Ohio guides and local resources
Practical guides to Ohio public services, history and places, grouped by what you need.
Government & Services
How Do You Find an Ohio Court Case Record and Court Type?
This Ohio courts page does not explain how to search for a case record or which court handles which case; it describes Office of Court Services programs, trainings, roundtables, and contacts.
How the Ohio General Assembly works
Ohio’s legislature has 99 representatives and 33 senators, every Senate district is built from three House districts, and service is capped by term limits.
How to find Cleveland city services, report a problem, and contact a department?
Cleveland residents can use the city's page for permits, waste pickup, trash schedules, programs and rules, and can call 311 or 216-664-2000 for non-emergencies or 911 for emergencies.
How to find your Ohio county government website
Start with the Ohio Secretary of State’s county roster, then confirm the department and service on the county’s own website.
What does this Clark County page say about background checks?
This Clark County page explains WebCheck fingerprint background checks run by the sheriff's office; it does not describe the duties of the county auditor.
History & Heritage
Ohio and the first practical aeroplane: the 1905 Wright Flyer III
Ohio’s official state aircraft is not the machine that flew at Kitty Hawk. It is the one the Wright brothers flew two years later, at home in Dayton.
The Ohio & Erie Canal, the ditch that built the state
Dug by hand from 1825, 308 miles from Cleveland to the Ohio River, it cut a journey of weeks down to eighty hours — and a flood ended it.
The Underground Railroad in Ohio: the river, the towpath and the lake
Ohio sat between a slave state and Canada, and its geography became its role — a river to cross, a canal to follow north, and a lake to cross at the end.
The presidents Ohio sent to the White House, and the one born elsewhere
Seven presidents were born in Ohio. An eighth is counted as an Ohio president but was born in Virginia — which is why the totals you see disagree.
What can visitors see at the First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton?
The First Ladies National Historic Site in Canton is open seasonally, with a visitor center, rotating museum exhibits about First Ladies, and a Saxton House tour that includes the formal parlor and other rooms.
What can you see at Dayton's aviation heritage sites?
Six Dayton sites tell the stories of the Wright brothers and Paul Laurence Dunbar, from a bicycle shop and printing office to Huffman Prairie and Dunbar's last home.
Which Ohio History Connection sites can you visit and how should you plan?
Ohio History Connection links more than 50 historic sites and museums in 40 counties, mostly through local partners, and visitors can use its travel guide, event listings and closure notices to plan a trip.
Why Ohio celebrates statehood on March 1, and what happened in 1953
Congress admitted Ohio in February 1803, but the date Ohio observes is March 1 — and it was only fixed there by a resolution 150 years later.
Places & Outdoors
Cuyahoga Valley: Ohio’s national park, and it costs nothing to enter
The park runs along the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland and Akron, carries more than 125 miles of trail, and the Park Service says no entrance pass is required.
Do you have to pay to enter Cuyahoga Valley National Park?
Cuyahoga Valley National Park charges no entrance fee and requires no pass to get in, though shelter rentals and optional federal recreation passes cost money.
Ohio’s World Heritage Site: the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks
Eight earthwork complexes in southern Ohio, built up to two thousand years ago, became the United States’ twenty-fifth World Heritage Site in 2023.
Ohio’s highest and lowest ground
The high point of Ohio is a hill in Logan County, not a mountain, and the state’s lowest ground is where the Ohio River leaves the state.
What Is Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial and How Do You Get There?
Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial in Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island, Ohio, honors Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's Battle of Lake Erie victory and a long-held peace agreement, and visitors can arrive by car and ferry, plane, or boat.
What Ohio’s fossils record: a trilobite, an armoured fish and two vanished seas
Ohio has two official fossils, and between them they cover more than a hundred million years of the seas that once covered the state.
What should a first-time visitor know about walking trails at Cuyahoga Valley National Park?
The park has more than 125 miles of trails, from nearly level to challenging, and first-timers can get maps, a trail guide, and loaner hiking poles at Boston Mill Visitor Center.
What wildlife can you see in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and where?
The park’s forests, fields, river and wetlands support birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects, with the river corridor and wetlands especially important to wildlife.
Which Hopewell earthworks can you visit in Ohio, and what is at each site?
Ohio's Hopewell park contains five named earthwork units, and this planning page explains what the park offers while pointing readers elsewhere for details on which sites are open for touring.
Roads & Travel
How to check Ohio highway closures with OHGO
Use Ohio’s official traffic service to check highway incidents, construction and road conditions before travelling.
What is the difference between a watch, warning, and advisory?
The National Weather Service office in Cleveland lists watches, warnings, and advisories under its local criteria and current hazards pages, but the source page does not define how each term differs.
What should an Ohio resident know before and during a winter storm?
The National Weather Service winter safety page does not give Ohio-specific steps in the supplied text; it points to national information about winter storm hazards and safety before, during, and after a storm.
What should you do if a flooded road blocks your drive?
Federal flood safety guidance stresses that drivers need to know how to handle a flooded road, but points readers to maps and educational resources rather than listing steps.
Which National Weather Service office covers Cincinnati and Dayton, and what does it publish?
The National Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio, known as ILN, covers the Cincinnati and Dayton area and publishes forecasts, hazards, radar, river, climate, and preparedness information.
Symbols & State Facts
Ohio’s other official symbols, including a barn and two different tomatoes
Beyond the flag and the buckeye, Ohio has adopted an amphibian, a fruit, a native fruit, an artifact and a barn — and the tomato appears twice.
Ohio’s state symbols, and the laws that made them official
Every official Ohio symbol is written into Chapter 5 of the Ohio Revised Code. Here is what the statutes themselves say, and what several of them reveal.
The Ohio flag: the only state burgee, and its seventeen folds
Ohio is the only state whose flag is not a rectangle, and Ohio law prescribes how to fold it — in seventeen folds, for the seventeenth state.