Every Lake
Ohio
Where the rectangular land survey began: county lines ruled straight, the Ohio River bending below.
Ohio in relief
The land itself, cut in six steps of birch from the lowlands to the high ground — the cities starred, the summit and rise on the title block. No counties, no roads: just the shape of Ohio.
About Ohio
Ohio is the first state laid out on the grid. The Seven Ranges, surveyed west of the Pennsylvania line beginning in 1785, started the rectangular land system that squares off most of the country, and the board shows the seams where different survey districts met at odd angles. Lake Erie forms the north edge, the Ohio River the whole winding south and east. The glaciers flattened the west into the corn plains and left the Great Black Swamp near Toledo; the southeast escaped the ice and stays hilly Appalachian plateau. Eighty-eight counties, most of them tidy rectangles.
Ohio came in on March 1, 1803 as the 17th state, the first from the Northwest Territory. Columbus did not exist yet: the legislature chose the site in 1812 for its position at the center of the state on the Scioto, and built a capital there from scratch. The map's spine is the National Road, now US-40, the first federally funded highway, crossing at Zanesville and Columbus. I-70, I-71 and I-75 make the modern triangle between Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.
- Six layers of birch — the land in elevation steps
- The summit and total rise on the title block
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A double rule engraved around the edge
- Every county line and the state border
- The interstates with their shields — 18 on this board
- The major cities, starred and named
- Title block with the admission date and capital
- A mile ruler engraved around the frame
