12 Places in Ohio That Don't Look Like Ohio

Ohio has a canyon you'd swear was Utah, sand dunes in its flattest farm county, and a room of blue crystal forty feet under a winery. All twelve places in this video are real, all of them are in Ohio, and for eleven of them somebody can tell you exactly why they look that way. This countdown is built on the Ohio Geological Survey, ODNR, the National Park Service, USGS mapping, Army Corps records and the state's own forestry work plans. Where two state documents disagree — and on this subject they disagree more than once — the video says so out loud instead of picking the prettier number. Nothing is invented to fill a gap. From Nelson Ledges, where the rock corridors are a landslide you can walk inside, to the Caesar Creek spillway, where a dam crew's dynamite opened a 450-million-year-old sea floor and left it lying in the sun. From the sand dunes of Oak Openings, a beach belonging to a lake that no longer exists, to the glacial grooves on Kelleys Island — the most alien-looking ground in the state, and a remnant, because the quarries ate the rest. Number one is the only place here with no glacier, no ancient sea and no coal company behind it. It was planted on purpose in the 1930s, and the state's own paperwork says it comes back out. Underneath the scenery is a quieter pattern: four of these twelve look the way they do because of something people did, and the two most spectacular — the geode and the grooves — are physically smaller now than when they were found, because there was money in them. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 – A crystal room, a canyon and dunes — none of them where you'd expect 1:22 – #12 Nelson Ledges, Portage County 2:44 – #11 The Caesar Creek spillway, Warren County 4:18 – #10 Clifton Gorge, Greene County 5:52 – #9 Holmes County and the glacial boundary 7:32 – #8 Brandywine Falls, Summit County 8:44 – #7 Oak Openings, Lucas County 10:38 – #6 Conkles Hollow, Hocking County 11:49 – The place that isn't on this list, and why 13:05 – #5 Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave, Hocking County 15:32 – #4 Appalachian Hills, the land a power company built 17:21 – #3 Crystal Cave, South Bass Island 19:07 – #2 The glacial grooves, Kelleys Island 21:05 – #1 Clear Fork Gorge and the pines of Mohican 23:45 – What four of the twelve have in common Somewhere near you there's a place that doesn't look like it belongs in your state — a gorge, a dune, a stand of trees that's the wrong species for a thousand miles. Name it in the comments, and tell me if you know why it's there. If enough of you name the same one, that's the next video. ▶ Watch next — 12 Ohio Towns That Were Erased On Purpose: 12 Ohio Towns That Were Erased On Purpose ... Subscribe for more forgotten Ohio places, every week. #Ohio #HockingHills #TrueOhio