OHIO (USA)

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Cleveland

Located to the south of Lake Erie, Ohio is the easternmost of the Great Lake states and one of the most industrialised regions in the country. Railroads, the Ohio River and the ports on Lake Erie, as well as the construction of the Erie-Ohio Canal linking the two waterways, aided the state's development as a major manufacturing centre, combined with abundant natural resources that enabled its cities to become important centres of industry. However most of the industry is clustered around the Ohio River to the east.

Ohio's proficiency as a manufacturing hub continues today, but cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland have undergone a major rejuvenation and are surprisingly attractive, having successfully managed to exchange factories and warehouses for gleaming downtown centres. Cincinnati offers a variety of museums, galleries, fine dining and shopping, while Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a major internationally acclaimed attraction. Fascinating neighbourhoods, miles of parklands and a revitalised lakefront image are drawing visitors to this city on the shores of Lake Erie. The state capital of Columbus is the main hub of education, research and commerce and is a lively college city with fine architecture and several interesting museums.

Although dominated by its three main cities, the most visited destinations in the state are the sandy shores of the Lake Erie Islands with a wide range of recreational activities including boating, fishing, swimming, as well as numerous historical sites and nature areas.

Despite its association with industry and pollution, the state of Ohio is mostly covered in fertile farmland, and the northeast is home to the world's largest Amish population, a decidedly old-fashioned community sell their freshly grown produce along with traditional handmade crafts in the small town country shops. To the south lies Ohio's outback, a less populated region that is heavily forested and can best be experienced in Wayne National Forest.

Enigmatic traces of Ohio's earliest inhabitants can be seen at the Great Serpent Mound , a grassy state park sixty miles east of Cincinnati, where a cleared hilltop high above a river was reshaped to represent a giant snake swallowing an egg, possibly by the Adena Indians around 800 BC. When the French claimed the area in 1699, it was inhabited by the Iroquois , in whose language Ohio means "something great." In the eighteenth century, its prime position between Lake Erie and the Ohio River made it the subject of fierce contention between the French and British. Once the British had acquired control of most of the French land east of the Mississippi, settlers from New England began to establish communities along both the Ohio River and the Iroquois War Trail paths on the shores of the lake.

Although the state is dominated by its triumvirate of "C"s ( Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati ), its most visited destinations are the Lake Erie Islands , which have benefited from the recent cleanup of the polluted lake and now attract thousands of partying mainlanders. Cincinnati and Cleveland, the latter hit especially hard by the recession, have both undergone major face-lifts and are surprisingly attractive, as is the comparatively unassuming state capital of Columbus.

Amtrak trains between New York or Washington and Chicago stop at either Cincinnati or Cleveland and Toledo. Ohio is well served by Greyhound buses , and there are major airports at Cleveland and Cincinnati.