This Columbus suburb has 109 corn sculptures, hidden waterfalls, and 70+ free art pieces

Dublin, Ohio’s art scene defies every expectation

Twenty minutes northwest of Columbus, Dublin, Ohio, sits quietly along the Scioto River, looking like any other well-kept suburb.

Then you round a corner off the highway and find 109 giant concrete ears of corn standing at attention in a grassy field. That is just the first surprise.

Dublin has more than 70 public art pieces, a world-record pedestrian bridge, waterfalls hidden between a library and a post office, and the largest three-day Irish festival on the planet. Most of it is free.

109 concrete corn ears standing six feet tall in a Dublin field

Pull off near the corner of Frantz Road and Rings Road, and you’ll find them: row after row of white concrete corn rising six feet out of the grass.

There are 109 of them, each one weighing roughly 1,500 pounds, arranged in the same neat rows a working field would have.

The installation goes by the official name “Field of Corn (with Osage Orange Trees),” but locals call it Cornhenge. From a distance, every ear looks the same.

Walk closer and you’ll notice each one sits at a slightly different angle, cast from three rotating molds so no two are exactly alike.

A real cornfield once grew right where you’re standing

The land under your feet was a working farm from 1935 to 1963, tended by Sam Frantz and his wife, Eulalia. Frantz was not just any farmer.

He worked with Ohio State University on hybrid corn development and was recognized in the 1940s for distributing better seed varieties across Ohio.

The Dublin Arts Council later commissioned sculptor Malcolm Cochran, a sculpture professor at Ohio State, through a juried competition to create something for the park.

Cochran submitted his corn design before he knew any of that farming history. He discovered the Frantz connection afterward while researching the site.

The artist built a cemetery to farming out of concrete

The white color was not random. Cochran has said he chose it deliberately to evoke the rows of crosses in a military cemetery.

To him, the piece is a memorial to agricultural land lost to suburban growth. The corn variety he modeled was one Frantz would have known.

The Osage orange trees along the field’s western edge echo the living fences and hedgerows early farmers planted before wire fencing took over.

Eulalia Frantz attended the dedication on Oct. 30, 1994, when the park was officially named Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park in their honor.

Dublin residents hated it, then started holding weddings in it

When the project was announced, residents pushed back. One letter to The Columbus Dispatch dismissed it as “Corncobs in Flight.”

Public money spent on giant concrete vegetables struck many people as a questionable call. Then something shifted.

Columbus Monthly readers have voted it “Best of Columbus” every year it has been nominated since 2008. Office workers come out in winter to play in the snow between the rows.

Couples have held wedding ceremonies there.

If you stop for a photo on your way through Central Ohio, you will not be the first, and you will not be the last.

Dublin has planted art all over town, and it keeps growing

Field of Corn is one piece in a collection that now tops 70 public art installations across Dublin, a mix of permanent, temporary and interactive works.

The Art in Public Places program, a partnership between the city and the Dublin Arts Council, has been running since 1988.

At Coffman Park, sculptor Todd Smith’s Exuvia series puts life-size golden human figures high up in the trees, each one modeled on the way a cicada crawls out of its own shell.

You can download a free Art in Public Places Pass that maps out 12 key stops, with audio commentary included, and a tote bag prize waiting at the end.

A 12-foot limestone head stares out over the Scioto River

In Scioto Park, you’ll find a portrait of Wyandot leader Leatherlips, also known as Sha-te-yah-ron-ya, built from stacked and mortared native limestone and standing 12 feet tall.

Boston artist Ralph Helmick created it, and it became the first piece in Dublin’s Art in Public Places program when it was dedicated in 1990.

The sculpture is open at the top, so you can step inside and look out at the river and the valley beyond it.

Members of several Ohio Native American tribes attended that dedication and held a peace pipe ceremony on the grounds.

The world’s longest single-tower S-curve bridge bends across the Scioto

The Dublin Link stretches 760 feet across the Scioto River in a slow S-shaped curve.

Its single tower rises 169 feet, and the bridge holds the record as the longest single-tower S-shaped suspension bridge in the world.

It opened in March 2020 and connects Historic Dublin on the west bank to the newer Bridge Park district on the east side.

After dark, programmable LED lights run along the structure, changing colors for holidays and community events.

On both banks, Riverside Crossing Park gives you walking paths, river overlooks, a boulder play area, and kayak access points.

Old brick streets on one side, riverfront restaurants on the other

Cross the Dublin Link and you move between two very different versions of the same town.

Historic Dublin, on the west bank, has 19th-century buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, brick sidewalks, and dry-laid limestone fences you can run your hand along as you walk.

Bridge Park, on the east side, sits on 30 acres of riverfront with restaurants, shops and green space.

A location of North Market, which traces its roots to Columbus’s historic public market tradition, anchors the district.

On Saturdays from May through September, the Dublin Market draws local farmers, bakers, and artisans to the park.

A waterfall hides between the Dublin library and the post office

Indian Run Falls Park is about as easy to miss as it is close to downtown.

It sits tucked between the Dublin library and the post office, covering 3.5 acres of creek gorge that most people drive right past.

Inside, Indian Run creek carves through limestone cliffs and drops over a bridal veil waterfall, preceded by a series of smaller cascades and rapids.

Trails run along the top of the cliffs with observation decks and a walking bridge. The park is free, open year-round during daylight hours, and welcoming to dogs on leashes.

After a heavy rain, the sound fills the whole gorge.

A fairy door trail and an Irish festival with 100,000 attendees

Pick up a passport at the Dublin Visitor and Information Center and you’re on the Irish Fairy Door Trail, a free scavenger hunt that winds through shops and businesses in Historic Dublin and Bridge Park.

Find all the tiny fairy doors hidden inside participating businesses, complete your passport, and turn it in for a free t-shirt.

Every summer, Coffman Park hosts the Dublin Irish Festival, a three-day event drawing around 100,000 visitors that holds the title of the largest three-day Irish festival in the world, with live music across multiple stages, a kids’ area, and more food than you can get through in one visit.

Dublin packs more into one walkable town than most cities ten times its size

ALOT Travel named Dublin the Most Unusual Town in Ohio, and the city does not argue the point.

More than 60 parks cover over 1,300 acres of green space, and 150-plus miles of connected bike paths run through all of it.

The entire downtown core is free to explore on foot, from the art to the parks to the waterfalls. Dublin sits 20 minutes northwest of Columbus, and about 20 miles from John Glenn Columbus International Airport.

You can come for the corn and spend the whole day finding reasons to stay longer.

Visit Field of Corn at Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park in Ohio

Field of Corn sits at Sam and Eulalia Frantz Park, at 4995 Rings Road in Dublin, Ohio 43017, near the corner of Frantz Road and Rings Road. The park is free to visit and open from dawn to dusk.

A small parking lot sits right at the site. From I-270, take the Tuttle Crossing Boulevard exit, drive east about a half mile, turn left on Frantz Road, and continue another half mile.

Informational plaques near the Osage orange trees walk you through the project and the history of corn hybridization. Check the official website for any updated hours before you go.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• This retro train between Cleveland and Akron delivers pure national park magic
• Most Ohio lake towns faded away. Geneva-on-the-Lake held on, and you can feel it
• This Tiny Ohio Arts Village Has Waterfalls, Gorges, and 60 Quirky Shops