The Wisher Family of Delphos used their Ohio History Passport to create memories & adventures.

On September 1st of 2019, my wife Lindsey, daughter Nora and myself were just setting off to visit a site we had been wanting to visit for some time, Serpent Mound. While we were there, we stumbled upon the Ohio History Connection's passport program. I threw the passport in my pack and when we got home, we took a look through it. We decided it would be neat to try and visit all the sites and thought about how long it would take us, and if it was even possible! We just picked a date to complete it by and that date was Nora's 12th birthday, February 27, 2026.

A few months later, the whole world's plans got turned upside down as COVID hit. We’re a very active family, so I looked online at all the locations that were outside and safe to visit. It was then that we decided that during COVID, we were going to turn a negative into a positive and use our newfound extra time to complete the passport program! We had one stipulation—Nora had to get her picture at every stop just to prove that we were there.

We started off visiting all the locations that were open, outside and nearby. After that, we would take small trips and visit a couple spots at a time on the weekends.  Anytime we traveled in Ohio, we would look at the map and decide to take little detours to cross another location off the list. As time moved on, more and more of the inside locations were opening up and we backtracked to mark them off the list. Then it came time to try to visit the locations that were on the other side of the state.

This would be more than just a small weekend trip as some of these spots were over three hours away. That's when the real planning came in. I mapped out an itinerary that would see us leaving on Wednesday and returning on Sunday. Each of these trips would include us visiting two or three sites a day and staying in a different town every night. We took three of these trips that would have us traveling up most of the Ohio River and staying at all sorts of different cabins, inns and lodges. Finally, on May 28, 2022, we visited our last stop, the Ohio History Center and Ohio Village. In just under three years, we had visited what seemed like the whole state of Ohio.

It started off as just a fun idea, but it turned out to be a great learning experience for our entire family. We had so much fun together while navigating through the pandemic, extreme weather, haunted hotels, aliens, getting lost (multiple times), Mothman, Bigfoot and so many other wild adventures! We learned a great deal about our state's history, trials and tribulations, and the hope we have moving forward. I can leave this experience with a quote I saw while traveling, "Fill your life with adventures, not things. Have stories to tell, not stuff to show.” And boy, do we have a LOT of stories!

Thanks for the memories, Ohio History Connection!

Adam, Lindsey and Nora Wisher

Now we’ve made the Ohio History Passport even more fun with rewards for completing each region!

Here’s how it works:

• Get a stamp or rubbing from all the sites in a region: Central, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast or Southwest.
• Take your passport to one of our Passport Checkpoint Sites for verification.
• The Membership Department will send you a regional pin. Visit every site in our passport to collect all five pins!

Get all the details at ohiohistory.org/passport. Then hit the road to earn those pins!

Don’t yet have an Ohio History Passport? Members can get one for free. Contact the Membership Department at [email protected] or 800.686.1545 to request yours today!

Not a member? Visit our online store to purchase a passport today! Or consider becoming a member—visit ohiohistory.org/join to learn about our great benefits.