We can thank Ohio for many history-defining innovations: the modern traffic light, aviation, and the basketball artistry of LeBron James, to name a few. But the Buckeye State also serves as an important birthplace for a fundamentally American product: new fast food items.

While Southern California modernized the fast food industry, Ohio has served a vital role in helping shape its offerings in the decades since burgers, fries, and the drive-thru redefined America. Wendy’s and its signature square patties found their first hungry audiences in Columbus. Arby’s turned roast beef sandwiches into a quick-serve item in suburban Youngstown. And in 2011, Toledo residents were among the very first to get their fingers stained by cheese dust from Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Taco. Ohio’s track record with fast food innovation is as lengthy as it is overlooked.

So why does Ohio often get the latest and greatest in fast food months before everyone else does? We had Jamie Richardson, vice president of Columbus-based White Castle, weigh in.

“Ohio is a place where people can be free to explore new ideas,” Richardson said. “It’s a place where good things could happen and not retreat. You know, you saw it with the Wright brothers. And then 70 years later there’s Neil Armstrong. I think there's a spirit of innovation that transcends more than in other geographies.”

It’s this freewheeling spirit -- plus an assortment of other critical factors -- that led to the state becoming a testing ground and incubator for new fast food creations. Of course, none of that would’ve been possible without the chains that started in the state in the first place.

Perhaps the most notable is Wendy’s, which Dave Thomas founded in Columbus in 1969. Since then, the burger chain has exploded into an international business with more than 6,500 locations worldwide. Farther north, Arby’s opened shop in Boardman, Ohio, right outside Youngstown, in 1964 when Fuzzy and Leroy Raffel wanted to introduce a higher-end fast food concept, slinging roast beef sandwiches instead of burgers. The concept somehow worked (the multinational chain’s now headquartered in suburban Atlanta). There’s a laundry list of other fast food and casual chains, both large and small, that call -- or used to call -- Ohio home, benefitting from the state’s historically large, geographically diverse population: Buffalo Wild Wings (Columbus), Marco’s Pizza (Toledo), Skyline Chili (Cincinnati), and Swenson’s (Akron), among others.