Ohio History Journal

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GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE HISTORY OF

GEOGRAPHIC INFLUENCES IN THE HISTORY OF

MILAN, OHIO.

 

 

BY CHARLES G. SHATZER.

Professor of Geology, Wittenberg College, Springfield, Ohio.

 

Any one who seeks to glean the facts of the local history

of northwestern Ohio for the period of the '40's and '50's from

conversation with the men whose experience reaches into that

period, will hear repeated frequently the name, Milan. If in-

terest prompts the question: Where and what was Milan?, he

will be told in terms of marked respect of a market center of

long ago, of a village in northern Ohio to which yearly trips were

made for the purpose of marketing the grain of the region to the

south.

A visit to the village will lead him to the south central part

of Erie County, and there, upon the east slope of the valley of

the Huron river, will be found a village of less than 1,000 inhab-

itants, many comfortable homes in beautiful lawns along shaded

streets. But the visitor will look in vain for the bustle and

activity of the grain marketing port of which he has been told.

He will hear only of the glory that is past.

Milan lies just north of the south line of Erie County, mid-

way between the east and west limits and about twelve miles

southeast of the port of Sandusky.

The prominence which the village had attained at one time

as a market can be traced in large measure to certain geographic

influences.

1. A broad, triangular hinterland of rich agricultural land.

2. A location upon a stream in part navigable, which, when

aided by a short canal, made Milan an inland, lake port.

3. Milan is located near the southern border of a sandy

belt which extends to the Lake and across which all of the

wagon roads must pass in order to reach the ports along the

south shore of Lake Erie. Even today these roads are not in-

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