The land once covered by the swamp lies primarily within the Maumee River and Portage River watersheds in northwest Ohio and northeast Indiana. The boundary was determined primarily by ancient sandy beach ridges formed on the shores of Lakes Maumee and Whittlesey, after glacial retreat several thousand years ago. It stretched roughly from Fort Wayne, Indiana, eastward to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge near Port Clinton along the Lake Erie shore, and from (roughly) US 6 south to Findlay[6] and North Star, Ohio in Darke County.[7] Near its southern edge at the southwestern corner of present-day Auglaize County, wheeled transportation was impossible during most of the year, and local residents thought the rigors of travel to be unsuitable for anyone except adult men.[8]

The vast swamp was a network of forests, wetlands, and grasslands. In the lowest, flattest areas, prone to permanent inundation, deciduous swamp forests predominated, characterized especially by species of ash, elm, cottonwood and sycamore. In slightly higher areas with some topographic relief and better drainage, beech, maples, basswood, tuliptree and other more mesic species were dominant. On elevated beach ridges and moraines with good to excessive drainage, more xeric species, especially oak and hickory, were dominant. Unlike other swampy areas of the Great Lakes, such as northern Minnesota, there were no conifers.[9] The area contained non-forested wetlands, particularly marsh and wet prairies, with marshes being particularly extensive along the Lake Erie shoreline east of Toledo.

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Between July 12 and October 26, 1915, Samuel Stinson Gannet,Geographer of the United States Geological Survey and crew retraced and surveyed the Ohio and Michigan State line. Working with a transit and dragging a 300 foot steel tape, the crew surveyed 69.92 miles and set 72 granite monuments.The 700-pound monuments are 5 feet 6 inches tall and cost $18.00 each, including delivery from Mount Airy, North Carolina. The top 18 inches were cut and carved by Lloyd Brothers in Toledo. Once the survey was complete, it put an end to one of the greatest disputes over a state line in the history of the United States.

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After the war of 1812, the United State Congress proposed two million acres of military bounty land for the Michigan Territory. To survey the land, the meridian had to first be established. U.S. Surveyor General Edward Tiffin created the meridian based on the western line of the Treaty of Detroit (1807). He contracted with Deputy Surveyor Benjamin Hough in April 1815 to begin the survey for $3 per mile. Taking a reading from Polaris (the North Star). Hough, Alexander Holmes, and 11 crew members surveyed the line due north from Fort Defiance. The difficult terrain they encountered temporarily halted all surveys in the territory and ultimately led to the bounty land being transferred to the Illinois and Missouri Territories.

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Lockport Covered Bridge crosses one over the Tiffin River at this point.

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~Water Is Life~

The Tiffin River (Bean River) is a 54.9-mile-long (88.4 km)[1] tributary of the Maumee River in northwestern Ohio in the United States.[2] Headwater tributaries of the river rise in southeastern Michigan. The river drains a primarily rural farming region in the watershed of Lake Erie. Early French traders called the river Crique Féve, translated as Bean Creek, due to the natural growth of bean plants along the shores.

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