Toledo | History, Attractions & Facts (2024)

Toledo, city, seat (1835) of Lucas county, northwestern Ohio, U.S., at the mouth of the Maumee River (bridged). It lies along Maumee Bay (southwestern tip of Lake Erie), about 55 miles (89 km) southwest of Detroit, Mich., and is a principal Great Lakes port, being the hub of a metropolitan complex that includes Ottawa Hills, Maumee, Oregon, Sylvania, Perrysburg, and Rossford. The area was opened to white settlement after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, a conflict fought nearby in 1794 and resolved in a series of treaties negotiated with Native Americans between 1795 and 1817. Fort Industry (1803–05) was located at the mouth of Swan Creek (now downtown Toledo), where permanent settlement was made after the War of 1812. Two villages, Port Lawrence (1817) and Vistula (1832), were consolidated in 1833 and named for Toledo, Spain. The united community was incorporated as a city in 1837.

Ohio’s decision to include the Toledo area (then part of the Michigan Territory) in the state’s canal system led to a bloodless 1835 boundary dispute called the Toledo War. Residents of the city organized to transfer the political jurisdiction of the lower Maumee from the Michigan Territory to Ohio. Michigan, led by Gov. Stevens T. Mason, opposed this and sent troops. Ohio governor Robert Lucas called out the militia, and the state legislature organized most of the disputed area into Lucas county, with the present Ohio line as the northern boundary. The dispute was settled by Pres. Andrew Jackson in favour of Ohio. In 1836 the U.S. Congress compensated Michigan for the loss by awarding it the Upper Peninsula and admitting it to statehood.

Industrial development was spurred in the 1830s and ’40s by the arrival of the railroads, the construction of the Wabash and Erie and Miami and Erie canals, and by the discovery of local deposits of petroleum and natural gas in 1844. Glassmaking (which became a major industry) was introduced in the late 1880s by Edward Libbey and Michael Owens. Toledo is now a major commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. Its port, connected with the St. Lawrence Seaway, is one of the world’s largest for bituminous coal shipping. The port’s free-trade zone, allowing duty-free foreign trade, handles mostly grain, metal ores, machines and tools, motor vehicles, and industrial equipment. Highly diversified manufactures include glass, automobiles (including the celebrated Jeep), automotive parts, plastics, furniture and cabinets, rubber, petroleum, laundry equipment, machinery, and tools.

The University of Toledo was established in 1872, Davis College in 1858, and Owens Community College in 1965. The Toledo Museum of Art has notable collections of glass, African and Asian art, and European and American painting. The city has a Roman Catholic cathedral (Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary), an orchestra, a hands-on science museum, and zoological gardens with an open-air amphitheatre. Nearby are Crane Creek and Harrison Lake state parks. Raceway Park is a venue for harness racing. Pop. (2010) 287,208; Toledo Metro Area, 651,429; (2020) 270,871; Toledo Metro Area, 646, 604.