The Old Portage was an eight-mile overland connection between the Cuyahoga and Tuscarawas Rivers and the longer of two portages used by prehistoric peoples and early settlers. It was one link in the water route between Lake Erie and the Ohio River that prehistoric Native Americans traveled seasonally, using canoes and small dugout boats to navigate the rivers and wetlands of the region to harvest wild food and hunt. The route was also important for trade, especially for the high quality flint found at Flint Ridge near Newark in southern Ohio, and most arrowheads found locally are made from such flint. As early European explorers and settlers moved into the area, they also traveled the Old Portage. After the signing of the Treaty of Fort MacIntosh in 1785, the Portage Path became a boundary between lands to the west for Native Americans and lands to the east available for white settlers.