by Tom Castaldi
One of the
principal reasons there is a community in Fort
Wayne today is the “portage.” Not far from our Indiana city, to the west across the river,
was the eastern entrance to this important feature.
The portage, a French term for “carrying
place,” denotes the route where early travelers carried their canoes from one river
over to another. At Fort Wayne the portage connects the Saint
Mary’s River and the Maumee
Valley to the Wabash River
and the Ohio
and Mississippi
rivers beyond. It is the only place
where travelers by boat had to go overland when making their way from the Great Lakes to the great western rivers leading to the Gulf of Mexico.
The eastern
terminus of the portage was located in today’s West Swinney
Park where there were
many campsites. The portage route
followed the high ground away from the St. Mary’s River, along Portage Boulevard
and through the Fort Wayne County Club grounds, southwest past Fox Island
Park to a site near Ellison Road in
today’s Aboite Township, where the Little
Wabash River begins to make its way to the Wabash.
Usually the
route was about nine miles long. Often
after the spring floods, however, there would be water all the way to the Wabash; during drought the carrying distance might be as
long as twenty-five miles. The portage
was well marked by paths and wagon tracks and was elaborately developed with
bridges and causeways to help travelers in the crossing, although there were
frequent complaints about beavers damming the Little
Wabash River.
The portage
made the Miami
wealthy, for the tribe levied a charge on those who used it. Even in the earliest accounts from the 1690s,
the portage was referred to by the French as a “Toll Road Swamp.” Through their control of the
portage, the Miami
enjoyed power and prestige in the region.
They also attracted attention, first from the French and the English who
sought to dominate the Indians through their influence, and then from the
Americans, who sought to conquer the area and establish their own control over
the vital crossroads.
The importance
of the portage declined sharply with the coming of the Wabash
and Erie Canal in the 1830s. By the time of the Civil War, it was little
more than a trail through the western marshes of the country; and with the
great drainage projects of the 1890s, it virtually disappeared, leaving behind
the community to which it gave birth.
Originally published in Fort Wayne Magazine, “Along the Heritage Trail with Tom Castaldi” – June 2005 No 13, p. 37
For a map of the portage, please see:
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