A Good Friesian Needs a Loving Home

Various cultures of indigenous peoples lived along the rivers and lakefront of what is now northwestern Ohio for thousands of years. When the city of Toledo was preparing to pave its streets, it surveyed "two prehistoric semicircular earthworks, presumably for stockades." One was at the intersection of Clayton and Oliver streets on the south bank of Swan Creek; the other was at the intersection of Fassett and Fort streets on the right bank of the Maumee River. Such earthworks were typical of mound-building peoples. This region was part of a larger area controlled by the historic tribes of the Wyandot and the people of the Council of Three Fires ( Ojibwe, Potawatomie and Odawa). The first European to visit the area was Étienne Brûlé, a French-Canadian guide and explorer, in 1615.