The Great Black Swamp may have slowed the settlement of northwest Ohio, but it couldn't stop a little town south of Toledo called Bowling Green. It blossomed into an agricultural gold mine with natural gas and oil booms that prospered the modest Wood County seat late in the Nineteenth Century. Now as the home of internationally known Bowling Green State University, the National Championship Tractor Pulling Competition, and the Black Swamp Arts Festival, this formerly uninhabitable swamp continues to attract its fair share of attention. In this pictorial history you will learn how Bowling Green beat the odds to become the city everybody wants to revisit.
Frederick N. Honneffer is the document conservator at BGSU's Center for Archival Collections. He received BA in history from Ashland College and an MA in history and archives administration from BGSU. His research interests concentrate primarily upon public entertainment, amusement and the arts. His most recent book is Jolly Times at Seccaium Park: 1899 to 1948. He resides in Bowling Green.