Marion is a city in Marion County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located in north central Ohio, approximately 50 miles (80 km) north of Columbus. The population was 35,999 at the 2020 census, down slightly from 36,837 at the 2010 census. It is the largest city in Marion County and the principal city of the Marion micropolitan area. It is also part of the larger Columbus, Marion, Zanesville, OH Combined Statistical Area.
At a Glance
- County: Marion County
- County seat of Marion County
- State: Ohio
History of Marion
Marion was laid out in 1822, and is named in honor of General Francis Marion. It was incorporated as a village by the Legislature of Ohio in its 1829 to 1830 session. On March 15, 1830, Marion elected Nathan Peters as its first Mayor.
Marion was one of Ohio’s major industrial centers until the 1970s. Products of the Marion Steam Shovel Company (later Marion Power Shovel) were used by contractors to build the Panama Canal, the Hoover Dam, and dug the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River. In 1911, 80% of the nation’s steam shovel and heavy duty earth moving equipment was manufactured in Marion, Ohio. NASA contracted with Marion Power Shovel to manufacture the crawler transporters that moved the assembled Saturn V rockets (used for Project Apollo) to the launch pad.
The city is a rail center for CSX, and Norfolk Southern. Marion has long been a center of grain based (corn and popcorn) snack and other products given its close proximity to nearby growing regions in adjacent counties (ConAgra had a major presence in Marion for decades, and Wyandot Snacks has been active in Marion since the 1960s). Whirlpool Corporation is the largest employer in the city operating the largest clothes dryer manufacturing facility in the world. Nucor Steel’s facility in Marion is the largest producer of rebar and signpost in Ohio.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Marion, Ohio, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.