Toledo, OH Summary

Toledo is a railroad center, one of the world’s busiest freshwater ports, and renowned for its glass. The city of 332,900 is located where the Maumee River flows into Lake Erie, on the northwest edge of Ohio near the Michigan border.

The French first explored the area in 1615. The present city was incorporated in 1837 following the Toledo War, a political battle between Ohio and what became Michigan for rights to the port.

In the 1840s the Wabash and Erie Canal linked Toledo to Indiana; the Miami and Erie Canal connected it with Cincinnati and the Ohio River. Mills and factories sprang up, and Germans and Poles poured into the city to work in them. Railroads followed—in the 1880s Toledo was the third-largest rail center in the country. Natural gas was cheap and abundant, and in 1895 the discovery of oil led to a local oil-refining industry.

Edward Libbey started the glass industry here in 1888, with crystal and lamp globes. Glassblower Michael Owens joined him and invented a machine that turned molten glass into bottles by the thousands. Today Toledo has four large glass manufacturers, and more than 1,000 manufacturing plants in total, producing Jeeps, spark plugs, chemicals, and other products.

Toledo has many metroparks. Promenade Park is good for viewing the boats on the Maumee River. Sidecut Park has picnic grounds beside canal locks. Raceway Park offers horse racing.

The Center of Science and Industry Toledo, located on the riverfront, is an interactive science learning center where visitors can ride a high-wire cycle above an atrium, design a roller coaster, and apply aerodynamics to create the perfect baseball pitch. In addition to hundreds of hands-on exhibits, demonstrations are given.

The Toledo Zoo has more than 525 species of animals, plus an African savanna alive with animals in their natural habitat. There are also large freshwater and saltwater aquariums, a conservatory, and botanical gardens. An underwater view of a hippopotamus family is presented at the Hippoaquarium.

The Toledo Museum of Art has 700 paintings, including works by El Greco, Rembrandt, Rubens, and van Gogh; there are also books, manuscripts, prints, sculptures, medieval ivories, glass items, tapestries, and decorative art.

Wildwood Manor House is the former home of Champion Spark Plug founder Robert A. Strannahan Sr. It is eighteenth-century Georgian in style, and has 16 fireplaces and more than 50 rooms with period furnishings.

At International Park, the Willis B. Boyer has been refurbished—it was the biggest and, at the time, most modern ship on the Great Lakes. A museum depicts freighter history on the Great Lakes.

The 165-acre Brukner Nature Center consists of a swamp, prairie, pine forest, flood plain, hardwood forest, and the Stillwater River. It has 6 miles of trails, and the interpretive center displays flora and fauna.

Toledo can be reached by car by I-75, I-475, I-90/80, and I-280, as well as by bus and plane.