Old Woman Creek, Ohio

Old Woman Creek, Ohio

Cultural History

Archaeological evidence suggests that following the last phase of Wisconsonian glaciation, early Indians entered north-central Ohio and lived in the Old Woman Creek region. These people, referred to as Paleoindians, were probably nomadic hunters exploiting the last of the great herds of now extinct Pleistocene animals. Successive time periods found various Prehistoric Indian cultures undergoing a constant change in social and survival strategies. Information concerning these early peoples and later Indians is somewhat lacking prior to European chroniclers circa 1600 A.D.

The southern shores of Lake Erie were the domain of the Erie Indians early in the 17th century. An incident in which the Erie Indians captured a great Iroquois leader led to a war of revenge between the two nations. The Iroquois defeated their enemy, and by 1656 the entire Erie nation was destroyed. Huron Indians migrated into the western Lake Erie region in the late 1600's and became the dominant tribe for a time.

The Hurons remained here until circa 1700 when the New York Iroquois once again invaded Ohio and defeated them. It was at this time that the surviving Hurons journeyed to the Sandusky Bay region and became known as the Wyandotte, a word derived from their language meaning "in the islands." Remnants of the Wyandotte tribe were probably living in the vicinity when the first settlers arrived at Old Woman Creek.

Europeans first settled this area known as "The Firelands" around 1800. By 1850 agriculture had become the major land use practice in the Old Woman Creek watershed. Row crop agriculture presently remains the dominant land use in the watershed.