Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Real events too strange to have made the textbook.
Cleveland, OH
Disc jockey Alan Freed, who helped popularize the term rock and roll, was reinterred at Lake View Cemetery in 2016 after his ashes had previously been displayed at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. His grave is marked by a distinctive jukebox-shaped monument that can be visited during cemetery hours.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Televangelist Rex Humbard began building a 750-foot tower in 1971 that was supposed to contain a revolving restaurant and support television broadcasting from his Cathedral of Tomorrow complex. Construction abruptly stopped when the concrete shaft reached 494 feet, and the unfinished tower still dominates the skyline as a communications structure; view it from public roads and do not enter the fenced property.
Leavittsburg, OH
The tiny crossroads community called Center of the World was named in the 1840s by businessman Randall D. Wilmot, who hoped the stagecoach stop would become an important settlement. The dream never materialized, but an official green highway sign still marks the oddly named place near the junction of OH-82 and OH-5/OH-534; view it safely from a legal roadside position.
Chardon, OH
Hector Boiardi, the Italian-born chef whose name became the Chef Boyardee brand, is entombed in the Crucifixion Mausoleum at All Souls Cemetery. Visitors can find his crypt in the Sacred Heart aisle during cemetery and mausoleum access hours, but this remains an active burial place and should be visited respectfully.
Cincinnati, OH
Cincinnati began building an underground rapid-transit system in the 1920s using the former Miami and Erie Canal route, but the project was abandoned before any trains ever ran. Sections of tunnel and four unfinished stations still survive beneath the city, but official tours ended years ago and the sealed tunnels are illegal and unsafe to enter; record this as a closed historical stop only.
Hamilton, OH
The Fernald site produced uranium metal for the U.S. nuclear weapons program during the Cold War before shutting down production in 1989 and undergoing a massive environmental cleanup. It is now a Department of Energy nature preserve, and the free visitor center contains exhibits on uranium production, contamination, remediation and the site's transformation into public trails and habitat.
Akron, OH
Completed in 1929, the Goodyear Airdock was built to construct and house enormous lighter-than-air craft and was once one of the world's largest buildings without interior supports. The industrial facility is not a public attraction, but the immense black hangar can be viewed from surrounding public roads without entering the secured property.
Euclid, OH
This abandoned concrete bridge was built for a 1920s residential development that never materialized, leaving a substantial bridge standing alone in the woods. It can be reached from trails in the Hillandale Park area, but the structure is weathered and damaged, so visitors should stay on established legal access routes and avoid climbing unsafe sections.
Hamilton, OH
This unusual monument marks the grave of John Cleves Symmes Jr., the nineteenth-century Army officer who argued that the Earth was hollow and accessible through enormous openings near the poles. His son erected the stone topped with a hollow globe, and it remains publicly accessible in Hamilton's Ludlow Park.
Put-in-Bay, OH
The enormous Hotel Victory opened on South Bass Island in the 1890s and burned in 1919, leaving behind foundations, portions of its pool and scattered structural remains. The ruins lie around South Bass Island State Park's campground area, and some are within camper-only sections, so visitors should follow park access rules rather than wandering through occupied campsites.
Kelleys Island, OH
A retreating Ice Age glacier carved enormous parallel grooves into the limestone of Kelleys Island, leaving some of the largest and most accessible glacial striations in the world. A walkway surrounds the protected geological feature, but reaching it requires travel to the Lake Erie island, with ferry service varying by season and weather.
Kelleys Island, OH
Stone ruins from Kelleys Island's nineteenth-century wine industry survive near Maple Drive, remnants of an era when Lake Erie islands were major American grape-growing centers. The ruins are on private property, so they should be viewed only from the public road without entering the site.
Ray, OH
The Leo Petroglyph contains dozens of prehistoric figures carved into a sandstone outcrop, including humans, animals and abstract forms associated with Indigenous people of the region. A protective shelter covers the carvings and the state historic site is accessible to visitors from the adjoining public area.
Malta, OH
An underground holding cell used for prisoners in the 1830s was forgotten for more than a century before being rediscovered during excavation in 1964. The dungeon survives near the county jail complex with a historical marker and artifacts, but interior access is not a normal anytime attraction and should be confirmed locally before visiting.
Columbus, OH
The limestone used throughout the Ohio Statehouse contains visible fossils from ancient seas, including corals, brachiopods, sponges and other marine life hundreds of millions of years old. Visitors can use the state's fossil guide to hunt for them in public portions of the Capitol building during open hours.
Bay Village, OH
Concrete bridge piers from an early-twentieth-century electric railway still rise from the wooded Porter Creek valley after the line was abandoned and dismantled. The ruins can be reached legally on foot from the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center area using public paths, but visitors need to hike into the valley rather than drive directly to them.
Bratton Township, OH
Serpent Mound is a massive prehistoric effigy earthwork shaped like an undulating snake and is one of the most distinctive archaeological sites in North America. Visitors can follow the path around the protected mound, use the observation tower and visit the museum during posted hours; climbing on the earthwork or entering the site after the gates close is prohibited.
Willoughby, OH
An unidentified young woman dressed entirely in blue was struck and killed by a train in Willoughby on Christmas Eve 1933, and local residents paid for her burial and a marker reading "Unknown but not forgotten." She was identified decades later as Josephine "Sophie" Klimczak, and a second marker now gives her name beside the original grave in Willoughby Village Cemetery.
Findlay, OH
The Hancock Historical Museum preserves a bathtub recovered from the wreckage of the USS Maine, whose 1898 destruction in Havana Harbor helped push the United States toward the Spanish-American War. The oddly domestic survivor is displayed inside the museum and can be seen during regular public hours.
Bowling Green, OH
The Wood County Museum occupies the county's former nineteenth-century infirmary and poor farm complex. Visitors can explore exhibits on the people who lived and died there along with the grounds, paupers cemetery, former Lunatic Asylum site and Pestilence House, making it far stranger than a typical county history museum.
