Toledo was established during the early 19th century in the forbidding Great
Black Swamp at the end of western Lake Erie. Unless one wanted to travel many miles around the swamp en route to
Michigan from the east, there was no choice but to slog through the muddy marsh. Frogtown was an early nickname for
Toledo. Even the hardy pioneers had trouble sleeping at night during the froggie mating season; the din was deafening, or so
they complained. The Great Black Swamp was eventually drained through the backbreaking labor of early European settlers.