On Statehood Day, March 1, 2003, Ohio will kick off an eight-month Bicentennial celebration that will peak in summer and fall.

        Ohioans will honor their past and its heroes, salute their present, and duly mark the beginning of their state's third century.

        Although the public knows little about Statehood Day (when Ohio became the 17th state admitted to the Union), it will be officially celebrated in a ceremony at Adena State Memorial in Chillicothe. Adena was the home of Thomas Worthington, a writer of Ohio's constitution and one of its first two senators.

        “On that day, Adena will reopen to the public in all its majesty,” said Lee Yoakum, a spokesman for the Ohio Bicentennial Commission in Columbus. “It will feature a revamped visitors center, mansion and gardens.”

        Peter Hatch, director of grounds at Monticello, has analyzed Mr. Worthington's diaries and archival papers to get a sense of how Adena and its gardens looked in the early 1800s. He has helped restore the gardens, and three magnificent terraces of about 20,000 square feet each.

        “It will take 10-12 years for the gardens to mature,” Mr. Yoakum said. “This is a living work in progress.”

        Statehood was granted on March 1, 1803, “for all practical purposes,” said Michael O'Bryant, editor of the Ohio Almanac and a veteran teacher in the Mason schools.

        “(Ohio) was not officially admitted to the Union until August 7, 1953,” he said. “Although Ohio has been sending congressmen and senators to Washington, D.C., since 1803, the U.S. Congress never actually voted on the formal resolution admitting Ohio to the Union.”

        Finally, in 1953 a bill was introduced to admit Ohio to the United States. “U.S. Rep. Clarence Brown threatened that Ohio was going to apply for foreign aid if the bill didn't pass,” Mr. O'Bryant said.

        President Eisenhower signed it — just in time to celebrate Ohio's sesquicentennial.

        In 2003, Statehood Day will take on added significance because Ohio will turn 200 years old.

        “I'm trying to develop something for it in Cincinnati to keep the Statehood Day memory alive,” said Patrick Korosec, southwest regional representative for the Bicentennial Commission. “It would be great to celebrate on Fountain Square.”

        Five major events, called signature events, are intended to attract visitors both from inside and outside the state.

        “We want them to be our major travel and tourism events,” said Fred Stratmann of the Bicentennial Commission. “They are well planned out, so they should generate a lot of attention for the Bicentennial.”

        The first major event (and, at $119,000, the least expensive) is a wagon train that will start in late June and run through mid-July 2003. It is called the Path to Statehood: Bicentennial Wagon Train.

        Mr. Stratmann said the wagon train will travel through Ohio and represent settlement patterns of the early 1800s.

        It will run from eastern Ohio to the Indiana border, and involve 12 Ohio counties and dozens of communities.

        “We look for it to begin June 10, 2003, in Martin's Ferry with 10-12 wagons and animals that will travel about 12 miles a day along Old U.S. 40,” Mr. Yoakum said. “The eastern part of the trip will be the most arduous because the land is hilly. What we're shooting for is to be in Worthington on July 4, 2003. The purpose is to provide an activity that truly celebrates the Bicentennial and involves a lot of people. They'll really see what it was like to migrate to Ohio in 1803.”

        The city of Worthington (which also turns 200 years old in 2003) in Franklin County is a likely destination for the July 4 celebration.

        From July 3-20, the Bicentennial show will move to Dayton for “Inventing Flight: the Centennial Celebration,” a series of air-related events in Greene and Montgomery counties. The commission will provide $800,000 for the programs.

        The next signature event, the “Ohio Bicentennial Tall Ships Challenge,” will take place in Cleveland July 9-20. The commission will provide $600,000 for the event, which will celebrate Lake Erie's heritage.

        It is an ambitious undertaking: 25 ships and various port towns will participate in lake events, including a re-enactment of the Battle of Lake Erie. Cleveland and Toledo will be focal points on July 11-13 and July 18-20.

        “Our goal is to make it a coastline event from Conneaut to Toledo,” Mr. Stratmann said.

        In Cincinnati, the Bicentennial Commission will help sponsor Tall Stacks, a celebration of Ohio's river history and America's steamboat age from Oct. 15-19, 2003. The commission will provide $600,000 toward the project.

        Twenty riverboats from 15 cities will help call attention to the Ohio River's importance in the state's development.

        Signature events will end the final weekend in October, when the capital city hosts the Ohio Bicentennial Capstone Event: Columbus.

        The homecoming weekend is expected to attract many people who no longer live in Ohio. The highlight of the program will be the gathering of all 88 county bicentennial bells on the capital square and the final casting of two commemorative bells for the Ohio Statehouse — done on the spot.

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