The Great Black Swamp was a wetland created by a glacier in the northwest part of Ohio, stretching into the extremities into northeast Indiana which remained from the last portion of the Wisconsin glaciations till the later years of 19th century. The Great Black Swamp included vast areas of marshes and swamps with some high and dry land spread all over and comprised the former southwestern portion of Glacial Lake Maumee, a Holocene predecessor to Lake Erie. It received water slowly and was formed in the later half of the 19th century and at present a rich farmland.

The historic limits are contained within the divides of the Auglaize, Portage and Maumee rivers in the northwest part of Ohio. The border was defined initially by old sandy ridges of beach formed along the shores of Lake Whittlesey and Lake Maumee, after the glacier retreated thousands of years ago. The Great Black Swamp extended almost from New Haven in the west to Sandusky Ohio and Toledo in the east. Other watersheds lying within its previous boundary comprise Sandusky, Blanchard, Ottawa and Tiffin rivers. The Great Black Swamp also consisted of vegetations with deciduous swamp forests prevailing mainly and included cottonwood, sycamore, beech, basswood, tulip tree, hickory, oak, ash and elm.

The mesic and xeric species were also abundant in the Great Black Swamp. Wet prairies and marshes are the other forms of wetlands that comprised the, some of which can still be visited in the federal and wildlife refuges like the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge. Most of the lands in the Great Black Swamp to its north, south and east were settled in the early years of 19th century and a corduroy road was built in 1825. But the impenetrability of the wetland caused difficulties during the Toledo War and the area was started being used for agricultural purposes in the 1850s for the forty years and the over the next 30 years, the Great Black Swamp was settled along with the improvement of the railroads and a drainage tile industry.

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