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.
Try:
The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
›
Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
›
Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
›
Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
›
Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
›
Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
›
Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
›
Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
›

Explore Ohio

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

Lake ErieWest Virginia27 places277 places77 places73 places35 places519 places1913 places1319 places1916 places168 places810 places1010 places109 places98 places820 places204 places43 places3Barkcamp State Park4 places47 places77 places76 places69 places917 places173 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places2Forked Run State Park3 places32 places26 places610 places103 places32 places2

Tap a symbol for a preview, or search for a place. Open the key to show or hide categories.

117 parks in 7 regions

American Sign Museum

Cincinnati · Hamilton County
Museum

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.

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

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.