The Maumee River Valley - NW Ohio

Built by General "Mad" Anthony Wayne

Last Sunday, I took advantage of a beautiful, mild, autumn day and took a roadtrip along the Maumee River. The Maumee flows northeast from the Ft. Wayne, IN area and dumps into Lake Erie at Toledo. My trip started in Defiance, OH where I traveled along the north side of the river through the towns of Independence, Florida, Napoleon and the ghost town of Providence. (A separate post on Providence is below.) At Providence, I crossed the river to the south side to the town of Grand Rapids.


Defiance, OH - Built up around the former Ft. Defiance, which was built during the Indian Wars of 1790-1795. At the confluence of the Maumee and Auglaize Rivers.

Marker on a bluff above the confluence

Site of Ft. Defiance

Independence, OH - small river town just east of Defiance on Rte. 424

Independence Dam State Park

Picnic shelter built by the Mexican Yes-Men

Florida, OH - East of Independence on Rte 424

Florida Public Library

Napoleon, OH - Home of the largest Campbell Soup plant in the world.

Hobbits in Napoleon?

Ritter Park

The shimmering Maumee

Henry County Courthouse

Grand Rapids, OH - Historic canal town that is now a tourist town with galleries, arts and crafts stores, etc.

Grand Rapids Town Hall

Downtown Grand Rapids

LaRoe's Bar and Restaurant

My meal of baked chicken, salad, honeydew melon and a 7&7 to wash it down

Every village needs an apothecary

The Isaac Ludwig Mill, looking across the river from Grand Rapids.

Isaac Ludwig Mill - Providence, OH

Isaac Ludwig Mill

Across the river from Grand Rapids is the ghost town of Providence. At one time, it was a stop on the Miami and Erie Canal that ran from Cincinnati to Toledo. The town was wiped out by a cholera epidemic in 1854 and never recovered. The mill and nearby canal lock are now part of the Toledo Metropark system and are operated by living historians in period costumes. The mill is both a sawmill and grist mill and the canal has an operational canal boat ride pulled by mules along a towpath.

Roller mills

Grain being fed into the grist mill

Mill stone

Roller mill up close

Flour packer

A smut separator. Yes, a smut separator

Flour bags of days gone by.

A GE hydroelectric power generator

Sawmill

Lathe

The office

Country strong

View from top floor of mill

RR bridge across the Maumee River

Miami and Erie Canal

Lock #44

Mule power

Canal boat coming trough the lock