Eric Olson The Captain’s Log Fall 2022 Special Issue
Excerpt from this booklet: The Portage Path is one of Akron’s most iconic landmarks and has been part of the
city’s design since Moses Cleaveland and Seth Peas surveyed the path in 1797. The path is
well known to the those who live in the city. There are placards, signs, and monuments to
commemorate the trail along its eight-mile meander from Lake Nesmith to Merriman
Valley. Within the state of Ohio, it is generally remembered as an important landmark in
early American and Ohio history. Portages are places where canoes must be brought ashore
and “portaged” or carried, from one river to another. Portages occur at the edges of
watersheds, where two divergent rivers flow in separate drainage basins. The Portage Path
is one of thousands known across the Midwest. However, the weight historians and
Akronites have placed on the portage in Akron suggests that the path bridging the divide
between the Lake Erie and Ohio (and subsequent Mississippi) watersheds is of greater
importance than others…
