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Ohio’s license plates once read “The Heart of It All,” a description that is fitting for a state that offers a little bit of everything American. Also called the crossroads of America, Ohio is at once urban and rural, northern and southern, booming suburb and deteriorating industrial town. A land of large cities and small farms, Ohio is defined by the state’s central location and its economic and social diversity.

First inhabited by Native Americans populations that by the late 1600s had been devastated by epidemics and wars, Ohio was then claimed by the Iroquois confederation, though the Miamis, Delawares, Wyandots, Shawnees and others also called the region home. After passing under French and British control, Ohio became a U.S. Territory in 1783 and the 17th state in 1803.

Ohio’s geography is marked by plains along Lake Erie, which forms most of the state’s northern border, plateaus and lowlands in the western and central regions, and rugged hills and forests on the Allegheny Plateau in the southeast. This region of the state is considered part of Appalachia, with a distinct identity built on a history of coal mining and manufacturing.

Ohio links the Northeast to the Midwest, a central location that has greatly influenced the region’s development. A vital artery for troop and supply movements during the Civil War, the Buckeye State was settled by people from all sections of the early U.S., drawing its population indiscriminately from the South, central eastern seaboard, Appalachia and New England.

The diverse origins of Ohio’s population are reflected in the different characters of the state’s towns and cities. The starkly differing character of major cities such as Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland are as much due to this social make-up as to the geographic and economic diversity that defines the state.

Ohio depends heavily on manufacturing, specializing in capital goods rather than consumer products. Agriculture is also essential to the state’s economy, reflecting Ohio’s place on America’s Corn Belt. Home to open farmland, small towns, major cities and exploding suburbs, Ohio runs the gamut of what America has to offer.