We didn’t have time to address this back when we explored how Michigan ended up with the Upper Peninsula rather than Wisconsin, but back in the day, something separated Toledo from Ohio (in the practical sense), and that something was the Great Black Swamp.
We don’t name things like we used to.
From Wikipedia:
The Great Black Swamp (also known simply as the Black Swamp) was a glacially fed wetland in northwest Ohio, sections of lower Michigan, and extreme northeast Indiana, United States, that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. Comprising extensive swamps and marshes, with some higher, drier ground interspersed, it occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of proglacial Lake Maumee, a holocene precursor to Lake Erie. The area was about 25 miles (40 km) wide (north to south) and 100 miles (160 km) long, covering an estimated 1,500 square miles (4,000 km. Gradually drained and settled in the second half of the 19th century, it is now highly productive farmland. However, this development has been detrimental to the ecosystem as a result of agricultural runoff. This runoff, in turn, has contributed to frequent toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie.
Reactions:
- Northeast Indiana is always extreme.
- Did Lake Maumee have good water skiing?
- Square miles make areas sound bigger than they are, in my opinion. 25 miles by 100 miles? I know that comes out to 2,500 square miles (or 1,500, if you’re a wiggly little swamp), but it sounds smaller. This is only one facet of my long-running feud with the math industry.
- Highly Productive Farmland vs. Agricultural Runoff is a classic rivalry. I’d put it ahead of Lakers/Celtics but below Kansas/Kansas State.
- How do toxic algal blooms compare to the normal state of Lake Erie? Is this an improvement? Someone had to ask.
Really, it’s just kind of fun to think of something like a swamp prohibiting travel in the United States of America (and it did inhibit travel: Per Wikipedia, the swamp was why the Michigan and Ohio militias never met during the Toledo War). Mountains? We’ve made progress on those, but they’re still tough. Swamps? We annihilated those little shits. To the point where we’re now giving them free points via wetland restoration (which we support, of course—the water filtration benefits are great, and wetlands are weirdly pretty, though more in tidal areas than malaria-laced stretches of Ohio). It’s also, again, fun to find things named like something out of Lord of the Rings. Maybe those names sounded more normal when J.R.R. Tolkien was a kid.
