Wednesday Filler: The Maumee River

After a few posts of apologetic regionalism, it's time for something more tranquil and focused on nature.  Here we have the Maumee River, just outside of Toledo, Ohio.

The Maumee is quite wide for being such a short river with relatively few tributaries.  Despite its short length, however, the river drains the largest watershed that empties into the Great Lakes.

The Maumee was an important corridor for migration and trade amongst native peoples and early settlers.  The river was one of the routes between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, via a portage around Ft. Wayne, Indiana, to the head of the Wabash River, which was later replaced by the Wabash and Erie Canal.  Until the active frontier focused more on the Chicago portage, the Maumee was greatly desired by everyone seeking to lay a claim to the area, leading to conflicts between the British and Americans in the late 1700's and during the War of 1812.  Later on, Toledo became the great trophy over which Michigan and Ohio came pretty close to spilling blood.  The river today is much quieter, though very developed.  The banks retain some natural scenery in the many parks scattered along them, which include extensive marshlands, ash-cottonwood forests, and even some halfway decent beaches.