Hail to our Toledo forefathers

Just hoping no Native American burial grounds get disturbed. I hear some scary s**t happens when those long-buried remains get unearthed.

Most of the prehistoric mortuary sites are close to a body of water- usually a creek or river. Known burials are protected by NAGPRA (Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act).

Neat link. Toledo by itself probably has more history than my home state and love reading about it. Did you know the Anthony Wayne trail use to be a waterway, forget proper term.

There were burial mounds on the East Side, between Front Street and the river. Discovered in the 19th century when construction was first taking place along that area.

Parts of the AW Trail cover parts of the old Erie Canal. My uncle recalled the he played along what was left of the canal as a child.

I've often wondered when the downtown streets were originally paved with bricks. Those streets seem to hold up so well, compared to asphalt. Not to mention that they offer pretty good traction on snowy days.

What would the P&L be on a brick kiln for the City of Toledo? Make our own bricks, re-pave with those instead of asphalt, and not have to repave every major street every few years.

Concrete was taking a chunk out of the brick business in the early 1900's as a less expensive alternative, and local brickyards were feeling the pinch even back then. I believe vitreous brick is used for paving, which is more expensive to produce that construction brick, and most of Toledo's brickyards were near the river and the clay, not really an option any longer.

Installation and maintenance of brick streets, properly done ones, require skilled labor and are quite labor intensive. Much more labor intensive than asphalt over concrete.

"Parts of the AW Trail cover parts of the old Erie Canal."

Actually, this was the Miami & Erie canal. Not to be confused with the Erie canal that's in NY state.

The 1st mayor of Toledo was John Berdan. ----- Re: Berdan Avenue

Toledo does indeed have am interesting and intertwined history.

John Berdan was a business associate of Valentine Ketcham, first president of the First National Bank of Toledo and builder of many downtown buildings and businesses. Ketcham's son, George was a successful business in his own right and among other things, built a theater in Toledo which was named after his father.

George was also a horse racing enthusiast and owned the trotter Cresceus, touted as the finest trotter in racing history, even having beat Dan Patch on occasion. There's a neighborhood just inside Oregon, Ketcham's Cresceus Heights, where some of the streets bear the names of his horses.

My absolute favorite bit of ironic local historical trivia is that the land granted to Peter Navarre for his efforts against the British in the war of 1812 was located where the BP refinery now sits.

prairieson: cool, Route 2/Navarre Ave must have been named after him since it's so close.

Time to hit up the library for some local history books.

Spot on, Coffee. And there was also Peter's brother, Alexis Navarre... yep! Peter's sister Maria Louise Archange Navarre was my 2nd or 3rd great-grandmother, it's an interesting family with a rich history in the region.

Time to hit up the library for some local history books

INeedcoffee, Larry Michaels is an excellent local historian. I think he has a few books in the library.

larry is great, especially knowledgable about the east side. walking tours on near downtown neighborhoods are available through the library - i think there are a few left this year still. fred folger and bill speck are another couple historians that if you get a chance to see speak are very worthwhile - and ted legibel as well. these people did quite a bit to save those few downtown buildings that remain.