Ohio attractions

Visitors at Indian Creek Distillery cozy up to the bar for some samples.

Among Ohio’s numerous tourism “trails” that group loosely kindred attractions to create a single novelty destination, the recently conceived Sweets and Spirits Trail in Miami County seems a perfect pairing for this time of year.

My husband, Mike, and I made a date of it recently. To guide us along the route, we downloaded the Miami County Sweets and Spirits Trail app, which showcases all stops and includes a map with distances between each location. Some spots offer incentives for visiting, including purchase discounts, free samples, or a free shot glass. As we virtually checked in at each location, we earned points toward prizes from the visitors bureau.

We were taken with the area’s charming small towns and the warmth and authenticity of the trail’s shop owners. For example: 

The reconstructed Central Mound at the Seip Earthworks southwest of Chillicothe (photograph by Mary Salen/Getty Images).

Jennifer Aultman speaks with reverence when she talks about Ohio’s earthworks — eight of which, linked together as the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, have been inscribed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scienti

About 1,100 landmarks around the globe have been added to the list since the program began in 1972, with 25 of them in the U.S. This is the first in Ohio.

Why are they special?

There are 10 criteria, any one of which qualifies a site for the World Heritage list. The OHC/NPS team cited two of those as they made the case for the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks

It’s often standing room only when the ODNR’s Wild Ohio Harvest mobile kitchen makes a stop.

Kendra Wecker, chief of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ wildlife division, swears she’s not trying to put any food trucks out of business.

The kitchen and its chefs cook and serve up free food created with wild-harvested Ohio game, including fish, fowl, and other critters. And Ken Fry, ODNR outdoor skills specialist, says it all began when he was cooking up such treats from the bed of a pickup truck with a pop-up tent at a Jefferson County farmers market a while back.

“It was so well-received that I presented the trailer idea to my supervisor and he liked it and said, ‘Let’s go with it,’” Fry says.

Carillon Historical Park in Dayton gets decked out for “A Carillon Christmas,” which harkens back to Yuletide seasons of yesteryear and transforms its signature bell tower into Ohio’s largest musical Christmas tree (photo by Damaine Vonada).

This time of year, you can find dozens of events that feature chestnuts roasting on open fires and Yuletide carols being sung by choirs, but there’s only one holiday celebration that features Ohio’s grandest musical Christmas tree.  

Located on 65 acres bordering the Great Miami River, Carillon Historical Park is an open-air museum founded in the 1940s by industrialist Edward Deeds and his wife, Edith. Because his passion was history and hers was music, they made Deeds Carillon the focal point of a collection of buildings and artifacts that highlight both Dayton’s heritage and its many contributions to industry and transportation.

The Troll Hole

What happens when you receive a troll doll at the impressionable young age of 5? If you’re Sherry Grooms, you end up with a museum. 

One room has the Troll Bowl, a dollhouse version of a football stadium, where trolls are dressed as football players and fans sport NFL attire. There’s also the Rock ’n’ Troll Hall of Fame featuring troll versions of Rod Stewart, Justin Timberlake, KISS, and more. 

Troll collecting has made Grooms an expert on troll doll history. The original is from Denmark, where Thomas Dam carved wooden dolls for his daughter, inspired by trolls of Scandinavian folklore. Dam’s designs became mass-produced in the U.S. in the 1960s. 

Bob Lawson, a member of the Cincinnati chapter of the National Model Railroad Association, built this large HO-scale model of the Southern Railway, which traveled from Cincinnati to Chattanooga, in his Cincinnati-area home (photo courtesy of John Burchnall).

Jody Davis got his first electric train for Christmas when he was 8 years old. But his love affair with trains started even earlier. 

Davis joined Associated Model Railroad Engineers of Coshocton when he was 14, and currently, at 55, serves as president. 

An early start

It’s a familiar story with model railroaders: A childhood fascination with trains leads to a Christmas or birthday gift of a model train set. Retired music educator Bruce Knapp, 81, of North Bend, is still an active participant and member of the National Model Railroad Association’s Cincinnati chapter.

When French refugees settled in Gallipolis, they brought with them a strong appreciation for the arts, resulting in the opening of the Ariel Opera House in 1895 at the height of the "opera house" movement.

When Lora Lynn Snow first saw the inside of the Ariel Opera House in 1987, the first thing she noticed, of course, was the quarter-century’s worth of bird droppings that coated just about everything.

Today, thanks to that love affair — and a lot of hard work — Gallipolis (population 3,300) is home to one of the most distinctive, if unlikely, symphonies in the country. The Ohio Valley Symphony, replete with tubas, French horns, cellos, bass violins, flutes, harps, trumpets, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, and more, begins its 34th season of performance at the Ariel this month.

The hills that hem in this tiny Ohio River town on the southern tip of the state are truly alive with the sound of music. 

Peggy Kelly (pictured at center) attends the Ohio Renaissance Festival both alone and with her family during the course of the event.

Peggy Kelly first attended the Ohio Renaissance Festival about 15 years ago.

The festival lasts eight to nine weeks, and Kelly, who is a season passholder, says she’ll typically attend six to eight times during that period. She attends often enough that she says her husband knows exactly where she’s headed if she gets up early — and that she’ll be gone for most of the day.

Beech Creek Gardens offers a multitude of sensory experiences.

Tucked in a scenic area just west of Alliance, Beech Creek Botanical Gardens and Nature Preserve is an enchanting space to discover nature, offering a breath of fresh air for people of all ages.

Beech Creek’s multiple gardens, trails, exhibits, and events — from life-size Lincoln Logs and treehouses in the playground to a caterpillar nursery and annual butterfly parade — are enjoyed yearly by more than 40,000 visitors.

Here are a few of our favorite spaces.