Visit the Lost Michigan Villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula

Michigan was once home to two neighboring villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula. Today those villages are lost to us.

Not that they're gone, vanished like a modern Atlantis or Roanoke Colony. Rather, those two villages that were once part of Michigan Territory were lost to Ohio when Congress in ending the Toledo War decided to give the Toledo Strip to the Buckeye State. The villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula, Michigan merged to become Toledo.

Map of the Lost Michigan Villages of Port Lawrence and Vistula

This 1834 map, part of the collection of the Toledo Lucas County Library shows the neighboring villages. Vistula and Port Lawrence were both located along the north shore of the Maumee River with Vistula being slightly north and east of Port Lawrence.

The Legacy of Vistula, Michigan

All the streets on the maps above are part of modern-day Toledo including the streets named after the Great Lakes, a common naming convention. The old villages also live on in the name of the Vistula Historic District and the Vistula Heritage Village apartment complexes.

The historic Michigan village of Vistula gave its name to the Vistula Road which ran from Toledo to Chicago. Many cities in Northern Indiana like Mishawaka, Elkhart and Bristol still have Vistula streets. A monument to the Visulta Road exists in Fremont, Indiana along the former roadway, on a street now locally called Toledo Street.

Ohio State Route 120 and Indiana State Route 120 generally follow the path of the Vistula Road.

So should you ever find yourself in downtown Toledo, know that you're treading on historic Michigan streets that we lost in exchange for the Upper Peninsula.

Check out what gas prices may have been like in the pre-Interstate era when routes like the Vistula Road was the main way to drive across the land.