History
President George Washington dispatched General Anthony Wayne and his army to the Northwest Territory to put down the Northwest Indian War. After the Native Americans were driven out and west, the land was opened to settlement by Anglo-Americans. Homesteaders, including soldiers from Wayne's army arrived soon after.
Grand Lake St. Marys was constructed in the early 19th century as a reservoir for the Miami and Erie Canal, which connected the Ohio River with Lake Erie. At one time the lake was the world's largest man-made lake. The canal system thrived for about thirty years in the mid-to-late 19th century before it was replaced by the railroads. In the 1890s oil was discovered in the area, and oil derricks were set up in the lake. The lake became one of Ohio's first state parks in 1949 with recreational facilities built in the following years.
The official geographic name of the lake is Grand Lake. The United States Geological Survey Board of Geographic Names disapproved a proposal to change the name Grand Lake to Grand Lake-Saint Marys, which is the name given on state maps and documents. The 1920 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica shows the name as Lake Mercer on the map of Ohio in the article on Ohio.
Read more about this topic: Grand Lake St. Marys State Park
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with the politics left out.”
—G.M. (George Macaulay)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)