What Was The Original Name of Ohio?

The Ohio Country

For much of the 17th and 18th centuries, the region was referred to as the Ohio Country. This was not a formal political name but a loosely defined term for the vast, resource-rich lands west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie. This territory was a crucial frontier and a center of competition for various groups:

• Native American Tribes: It was home to numerous Native American tribes, including the Shawnee and Delaware.
• European Powers: Both the French and the British claimed the Ohio Country, leading to conflicts like the French and Indian War as they vied for control of the valuable fur trade and strategic river valleys.

The Northwest Territory

After the American Revolutionary War, the United States gained control of the region from the British. Through the landmark Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the federal government organized this vast area into its first incorporated territory, officially called the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, or more commonly, the Northwest Territory.

This was a massive territory that included the land that would eventually become the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota. The ordinance was a crucial piece of legislation that established a process for admitting new states to the Union and famously prohibited slavery in the new territory.

Becoming "Ohio"

In 1803, a portion of the Northwest Territory was sectioned off and admitted to the Union as the 17th state. It officially took the name Ohio, derived from the Iroquois name for the river that formed its southern border. Ohio was the very first state to be carved out of the vast Northwest Territory, paving the way for the nation's westward expansion.

Sources:

• Ohio History Connection
• U.S. Library of Congress
• National Archives (for the Northwest Ordinance)
• Britannica
• Historical accounts of the Ohio Country and the Northwest Territory