The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran 96 miles (154 km) from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago Portage, and helped establish Chicago as the transportation hub of the United States, before the railroad era. It was opened in 1848. Its function was partially replaced by the wider and deeper Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal in 1900, and it ceased transportation operations with the completion of the Illinois Waterway in 1933.
Portage County is a county in the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 161,791. Located in Northeast Ohio, Portage County is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area. Its county seat is Ravenna and its largest city is Kent.
Akron is a city in and the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, United States. At the 2020 census, the city proper had a total population of 190,469, making it the fifth-most populous city in Ohio and 136th-most populous city in the United States. The Akron metropolitan area, covering Summit and Portage counties, had a population of 702,219. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau in Northeast Ohio about 40 miles (64 km) south of downtown Cleveland.
The Cuyahoga River is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie.
The Wabash and Erie Canal was a shipping canal that linked the Great Lakes to the Ohio River via an artificial waterway. The canal provided traders with access from the Great Lakes all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Over 460 miles long, it was the longest canal ever built in North America.
The Genesee River is a tributary of Lake Ontario flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York in the United States. The river contains several waterfalls in New York at Letchworth State Park and Rochester.
The region Northeast Ohio, in the US state of Ohio, in its most expansive usage contains six metropolitan statistical areas: Cleveland–Elyria, Akron, Canton–Massillon, Youngstown–Warren, Mansfield, and Weirton–Steubenville along with eight micropolitan statistical areas. Most of the region is considered either part of the Cleveland–Akron–Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area and media market or the Youngstown–Warren, OH–PA Combined Statistical Area and media market. In all, the region is home to: 4,502,460 residents. It is also a part of the Great Lakes megalopolis, containing over 54 million people. Northeast Ohio also includes most of the area known historically as the Connecticut Western Reserve.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park is an American national park that preserves and reclaims the rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio.
The Miami and Erie Canal was a 274-mile (441 km) canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo, Ohio, creating a water route between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. Construction on the canal began in 1825 and was completed in 1845 at a cost to the state government of $8 million. At its peak, it included 19 aqueducts, three guard locks, 103 canal locks, multiple feeder canals, and a few man-made water reservoirs. The canal climbed 395 feet (120 m) above Lake Erie and 513 feet (156 m) above the Ohio River to reach a topographical peak called the Loramie Summit, which extended 19 miles (31 km) between New Bremen, Ohio to lock 1-S in Lockington, north of Piqua, Ohio. Boats up to 80 feet long were towed along the canal by mules, horses, or oxen walking on a prepared towpath along the bank, at a rate of four to five miles per hour.
The Fox–Wisconsin Waterway is a waterway formed by the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers. First used by European settlers in 1673 during the expedition of Marquette & Joliet, it was one of the principal routes used by travelers between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River until the completion of the Illinois and Michigan Canal in 1848 and the arrival of railroads. The western terminus of the Fox–Wisconsin Waterway was at the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. It continued up the Wisconsin River about 116 miles (187 km) until reaching Portage, Wisconsin. There travelers would portage to the Upper Fox River, or eventually, use the Portage Canal. It continued about 160 miles (260 km) down the Fox River, following it through Lake Winnebago and continuing on the Lower Fox over 170 feet of falls to the eastern terminus of Green Bay.
The Tuscarawas River is a principal tributary of the Muskingum River, 129.9 miles (209 km) long, in northeastern Ohio in the United States. Via the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Mississippi River, draining an area of 2,590 square miles (6,700 km2) on glaciated and unglaciated portions of the Allegheny Plateau.
The Ohio and Erie Canal was a canal constructed during the 1820s and early 1830s in Ohio. It connected Akron with the Cuyahoga River near its outlet on Lake Erie in Cleveland, and a few years later, with the Ohio River near Portsmouth. It also had connections to other canal systems in Pennsylvania.
Franklin Township is a civil township in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It is on the Cuyahoga River in Northeast Ohio on the western edge of the county. The 2010 Census found 5,527 people in the township and the 2020 census recorded 6,283 people. The township is part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area and the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton Combined Statistical Area.
Tinker's Creek, in Cuyahoga, Summit and Portage counties of Ohio, is the largest tributary of the Cuyahoga River, providing about a third of its flow into Lake Erie.
Summit Metro Parks is a Metroparks system serving the citizens of Summit County, Ohio by managing 14,000 acres (5,700 ha) in 16 developed parks, six conservation areas and more than 150 miles (240 km) of trails, with 22.4 miles (36.0 km) of the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail.
The Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve is a 4-mile-long (6.4 km) sandstone formation through which the Licking River flows in Licking County, Ohio, United States. Located 12 miles (19 km) east of Newark near the tiny town of Toboso, 957 acres (387 ha) along the gorge were designated an Ohio Nature Preserve in 1975. The gorge is a capsule of Ohio transportation history, having hosted canal boats, steam railroads, electric interurbans, and automobiles through the years. It is named for the black hand petroglyph that was found on the cliff face by the first settlers to the area. Black Hand Sandstone is a resistant rock that also forms the backbone of the Hocking Hills region.
The Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal, also known as the P & O Canal, the Cross Cut Canal and the Mahoning Canal, was a shipping canal which operated from 1840 until 1877, though the canal was completely abandoned by 1872. It connected canals in two states, the Ohio and Erie Canal in Ohio and the Beaver and Erie Canal in Pennsylvania, and was funded by private interests.
The Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area, sometimes referred to as Greater Akron, is defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget as an area consisting of two counties, Summit and Portage, in Northeast Ohio and anchored by the city of Akron. As of the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 702,219. The Akron MSA is also part of the larger Cleveland–Akron–Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, which has a population of 3,633,962 people as of the 2020 census, the largest metropolitan area in Ohio.
General Simon Perkins was an early settler, businessman and surveyor of the Western Reserve of Connecticut, which would later become northeast Ohio. He co-founded Akron, Ohio, with Paul Williams in 1825. He served as a brigadier-general during the War of 1812.
LaDue Reservoir is a reservoir located near Ohio State Route 44 and U.S. Route 422 in Auburn and Troy Townships in Geauga County, Ohio. Originally called the “Akron City Reservoir”, it was dedicated as the LaDue Reservoir on October 11, 1961, in honor of Wendell R. LaDue. The Geographic Names Information System recognized four variants names, including Akron City Reservoir, Bridge Creek Reservoir, Ladue Reservoir, and Wendell R. Ladue Reservoir.
