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.
Ohio does not decide its symbols by custom. Each one is enacted in Chapter 5 of the Ohio Revised Code, under the heading “State Insignia, Seals, and Holidays”, and the statutes are short enough to read in full.
The state tree is the buckeye. Section 5.05 adopts “the tree, Aesculus globra, commonly known as the ‘Buckeye’”. An editorial note attached to the section records that the scientific name was misspelled when the law passed; the correct spelling is Aesculus glabra. The misspelling is still in the statute.
The state flower is the scarlet carnation, and section 5.02 gives an unusual reason for it: the flower is adopted “as a token of love and reverence for the memory of William McKinley”. McKinley, an Ohioan, was assassinated in 1901, and the carnation was associated with him. The state wild flower is separate. Section 5.021 adopts the large white trillium, Trillium grandiflorum, and describes it as “found in every Ohio county”.
The state bird is the cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, under section 5.03. The state animal is the white-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, under section 5.032. The state reptile is the black racer snake, Coluber constrictor constrictor, under section 5.031.
Three symbols are more surprising. The state beverage, under section 5.08, is tomato juice — described in the statute as “the canned, processed juice and pulp of the fruit of the herb Lycopersicon esculentum”. The state gem stone, under section 5.07, is Ohio Flint, “a crypto-crystalline variety of quartz”. The state airplane, under section 5.022, is the 1905 Wright Flyer III, which the statute records as “first flown on June 23, 1905, near Dayton, Ohio”.
The state motto is “With God, All Things Are Possible”, adopted under section 5.06 with effect from October 1959. The state song is “Beautiful Ohio”, adopted under section 5.09.
Chapter 5 also carries the state flag, the governor’s flag, the coat of arms, the state seal, the state fossil fish, the state invertebrate fossil, the state amphibian, the state frog and an official pet, along with Ohio’s statutory holidays. The chapter listing is the quickest way to see the whole set.
Read the chapter: https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/chapter-5