Orchestra is recognized globally as
one of the historic Big Five U .S. orchestras,
frequently ranked among the best in the world.
This isn't just regional culture. It's globally
significant output. Now let's talk cuisine, because
this is where local identity is most strongly
forged, and Ohio has some distinct regional specialties.
And they showcase its immigrant and agricultural
past perfectly. We have to start with the unofficial
state snack. The Buckeyes. Right. These are peanut
butter fudge balls that are only partially dipped
in chocolate, deliberately designed to resemble
the nut of the state tree. Which is highly toxic
if you actually eat it. It's a sweet, playful
nod to the state symbol. Then there is the culinary
debate of the state. Cincinnati -style chili.
Which is not a bowl of chili in the Texas sense,
not at all. It is a unique, Greek -inspired meat
sauce. It's thin. typically featuring Mediterranean
spices like cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. And
it's served over spaghetti or hot dogs. Yeah.
The experience is defined by the ways. That's
right. If you order it, you specify the number
of layers you want. A three -way is chili, spaghetti,
and a mountain of shredded cheddar cheese. A
four -way adds either chopped onions or red kidney
beans, and a five -way includes all five ingredients.
It's an intensely localized tradition. And if
you are in Cincinnati, you must also try goetta.
A German immigrant invention. Exactly. It's a
breakfast sausage made primarily of ground meat
scraps, spices and pin oats, which serve as an
economical filler. It's typically served pan
fried until crisp. It speaks directly to the
German necessity for thrift and maximizing food
resources in that 19th century industrial environment.
And up in Cleveland, their signature sandwich
is the Polish boy. This is a hefty affair. A
true celebration of Polish and Eastern European
industrial immigrant culture. It is a deep fried
or grilled kielbasa sausage piled high with coleslaw,
a layer of French fries and drowned in BBQ sauce,
all on a bun. It's a meal that was designed to
fuel a steelworker. No doubt. And of course,
Ohio is a fast food incubator. It's home to the
first Arby's restaurant and the corporate headquarters
of both Wendy's and White Castle. From food,
we transition naturally to music and sports,
which fundamentally define modern Ohio culture.
Cleveland is rightly called the cradle of rock
and roll because disc jockey Alan Freed is credited
with popularizing and coining the term rock and
roll. in the early 1950s which is why the rock
and roll hall of fame is appropriately located
on the shores of lake erie and the musical talent
that has emerged from ohio is huge spanning genres
and generations Big band classics like Dean Martin
and Doris Day, Funk and Soul with the OJs. Industrial
rock with Nine Inch Nails and Devo, grunge and
modern rock from Dave Grohl, and contemporary
R &B from John Legend. In professional sports,
Ohio is extremely well represented, home to eight
major league teams. Two in the NFL, two in MLB,
an NBA team, an NHL team, and two MLS teams.
But the state's deepest sports roots are in football.
That's right. The National Football League was
originally founded in Canton in 1920, initially
as the Arlington Professional Football Conference.
It demonstrates Ohio's central role in the birth
of the nation's most popular sport. The inaugural
official league game occurred that same year
in Dayton. The Dayton Triangles beat the Columbus
Panhandles. And this legacy is why Canton is
the permanent enshrined home of the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. And we can't overlook the cultural
gravity of college sports. Ohio State Buckeyes
football has the second highest all -time winning
percentage in the NCAA and nine undisputed national
championships. For many residents, college sports
are a fundamental expression of state identity,
transcending mere athletics. Now let's turn to
how this dynamic, diverse, industrial state is
governed and how its political identity, which
once mirrored the nation perfectly, is, well,
it's rapidly shifting. The government structure
is standard. It follows the familiar federal
model with the executive, legislative, and judicial
branches. The General Assembly is bicameral a
Senate with 33 districts and a House of Representatives
with 99 members. The judicial branch includes
the county courts of common pleas, 12 intermediate
courts of appeals, and the seven justices Ohio
Supreme Court. And at the local level, we have
88 counties and two types of municipalities.
cities and villages with townships also covering
the entire state. Historically, Ohio's political
identity is defined by that title, the mother
of presidents. While Virginia technically produced
eight presidents, Ohio has seen seven born within
its borders and six presidents were elected from
Ohio. William Henry Harrison, Rutherford B. Hayes,
James A. Garfield, William McKinley, William
Howard Taft and Warren G. Harding. It's a powerful
legacy. More crucially, Ohio has traditionally
been the ultimate bellwether state. Since 1896,
Ohio has voted for the winning presidential candidate
in 34 of 39 elections since the Civil War. Only
missing three outliers 1944, 1960 and 2020. This
statistic defined national politics for over
a century. And this is the essential rule that
held sway over modern politics. No Republican
has ever won the presidency without winning Ohio.
Exactly. The state served as a perfect microcosm
of national trends. It had the necessary mix
of urban centers, rural agriculture and industrial
unionized labor to perfectly reflect the American
electorate. But that status is losing its power.
This brings us to the modern political shift.
Long considered the quintessential swing state,
Ohio has shown a distinct and growing Republican
lean since the late 2000s, leading analysts to
seriously question its bellwether status today.
And this shift is driven by demographics and
economic restructuring. As manufacturing jobs
declined in the industrial cities and Appalachian
counties, working class voters trended more conservative.
This rural and exurban shift has dramatically
increased the Republican margin in the state.
Leading Ohio to vote for the Republican presidential
candidate. in 2016 and 2020 by margins larger
than the national average. It is no longer perfectly
reflecting the nation. Despite this trend, the
majority of the electorate remains fiercely independent.
Over 70 percent of registered voters are not
affiliated with any political party. And this
huge pool of unaffiliated voters is what still
draws national attention to Ohio races, because
if that majority shifts or mobilizes on a specific
issue, the political landscape can change overnight.
Shifting to key political and social challenges,
income inequality is a major issue that tracks
the state's post -industrial economic restructuring.
And that inequality has risen significantly since
the 1970s. The data is stark. Between 2009 and
2012, the top 1 % saw income growth of 37%, while
the bottom 99 % saw only 2 .3 % growth. This
reflects the reality that the gains from the
high -tech, service -based economy are not being
distributed evenly across the state's population.
Furthermore, the tax burden in Ohio falls disproportionately
on lower income brackets. The bottom 20 % of
earners contribute a significantly higher percentage
of their income to taxes 12 .3 % compared to
the top 1%, who pay only 6 .5%. anxiety fueled
by these disparities is a persistent, powerful
political driver across Ohio. Another continuous
flashpoint has been voter access. A 2020 study
ranked Ohio as the 17th hardest state for citizens
to vote in. And this is partly due to the policy
of purging infrequent voters from the rolls,
a practice intended to ensure election security.
That purging policy was challenged all the way
to the Supreme Court in the case, Husted VA Philip
Randolph Institute. Critics argued it violated
the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
By making it too difficult for citizens to maintain
their voting rights. It's a continuous tension
point between accessibility and administrative
control that remains a dominant political theme.
And most recently, Ohioans demonstrated the power
of direct democracy on abortion rights. In 2023,
citizens approved a constitutional amendment
strengthening those rights. Which was a major
statewide social policy decision made directly
by voters. It highlighted the power of that large
unaffiliated voter bloc to override the state's
increasingly conservative legislative lean. Finally,
we must mention transportation, which is critical
for a state defined by logistics and connectivity.
While Ohio has extensive road and freight rail
networks, there is one stunning gap that underlines
modern infrastructural challenges. Columbus is
the largest city in the entire U .S. with no
passenger rail service. Union Station in Columbus
last served passengers way back in 1979. For
a major metropolitan center in the heart of it
all, located within a day's drive of half the
nation's population, that lack of modern passenger
rail access is a striking failure of interregional
connectivity. Though for the recreational traveler,
the sources do offer an alternative. Ohio boasts
extensive scenic trails, including the massive
1 ,444 -mile Buckeye Trail loop that circles
the entire state. What stands out to me is Ohio's
relentless historical importance, nearly accidental
by the sheer virtue of its location. It really
is. It was home to complex ancient earthwork
societies, the definitive frontier of the U .S.
that prohibited slavery, the crucible for the
industrial age. And the literal birthplace of
both aviation and the NFL. It is truly a microcosm
of American transformation. Today, it's navigating
the intense complexities of post -industrial
life. grappling with critical issues like income
inequality and shifting political loyalties,
all while retaining its status as a critical
geographical and logistical link between the
Midwest and the Northeast. We've seen how much
Ohio relies on its physical location, linking
the Midwest and Northeast and bordering Lake
Erie. We also detailed how the state was fundamentally
defined by its history of water conflict. From
the War of 1812 to the bloodless Kalia War. And
it's brilliant pioneering response to the Great
Dayton Flood that led to the first modern flood
-controlled engineering projects. This raises
an important question for you, the listener,
as you consider Ohio's future. Given that the
state's origins and its name rely entirely on
water, and given the strange legal reality that
the state technically barely owns the Ohio River,
the Great River itself, how much will future
economic success hinge not just on high -tech
investment through programs like the Third Frontier,
but on the continuing... vitality, access and
political management of that fundamental geographic
resource. The control of that river is owned
by its neighbors, but the future of the Buckeye
State relies on its flow.