The Ohio Glass Museum and Glassblowing Studio in Lancaster. (Credit: Ken Drenten)

By Ken Drenten

Ohio has many places and museums that are delightfully unique and inventive. Some are mysterious, many are historical, and they all sound like fun places to visit. You can find these places nowhere else.

I live in a town that’s home to more than one of these kinds of places. I’ve chosen to include Zanesville’s famed Y-Bridge and the Alan Cottrill Gallery. All told, I’ve found more than 50 places to include that are zany, fun, mysterious or are just plain hard to fit into any other category. I’m sure I’ll be adding more.

You’ll find some excellent glass and ceramics museums as well as a tower of Volkswagen Beetles; a cemetery’s mysterious revolving granite ball, as well as the World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock. There’s something for everyone here.

Below is a sampling; you can find more in Dusty Tires.

Alliance – The Troll Hole Museum, world’s largest collection of troll dolls, 228 E. Main St., (330) 596-1157.

Austinburg – Giant Rocking Chair, 20 feet tall, located two blocks north of SR 307 on Center Road (SR 45).

Bidwell – Ohio Tattoo Museum, preserving and honoring a wide variety of styles, methods, influences and mediums. 1928 Jackson Pike, (740) 441-8190.

Blue Rock – Blue Rock Station, home of Ohio’s first Earthship, offers sustainability tours, green living workshops and more. 1190 Virginia Ridge Road, Philo, (740) 674-4300.

Columbus – The Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum & LIbrary houses the world’s largest collection of materials related to cartoons and comics, including original art, books, journals, comic books, archival materials, and newspaper comic strip pages and clippings. Located at Sullivant Hall, 1813 N. High St., on the campus of The Ohio State University, (614) 292-0538.

Lancaster – Ohio Glass Museum & Glass Blowing Studio has exhibits on Ohio’s glass industry, gallery, gift shop, glass blowing demonstrations and workshops for individuals and groups, memberships. 124 W. Main St., Lancaster.

Louisville – Umbrella Alley is a public art space featuring nearly 200 colorful umbrellas suspended over the street. It’s also home to locally-owned galleries, boutiques, pubs and restaurants. 204 E. Main St., (330) 495-1501.

Zanesville – The Y-Bridge is the only bridge where you go to the middle and turn left or right. The bridge first opened to traffic in 1814 and was rebuilt in 1819, 1831 and 1902. The current bridge was built in 1984 and replicates the design of the 1902 bridge, which was badly damaged in the great flood of 1913. The bridge is located on US 40 or Main Street in downtown Zanesville.

Ken Drenten is creator and editor of Dusty-Tires.com, a travel blog for out-of-the-ordinary places in Ohio.

Subscribe to Dusty Tires and receive a weekly email with the latest blog article. It’s free and ad-free!

All rights reserved, copyright Dusty Tires (dusty-tires.com), 2024.