On July 20, 1969, native Ohioan Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the moon – at least, according to some folks, that is what the government has let us believe.
At BetOhio.com, we took a break from our Ohio sports betting coverage to find out who the biggest nonbelievers are. We found out on Google Trends that Ohio is on a list of U.S. states that believe the moon landing was fake, according to search interest scores for “moon landing fake.” We wanted to know which parts of Ohio had the strongest collection of moon landing conspiracy theorists. We used Google Trends to find the search interest scores for Ohio cities over the past 12 months for "moon landing fake,” and ranked them accordingly.
Rank | City | Search Interest Score |
1 | Cincinnati | 84 |
2 | Youngstown | 80 |
T3 | Columbus | 64 |
T3 | Dayton | 64 |
5 | Canton | 60 |
As it turns out, skepticism about the Apollo 11 moon landing, 55 years after it happened, is spread across various points in the state, almost as much as Ohio State football interest.
These scores are measuring Google searches on the topic of “moon landing fake” compared to other topics. Cincinnati and Columbus, two of the three biggest cities in Ohio, rank high on the list of skeptics – or perhaps just people curious about doing more reading on the topic.
The other three places in the top five for moon landing conspiracy searches are Ohio cities that would be called medium size: Youngstown, Canton and Dayton. Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, about halfway between Dayton and Toledo, but his family moved around all over the state when he was growing up. Wapakoneta is now home to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum.
For more earthly topics, there are Cleveland Guardians World Series odds to talk about at BetOhio.
Rank | State | Search Interest Score |
1 | Utah | 100 |
2 | Kentucky | 95 |
3 | North Dakota | 83 |
T4 | New Hampshire | 79 |
T4 | West Virginia | 79 |
6 | Ohio | 78 |
7 | Iowa | 77 |
8 | Montana | 76 |
9 | Tennessee | 74 |
10 | Mississippi | 72 |
Ohio also finds itself among the 10 states where this topic is searched for most frequently.
Utah ranks first with a search interest score of 100 for moon landing conspiracy, compared to other topics. Ohio ranks sixth, with 78 points.
For those who still don’t believe, check out Ohio’s entry into the state quarters program. The back of that coin, first issued in 2002, pays tribute to Ohio’s place in history as a hub of innovation and daring in air and space travel. The theme is called “Birthplace of Aviation Pioneers.” Set against an outline of the state, there’s a depiction of an early airplane, like the one Ohio natives Orville and Wilbur Wright designed and flew in 1903. The other depiction on that quarter? An astronaut. Presumably Armstrong – did we mention that the first man to walk on the moon was from the Buckeye State?
In addition to sports betting, BetOhio.com covers lifestyle topics such as this one – also check out the top 15 most famous celebrities from Ohio to see who made our list.
USA Today Network photo by Craig Bailey/Florida Today
Author
Ohio native Jim Tomlin has 30 years of experience in journalism, mostly in sports. He lends his expertise to BetOhio.com as a writer and editor after previous experience at the Tampa Bay Times, FanRag, Saturday Down South and Saturday Tradition.
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