Ohio’s first exploration by a European was by a Frenchman, Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (shown below at right). He investigated the Great Lakes area in 1669-70, claiming all of Ohio for the country of France.

De La Salle’s path along the portage that led from the St. Mary’s River to the Great Miami River became one of the most direct ways to the Ohio River. This same route, using the rivers and the Indian trails, became the thoroughfare between Detroit and Fort Hamilton which later became Cincinnati.

The Ohio territory, among others, would be in dispute for nearly a century (1689-1763) between the French and English as they engaged in a series of colonial campaigns in North America. This would be ended by the Treaty of Paris after France lost the French and Indian War (1754-1763). With this treaty, all land north of the Ohio River became English soil.  Following the Revolutionary War, Great Britain formally relinquished its right to this territory, including Ohio, to the United States in September, 1783.

Rene Robert Cavelier

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'Pioneer' segment written in October, 1997
by Sherrie Casad-Lodge