St. Marys is a thriving small community of 4 square miles with a population of 8,342. It was legally established in 1823, incorporated in 1834 and became a city in 1904. St. Marys has become a great tourist attraction because of Grand Lake St. Marys. For years Grand Lake St. Marys was considered one of Ohio's best kept secrets. Now thanks to the Grand Lake St. Marys Area Bureau of Travel and Tourism the secret is slipping out.

Many people travel to St. Marys to enjoy the wide variety act ivies available, but it hasn't always been that way. Fifteen thousand years ago, the site of St. Marys was covered by a layer of ice many hundred feet in thickness. This great glacial mass which slid down from the north at the speed of about one foot per year is perhaps indirectly responsible for the location of St. Marys. As the icy mass melted great furrows were worn in the rocky surface of the earth. The St. Marys River is just one of these pre-historic waterways, and without the St. Marys River, there perhaps would never have been a city of St. Marys.

The Indians found by traveling this river and with a portage of only six miles at high water and twenty-six miles at low water, they could travel all the way from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico by water.

It is more than probable that LaSalle, the great French explorer, was the first white man to visit St. Marys.  In 1680 he crossed Lake Erie and followed the Maumee to its source. He proceeded southward and discovered our great State of Ohio. Because of the expedition of LaSalle's France laid claim to this territory and defended its possession for a 100 years to come.

In addition to a vast forest wilderness and rich planes, pre-settlement Ohio contained large prairies and wetland. The land which now lies beneath Lake St. Marys was once a vast wetland prairie. Before the building of Lake St. Marys, which drained about half of the river's watershed area, this river could easily handle the largest flatbottom boats. All of General Anthony Wayne's supplies for his army traveled the St. Marys River. In fact, until the building of the Miami-Erie Canal, all supplies coming into the interior and leaving the area of Western Ohio area went by way of the St. Marys River. It is very plain to see the impact St. Marys played in the early history of the Northwestern territories.

At the age of 71 James Girty adopted St. Marys as his home. He built a small hut over a dugout on the west bank of the river, on the site of a gravel bank near the southern end of  Main Street. Girty's hut seems to have been the first home built in St. Marys and began a lucrative fur trading post and the place became known near and far as "Girty's Town.

James Girty was a greedy evil man. He was stolen by the Indians at the age of eight when his parents were murdered. He spent eight years living with the Indians and spoke their language well.  He remained loyal to the Indians for the remainder of his life. It is said that he excelled them in cruelty and when he was an old man, too infirm to participate in any raids or battles, he would strike any white prisoner who came within his reach with his tomahawk.  It is more than likely that Tecumseh, Logan and Little Turtle, visited his trading post and perhaps planned many raids beneath his tan bark roof.

In July of 1794 General Anthony Wayne discovered that a large body of hostile Indians were assembled at St. Marys and set out at once with the finest and best equipped army that had ever been seen in these parts. He soon reached St. Marys, where he encamped on a low level tract on the banks of the St. Marys River. This camp site was perhaps the first fort ever built in St. Marys.

James Girty knew he was no match for the well equipped army of General Wayne and left with out a fight. The Indians stayed but kept their distance. 

Fort St. Marys was built in 1794 or 1795 under the orders of General Wayne. It was erected as a supply depot for food and supplies under the command of Captain John Whistler. It soon became a central location for shipping goods to the other forts located up and down the territory. The accumulation of cattle, horses, and other army stores was so great that additional storage buildings and a place to protect the live stock were needed.  

In 1813 General William Henry Harrison ordered two block-houses built, one within the fort and the other a little further south. The latter was surrounded by the usual stockade. When the buildings for the depot were completed, the fort was given the name of Fort Barbee, in honor of Colonel Barbee under whose command it was erected. Soon and enlarged fort and stockade were relocated further north. In1813 the fort became the permanent headquarters of General Harrison and considered the most important military post in Ohio. As many as 3,000 men were stationed there at one time.

General Harrison received his commission as a Major General in the United States Army while stationed at Fort Barbee. General Harrison later went on to served in Ohio in Congress and as a Senator. He was then named Minister to Columbia. In 1840 he was elected President of the Unites States. During his lengthy inauguration, he caught pneumonia and died on April 4, 1841, serving as President for only 31 days.

In order to end Indian hostilities and adjust old boundaries lines with the Indians a treaty was called to convene in St. Marys on August 17, 1818. The news was received with great joy. Even before the appointed time the river was swarming with canoes, all winding their way to St. Marys. The Governors of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana came with a large coterie of secretaries, cooks and body guards.  The great statesman, Lewis Cass, special representative of the United States Government, came with servants and a company of soldiers.  Several traders from near and far came to witness the evens and trade with the Indians. The treaty grounds extended along the west bank of the river as far south as the creek as far north as Spring Street. Lewis Cass was among the first to arrive. Then came the Chiefs of the Shawnees, the Wyandotte, the Ottawa, the Miami, the Delaware and the Pottawattamie. So great was the multitude present that it was necessary to use both banks of the river and temporary bridges were constructed.  Three days were set aside to recover from the fatigue of their journey, then the governors of the three states along with Lewis Cass and the Indian Chiefs began their deliberation. On October 6th the treaty was signed.  Great festivities followed the signing. That night the Indian chiefs set 17 bonfires to be kindled in honor of the 17 states and Lewis Cass and the Indian Chiefs set beside them in solemn silence and smoked the pipe of peace.

Most settlers waited a year or two to see if the treaty would hold firm, and then they came, slowly at first, strong-hearted settlers from the east and the south. Among them were William Houston and John McCorkle, and Charles Murray. These men conceived the idea of founding a town. They purchased 400 acres of land from the government and in August 1823, filed a plat of 68 lots. The town extended from South Street to North Street and from Perry Street to Front Street. These lots were found on tax duplicates in 1824 with a valuation of 24 cents. The town grew very slowly at first, but soon there were rumors of a canal, which would connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River. Huge changes were about to happen. Settlers came in from other parts of the state to be near this great source of transportation. They realized it would give them a market for their produce and enable them to procure the necessities of life. For 100 years St. Marys became a causeway between the North and the South and was considered second only in importance to Pittsburgh, which served in a similar capacity between the East and the West.

In order to supply a constant source of water for the Miami-Erie Canal a reservoir was added now known as Grand Lake St. Marys. It was started in 1837 by employing approximately 1,700 men constructing the east and west banks.  The 17,500 acre reservoir was for many years the largest artificial body of water in the world. The lake has 52 miles of shoreline and is approximately nine miles long and three miles wide. It is still the largest artificial body of water in the world built without the use of machinery.

It's hard to imagine the back-breaking labor of the men who worked from sunrise to sunset for 30 cents a day plus one jigger of whiskey. For eight long years they labored and lived in shanties.  Many remained after the job was completed in 1845 and took up farm land in this area.

The completion of the canal and its feeder-reservoir made a vast difference in the living costs. Freight rates dropped from $1.00 for hauling a bushel of wheat 100 miles to 15 cents for hauling one ton of wheat 100 miles. The canal did a thriving business until it was replaced by the even faster and more productive railways.

The late John J. Hauss, a writer for The Evening Leader recalls:

"Back in 1849 a steam packet, the Niagara, operated between St. Marys and Celina making the ten mile trip in one hour. Passengers would board the packet at the locks where the Spring Street bridge now stands and would travel up the canal to the reservoir and then cross it to Celina. It was a grand and glorious pleasure jaunt according to those who used to make it 86 years ago." 

"I found among my clippings an article telling of the Niagara and its master, Mr. Wheeler, as well as the owner, Mr. Doyle. It appeared in a paper on May 29, 1849 and reads as follows:

Mr. Doyle has placed a splendid Steam Packet on the Reservoir, to run during the season daily from St. Marys to Celina, leaving the former place at 9 o'clock a.m. and returning at 3 o'clock p.m. The distance is something over ten miles requiring a little over and hour to run it. For a short pleasure trip, it will compensate a person for traveling twenty miles to get to the starting point. Mr. Wheeler, the Master, is every way a gentlemen, and leaves nothing in his power undone that will enhance the convenience and pleasure of the passengers. We recommend the Niagara to our citizens."

During the early history of the lake, fish were taken from the lake by the barrels and sold commercially. They were shipped up and down the canal.

During the oil boom in the 1890's many oil wells were drilled in Lake St. Marys and were among the best producers in Northwestern Ohio. Until recently, this last producing oil well was still pumped, and then it too was abandoned and turned over to the state, the derrick serving as a refuge for boaters in stormy weather. It was the last vestige of the days when derricks' studded the wide expanse of water.

From its completion in 1845 until 1915 the lake provided this area with some of its most colorful history. In 1915 the lake was no longer needed to feed the canal. The General Assembly of the State of Ohio passed an act through which this body of water and adjacent lands owned by the State were deducted and set apart forever for the use of the public, as public parks or pleasure resorts and this condition still exists today.