Located along the Cuyahoga River, Akron is a city in northeastern Ohio. Akron is about a thirty-minute drive from Cleveland. Akron’s county seat is Cuyahoga County. The city is an example of a planned city from the early part of the 19th century.

What is Akron famous for?

• With Cleveland and Lake Erie to the north, Akron was a cog in the gears of early industrial America. Before roads, trains, and planes made it possible to move goods between states and to international markets, American politicians and leaders pushed to develop a canal system. The Ohio and Erie Canal opened in 1827, followed by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal in 1840.
• The canal system fueled early American industry, and Akron is right in the middle of it. Much of Akron’s industrialized past is forgotten by abandoned buildings. However, there is an ever-present feel of America in and among the modern businesses. If you know where to find them, the remains of the canals are still around.
• Akron was once called the “rubber capital of the world.” Why, you ask? That’s kind of a long story, but we’ll try to condense it. The canal system was a kind of superhighway that delivered things all over early America. When cars and roads made canals all but obsolete, shipping continued throughout the Great Lakes region. This included cars and, yep, tires, which come from rubber.

Akron was once the international headquarters for the top tire companies Firestone, General Tire, Goodrich, and Goodyear. Today, Akron is home to only one tire company headquarters, Goodyear.