The Lake Port at Toledo

Abstract

p PERMANENT occupancy of the lower Maumee River by white man began in the latter part of the seventeenth century with a stockade built by some of the earliest Ohio settlers, during a period when the relative ease of contact which such a location afforded was of paramount importance. The colony's steady growth resulted largely from the strategic geographical position in transportation which the navigable waters of Lake Erie, Maumnee Bay, and the lower Maumnee River and the level land of the Lake Plains and gently undulating topography of the Maumee Valley gave it. Contacts thus provided by the natural environment fostered the economic activities of the settlement. The history of Toledo itself began with the merging, in 1837, of two adjacent and competing towns known as Port Lawrence and Vistula. Their sites had many advantageous geographical features which have since been reflected by Toledo itself. Toledo's situation near the debouchment of Maumee River at the westerly extremity of Lake Erie has given it a favorable location with respect to receipt and distribution of basic raw materials such as coal, ore, sand, gravel, grain, petroleum, and limestone. The element of accessibility has encouraged sufficient trade through the years to make this port one of the important bulk commodity ports of North America both with respect to volume of traffic and handling facilities. A major problem confronting this trade center is whether certain necessary conditions for future commercial and industrial development will be anticipated and provided for or whether growth will continue in an unplanned, haphazard, and consequently uneconomical fashion.