In honor of our trip through Ohio, it seems appropriate to dive into the state's history and talk about one of it's more interesting stories. More specifically the origin on the term "Porkopolis."

Cincinnati for much of early American history was known as Porkopolis. Due to its geographic proximity to the Ohio River pork processors could use this strategic location as easy access for raising, processing and shipping pork. Ohio Pork was shipped all around the world, from Boston and New York throughout the south and even over to Europe. Cured pork was easy to store due largely to Ohio's freezing climate in the winter time which allowed the meat processors to store pork throughout the colder months.

Cincinnati was a major hub for pork processing well into the late 1800's and it stayed that way until that Chicago began to overtake it as the major pork processing area in the US. One disadvantage that Cincinnati possessed was the Ohio river's tendency to freeze in the winter time. This freezing significantly decreased productivity in the winter months which is where Chicago's access to railways allowed it to ultimately surpass Cincinnati as America's pork processing epicenter.