Ohio Bicentennial

From 1997 to September 2002,[2] the Committee commissioned Scott Hagan of Belmont County to paint a barn in each county with the committee's logo and colors. Nearly 2,000 barn owners volunteered their barns to be painted.[3] In the end, Hagan painted 101 barns freehand, including one in each county.[4] One was destroyed by a tornado shortly after its painting and was replaced.[2][5] The barn painting program was conceived as a cost-effective way to advertise: each barn cost $1,500 to paint, about $500 less than the rent for a billboard. The painted barns celebrated the state's 200th anniversary in 2003. By 2013, many of the painted barns had faded or been repainted or torn down.[6] Hagan went on to paint barn advertisements across the country.[7] (The barn painting program is not to be confused with the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Bicentennial Farm program.)

The Commission also commissioned The Verdin Company of Cincinnati to cast a bronze bell on site, out in the open, in each county throughout the bicentennial year.[8] Each 250-pound (110 kg) bell took two days to cast using a mobile foundry.[9][10]

During the summer of 2003, a wagon train traveled across the state on the historic National Road from Martins Ferry to the Indiana state line at New Paris.[11]

The Ohio Bicentennial license plate

The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles also issued a radical redesign of the state's license plate that bore the Commission's logo to the left, the words "1803 Ohio Bicentennial 2003" across the top, and a new six-digit numbering scheme. Previously, commemorative license plates had been issued for the state's sesquicentennial in 1953 and for the Northwest Territory's sesquicentennial in 1938.

• In 2002, the United States Mint released 632,032,000 quarters commemorating Ohio's bicentennial as part of its 50 State Quarters program.[12]
• In 2003, the Ohio Historical Society restored the Adena Mansion, originally the home of Thomas Worthington.[13]
• In 2000, the Commission sponsored a sculpture, Hammy Birthday Ohio, as part of Cincinnati's Big Pig Gig event. The sides of the pig-shaped sculpture depict a bicentennial barn on one side and a cornfield on the other. After the event concluded, the sculpture was moved to the Earth's Harvest Agricultural Garden at the Ohio Governor's Mansion.[14]
• The Blaine Hill "S" Bridge in Blaine, the oldest standing bridge in the state, was designated the "Ohio Bicentennial Bridge".

• Wilkinson, Christina (January 1, 2003). Bicentennial Barns of Ohio: A Tribute to the Barns and Their Owners. Rosewood Press. ISBN 0-9742020-0-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) A history of the bicentennial barns licensed by the Bicentennial Commission.
• Opening the Door West (television production). Reedsville, Ohio: Shelburne Films. 2003.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ohio Bicentennial.

• "Ohio Bicentennial Commission". Archived from the original on December 24, 2003. Retrieved September 8, 2013.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
• Ohio Bicentennial Barns – photos and addresses of Bicentennial Barns
• The Barn Artist – website of the Bicentennial Barn artist