Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
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  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
  • 34waterfalls
  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

New to the guide?

Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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Open the mapAll 365 places on one map. Filter by cabins, campsites, hunting, beaches and more.Explore the map → Browse by countyPick any of Ohio's 88 counties and see its parks, mounds, waterfalls and historic sites.Find your county → Build a tripSave places as you browse, then line them up into a weekend. Kept in your browser, nothing to sign up for.Start a trip →

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One map for every park, mound, historic site, beach, cave, waterfall and oddity in the app.

Lake ErieWest Virginia36 places368 places813 places135 places523 places2321 places2124 places2416 places1613 places134 places418 places182 places217 places1710 places1014 places142 places27 places76 places613 places133 places34 places414 places143 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places22 places22 places26 places64 places4

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Parks, forests & wildlife areas

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117 parks in 7 regions

American Sign Museum

Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Museum
Directions →Official source →

A Camp Washington museum built around a walkable street of vintage neon and storefront signs, said to be the country's largest public collection devoted to signage.

Founder
Tod Swormstedt, a longtime editor at the Cincinnati trade magazine Signs of the Times, who started the collection in the magazine's basement
Founded
1999; opened to the public in 2005 in a smaller space
Current home
A former factory building in Camp Washington, part of the historic Oesterlein Machine Company complex, opened in June 2012
Expanded
2024, roughly doubling the building to about 40,000 square feet
Centerpiece
Signville, a recreated Main Street lined with vintage storefront and neon signs
Also on site
Neonworks of Cincinnati, a working neon shop where visitors can watch glass being bent and old signs restored

The story

Tod Swormstedt spent more than two decades editing Signs of the Times, a Cincinnati trade magazine covering the sign industry that had been in his family for generations, and along the way he began saving retired signage the magazine came across: porcelain gas-station signs, hand-painted storefront pieces, early plastic and neon advertising. By 1999 the growing hoard, stored in the magazine's basement, had become a formal project, and Swormstedt's family put roughly a million dollars toward turning it into a museum. It opened to the public in 2005 in a modest space that quickly proved too small for the collection and the interest it drew.

In 2007 the museum acquired a former factory building in the Camp Washington neighborhood, part of the historic Oesterlein Machine Company complex, and spent several years renovating it before reopening there in June 2012 with about 20,000 square feet, including the newly built Signville streetscape. The collection kept growing through donations, and in 2024 the museum completed a major expansion into a previously unused wing of the same historic building, roughly doubling its footprint to about 40,000 square feet and adding an education center, an archive and a temporary-exhibit gallery. It marked its 25th anniversary in 2025, a run that carried it from a magazine's basement to what it now bills as the country's largest public museum of American signage.

The museum has stayed at this Camp Washington address since 2012; its 2024 growth was an expansion of the same building, not a move.

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.
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
Approximate — boundary or exact point not confirmed
Approximate location, use the address
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.

Visiting

Status
Open Wednesday to Sunday
Hours
Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; closed Monday, Tuesday and major holidays.
Cost
Adults $20; seniors 65 and up $15; military, first responders, students and educators with ID $10; children 12 and under free.
Phone
513-541-6366
Please note
Guided tours run weekends at noon and 2 p.m.; neon-bending demonstrations run Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Casual phone photos are fine; tripods and commercial photography are not allowed without permission.
Address
1330 Monmouth Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45225
More information →DirectionsShow on the map

Hours, prices and even the attractions themselves can change. Confirm before a long drive.

Parks nearby

Eden Park
About 3 miles · A Cincinnati city park with river views.
Open
East Fork State Park
About 24 miles · A large lake park east of Cincinnati.
Open

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

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.