Before it was admitted as a state, Ohio was part of the Northwest Territory, which was the first frontier area in our history. Now, Ohio is more populated than all but six other states and is home to more than 11 million inhabitants. The name of the state is an Anglicized form of the Native American word ohi-yo, which means "great river" in the Iroquois tongue. Ohio's nickname is the "Buckeye State, a reference to the Ohio buckeye tree which dominates the landscape in much of the state.
These two names indicate a great truth about Ohio: it contains vast expanses of natural lands to this day, despite the development that has taken place in some parts of the state. Ohio offers visitors more than a thousand miles of hiking trails, many of them located in the state parks that occupy almost 200,000 acres of prime Ohio land. Some country areas in Ohio are home to a sizeable Amish population. Here, visitors can see a lifestyle in action that most of our forebears left behind long ago. Since the Amish reject modern technology, the horse and buggy is a common sight in these areas.
Ohio is also home to quite a few major American cities, including seven that provide homes to more than half a million residents when one includes their greater metropolitan areas. This means that vacationers planning trips to the state can find Ohio holiday homes in many different areas.