Maumee River

The Maumee River is a river running from northeastern Indiana into northwestern Ohio and Lake Erie in the United States. It is formed at the confluence of the St. Joseph and St. Marys rivers, where Fort Wayne, Indiana, has developed, and meanders northeastwardly for through an agricultural region of glacial moraines before flowing into the Maumee Bay of Lake Erie. Toledo, Ohio, developed at the Maumee River's mouth. The Maumee was designated an Ohio State Scenic River on July 18, 1974. The Maumee watershed is Ohio’s breadbasket; it is two-thirds farmland, mostly corn and soybeans. It is the largest watershed of any of the rivers feeding the Great Lakes, and supplies 5 percent of Lake Erie’s water.HistoryHistorically the river was also known as the "Miami" in United States treaties with Native Americans. As early as 1671, French colonists called the river Miami du Lac, or Miami of the Lake (in contrast to the "Miami of the Ohio" or the Great Miami River). Maumee is an anglicized spelling of the Ottawa or Odawa name for the Miami tribe, Maamii. The Odawa had a village at the mouth of the Maumee River and occupied other territory in northwestern Ohio.