Great Black Swamp

The Great Black Swamp, or simply Black Swamp, was a glacially-caused wetland in northwest Ohio, United States, extending into extreme northeastern Indiana, that existed from the end of the Wisconsin glaciation until the late 19th century. It comprised extensive swamps and marshes, with some higher, drier ground interspersed, and occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of Glacial Lake Maumee, a holocene precursor to Lake Erie. It was gradually drained and settled in the second half of the 19th century and is now highly productive farm land.

Its historical boundaries lie primarily within the watersheds of the Maumee, Auglaize, and Portage rivers in northwest Ohio. The boundary was determined primarily by ancient sandy beach ridges formed on the shores of Lakes Maumee and Whittlesey, after glacial retreat several thousand years ago. It stretched roughly from New Haven, Indiana in the west, to Toledo and Sandusky Ohio on the east. Additional watersheds partly or wholly within its former boundary include the Sandusky, Ottawa, Tiffin, and Blanchard rivers.

The area was not continuous swamp, but rather characterized by a variety of vegetation types (Sampson, 1930; Kaatz, 1955). In the lowest, flattest areas, prone to permanent inundation, deciduous swamp forests predominated, characterized especially by species of ash, elm, cottonwood and sycamore. In slightly higher areas with some topographic relief and better drainage, beech, maples, basswood, tuliptree and other more mesic species were dominant. On elevated beach ridges and moraines with good to excessive drainage, more xeric species, especially of oak and hickory, were dominant. Unlike other swampy areas of the Great Lakes, such as northern Minnesota, there were no conifers (Sampson, 1930). There were also non-forested wetlands, particularly marsh and wet prairies, with marshes being particularly extensive along the Lake Erie shoreline between Toledo and Sandusky. Some of these exist today in modified form in state and federal wildlife refuges, such as Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge.

Although much of the area to the east, south, and north was settled in the early 19th century, the difficulty of traveling through the swamp delayed its development by several decades. A corduroy road (from modern day Fremont to Perrysburg) was constructed in 1825 and paved with gravel in 1838, but travel in the wet season could still take days or even weeks. The impassability of the swamp became an obstacle during the so-called Toledo War (1835–36), when the Michigan and Ohio militias were unable to find each other, and thus were unable to battle. Settlement of the region was inhibited by the presence of endemic malaria, which continued to plague residents of the region until the area was drained. In the 1850s an organized attempt to drain the swamp for agricultural use and ease of travel began which lasted for 40 years, and the area was largely settled over the next three decades. The development of railroads and a local drainage tile industry are thought to have contributed greatly to drainage and settlement (Kaatz, 1955).

ee also

*Black Swamp Arts Festival
*Limberlost Swamp

References

Sampson, H.C. 1930. Succession in the swamp forest formation in northern Ohio. "Ohio J Science" 30:340–357.

Kaatz, M.R. 1955. The Black Swamp: A Study in Historical Geography. "Annals of the Association of American Geographers" 45(1):1–35.

External links

* [http://wbgu.org/community/documentary/Story_GrBlack/Swamp_index.html "The Story of the Great Black Swamp"] , WBGU-PBS documentary
* [http://www.historicperrysburg.org/history/swamp.htm Perrysburg history]
* [http://users.ipfw.edu/zeppp/Nature/swamp.html IPFW Black Swamp site]
* [http://www.nwoet.org/swamp/swamp.htm Swamp Survivors]
* [http://www.blackswamp.org/ The Black Swamp Conservancy] is an organization dedicated to preservation of the swamp.
* [http://www.maumeevalleyheritagecorridor.org/ Maumee Valley Heritage Corridor]