Points of Interest
5/18/2005The Allen County Museum, 620 West Market St. in Lima, is touted as one of the state s best county museums, offering hundreds of items as well as a separate interactive Children s Museum.
At the Delphos Postal Museum, 131 North Main St., visitors learn about everything from mail processing to the development of letters, stamps, and postmarks.
AuGlaize Village consists of more than 40 new, restored, and reconstructed buildings from the late 1800s, including a cider mill, a sawmill, and a one-room schoolhouse. The village, on Krouse Road off U.S. 24 west of Defiance, also has a military museum, a model railroad museum, and a natural history and archaeology museum.
The Merry-Go-Round Museum preserves and promotes the art and history of the carousel. Visitors to 301 Jackson St. in Sandusky are even given the opportunity to ride on a restored carousel.
The Inland Seas Maritime Museum in Vermilion features various annual events, including a lecture series that is free to the public and typically scheduled Tuesday evenings. This lecture series features area authors, shipwreck enthusiasts, historians, local television and radio personalities, and recording artists.
The Edison Birthplace Museum, 9 North Edison Drive in Milan, is the brick cottage where Thomas Edison was born and now houses furnishings and mementos from the inventor s career.
Inscription Rock State Memorial on Kelleys Island depicts the only known Erie culture example of Indian pictograph work, which was drawn sometime between 1200 and 1650.
The 321 acres of Goll Woods State Nature Preserve offer the least disturbed woodland known to remain in extreme northwestern Ohio and some of the largest trees remaining in the state.
The Black Heritage Library and Cultural Center, 817 Harmon St., Findlay, offers material to borrow and several exhibits, including U.S. commemorative stamps reflecting the history of black Americans. It is the only library in the world that was awarded the Smithsonian s Black Wing Exhibit focusing on the contribution of black aviators from World War II to the space shuttle program.
Ghost Town on County Road 40 south of Findlay is a reconstructed village of the early 1800s containing more than a dozen full-size, historically accurate buildings.
Mazza Collection Galleria of the University of Findlay is a collection of original artwork by the most distinguished illustrators of children s books and is known as the only teaching gallery in the world specializing in this form of art.
The newly renovated 1880 Victorian Jasper Hull Flater Home with its period furnishings houses the Hancock County Historical Museum, 422 West Sandusky St., Findlay.
The Henry County Courthouse, 660 North Perry St., Napoleon, was constructed of brick and stone in 1882 and is graced with a 160-foot tower and topped by a 15-foot figure of the goddess of justice.
The Firelands Museum, 4 Case Ave., Norwalk, has one of the nation s finest collections of antique guns and is operated by the Firelands Historical Society, the second-oldest such society in the state.
Toledo Botanical Garden, 5403 Elmer Drive, features more than 8,500 cataloged trees, shrubs, and flowers as well as countless birds. Admission to the gardens is free except during special events.
Launched in 1911, the 617-foot S.S. Willis B. Boyer Museum Ship was once the largest freighter on the Great Lakes. Now restored, it is docked at Toledo s International Park.
The Wolcott House Museum Complex at 1031 River Rd. in Maumee features a new exhibit this year titled Stitches Through Time: An Exhibit of Quilting and Quilt Making. The complex includes the federal-style Wolcott House, an 1840s Greek Revival home, a saltbox farmhouse, and a log cabin.
The Butterfly House, 11455 Obee Rd. in Whitehouse, contains more than 500 butterflies of varying species from around the world that can be seen fluttering from flower to flower.
Colorful wildflowers and more than 300 species of birds can be found on the Lake Erie shoreline in both the 1,821-acre stretch of marshland of the Magee Marsh near Oak Harbor and the 4,300-acre Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.
The Perry s Victory and International Peace Memorial visitors center in Put-in-Bay features the Perry Monument, the third-largest national monument in the country in honor of Admiral Oliver Hazard Perry.
African Safari Wildlife Park off State Rt. 2 is where wild animals roam free while people stay locked in their cars. The park, on Lightner Road off the Route 2 bypass near Port Clinton, is Ohio s only drive-through safari.
Historic Marblehead Lighthouse, which opened in 1822 on Marblehead peninsula, is part of the Lake Erie Islands State Park. It is known as the oldest operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes.
The Paulding County Carnegie Public Library, built in 1916, was the first county library in the United States built by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.
A more than 170-year-old cider mill on County Road R, south of Pandora, draws in visitors throughout the year.
The Clyde Museum in the Clyde Public Library, 222 West Buckeye St., features models of Native American home life in northern Ohio as well as mementos pertaining to famous Clyde natives, Civil War Gen. James B. McPherson and author Sherwood Anderson.
The Ritz Theatre, an Ohio landmark, 30 South Washington St. in Tiffin, is a 1928 vaudeville/movie theater that presents performing arts events and films.
The Tiffin Glass Museum, 25 South Washington St., houses a display of original Tiffin glassware produced at the Tiffin Glass Factory.
Just south of Bellevue are Seneca Caverns. Discovered in 1872, they consist of a labyrinth of passageways and rooms up to 250 feet in length.
The Sorrowful Mother Shrine, on State Rt. 269 south of Bellevue, is said to be the Midwest s oldest shrine.
Wassenberg Art Center, 643 South Washington St. in Van Wert, offers a collection of paintings and art objects.
Several of the more than 70-year-old concrete slabs that were used as markers along Lincoln Highway can be seen at the Van Wert County Historical Museum, 602 North Washington St. The 3,389-mile road ran from New York City to San Francisco and was the country s first transcontinental highway.
A predominant landmark in this county is the Romanesque Revival-style Williams County Courthouse in Bryan, which was built in 1888 using stones weighing as much as six tons each.
The Wood County Historical Museum, 13660 County Home Rd. in Bowling Green, used to be an asylum and is now known as one of the last remaining county poor farms to have nearly all of its original buildings.
A piece of summer is captured year round in the biosphere at the 577 Foundation, 577 East Front St., Perrysburg. The 14-acre estate is home to a biodome, a cow barn, a log cabin, and more.
Indian Trial Caverns, on State Rt. 568 north of Carey, is one of Ohio s largest caverns and the only one to have natural skylights and a natural stone ladder.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation, 315 Clay St., Carey draws thousands of people each year to pray for comfort and healing before the 3-foot-tall statue of Mary.
Hidden Lake Gardens, on M-50 in Tipton, covers about 670 acres, including five miles of hiking trails and more than 2,500 plants.
The state s oldest continuously operating theater, the Croswell Opera House, can be found in downtown Adrian at 129 East Maumee St.
Hillsdale s Poor House, made famous by Will Carleton s poem, Over the Hills to the Poor House, has been renovated by the Hillsdale County Historical Society and is now a museum featuring Mr. Carleton, Michigan s poet laureate for four decades.
A monument has been erected by the Hillsdale Historical Society at the point where the boundaries of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan meet.
In Monroe, where George Armstrong Custer spent his early years, exhibits at the Monroe County Historical Museum on South Monroe Street include his personal letters and his military trunk.