Photo courtesy of the Akron-Summit County Public Library / Portage Lakes Historical Society
One hundred summers ago, young women donning sailor sashes and ankle skirts rowed the Ohio & Erie Canal as members of the all-female Anchor Canoe Club. But these ladies, who represented a livery near Summit Lake, weren’t the first canoeists in The 330. That would be Native American travelers thousands of years prior. They used the Portage Path in Akron to carry canoes over their heads from the Cuyahoga to the Tuscarawas river. The Akron Portage and Paddle, an annual summer canoe and carry race, pays tribute to that sacred history. Although women don’t wear skirts on the water and the Ohio & Erie Canal is no longer in use, canoeists can still be found in Akron paddling the Burning River through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
