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Ohio’s 26-Year Campaign to Drain the Great Black Swamp
The Great Black Swamp once spread across 1,500 square miles of northwest Ohio, a wet maze no one could cross. In 1859, Ohio passed the “Ditch Law” and folks got to work.
For 26 years, they dug by hand, laid clay tiles, and built a web of drains that stretched 15,000 miles. James Hill sped things up in 1893 with his steam ditcher that dug in minutes what took men all day.
By 1885, what was once called an “absolute terrifying wilderness” had turned into rich farmland. Today, Maumee Bay State Park stands where this massive drainage project changed the face of Ohio forever.
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Ice Age Leftovers Created a Massive Mud Pit
About 10,000 years ago, melting glaciers dumped clay-rich soil across northwest Ohio, forming the Great Black Swamp…