Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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117 parks in 7 regions

Carillon Historical Park, Dayton

Dayton · Montgomery County · Southwest Ohio
A 65-acre open-air museum with the Wright Flyer III
National Register of Historic PlacesWright Brothers National Museum

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Verified entrance or visitor center
Carillon Historical Park, 1000 Carillon Blvd, Dayton
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

A 65-acre history museum about Dayton's inventions, with the 1905 Wright Flyer III, canal and railroad exhibits and a 151-foot bell tower.

Park
A 65-acre open-air museum with 30 to 35 historic buildings and exhibits, from the 1796 Newcom Tavern to a 1850s-style brewery
Founders
Colonel Edward A. Deeds and Edith Walton Deeds; the park opened on June 3, 1950
Carillon
The 151-foot Deeds Carillon, built in 1940, with 57 bells
Flyer
The original 1905 Wright Flyer III, the world's first practical airplane and a National Historic Landmark
Designer
The Olmsted Brothers, sons of Central Park's designer
Operator
Dayton History, which also runs Hawthorn Hill, Orville Wright's mansion

The story

Colonel Edward Deeds, a Dayton engineer and businessman who helped rebuild the city after the flood of 1913 and helped form the Miami Conservancy District, founded the park with his wife Edith. She had visited a carillon in Bruges, Belgium in 1939, and they gave Dayton the 151-foot Deeds Carillon in 1940. The park, designed by the Olmsted Brothers, opened to the public on June 3, 1950, and was renamed Carillon Historical Park in 1985. It joined the Montgomery County Historical Society in 2005 to form Dayton History.

It shows Dayton as a place of invention, in sections for settlement, transportation, invention and industry. The John W. Berry Sr. Wright Brothers Aviation Center holds the 1905 Wright Flyer III, which the Wrights considered their most important aircraft and which was moved and rebuilt under Orville Wright's supervision, along with more Wright artifacts than anywhere else in the world. Other exhibits include NCR cash registers, the Carousel of Dayton Innovation, the Newcom Tavern, canal and railroad displays and a working brewery. Dayton History also runs Hawthorn Hill, Orville's mansion, by pre-paid tour. The Buckeye Trail's Troy Section passes through Dayton.

Related sites

The Bells That Came From a Trip to Bruges

Edith Deeds went to Belgium in 1939 and heard the carillon in Bruges. She came home and persuaded her husband, one of Dayton's great engineers, that the city needed bells of its own.

The tower went up in 1940 and the park grew up around it, until it held the plane that taught the world to fly.

Behind the legend

The founding, the 1939 Bruges trip, the tower's 1940 date and height, the 1950 opening, the 1985 renaming and the 2005 merger are from Wikipedia, Dayton History's site and Grokipedia. The number of buildings is given as 30, 35 and 'more than 30' in different sources. Admission is Dayton History's.

If you go

See the Wright Flyer III, ride the carousel, and plan around a Sunday carillon recital.

Visiting

Status
Open daily
Managed by
Dayton History
Hours
Monday to Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday noon to 5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Carillon recitals are on Sundays at 2 p.m.
Admission
Adults 18 to 59 $14, seniors $12, children 3 to 17 $10; members and young children free.
Phone
937-293-2841
Please note
Hawthorn Hill tours need advance pre-paid admission, with a shuttle from the park.
Address
1000 Carillon Blvd, Dayton, OH 45409
Official information →DirectionsFind trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.

Parks nearby

Eastwood MetroPark
About 6 miles · Trailside camp on the Buckeye Trail.
Open
Taylorsville MetroPark
About 12 miles · Trailside camp on the Great Miami River Trail.
Open
John Bryan State Park
About 25 miles · A gorge park near Yellow Springs.
Open

Buckeye Trail

Troy Section
52 miles · on or near the Buckeye Trail
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.