Northwest Ohio · Founded 2026
Land, water, and memory in the Maumee River valley.
We work to protect the river and the marshes it feeds, and to record the people who made this place worth protecting — the makers, the teachers, the farmers, the artists.
Our mission
Two kinds of preservation, one watershed.
The Maumee has the largest drainage basin of any river in the Great Lakes, and the valley around it has been farmed, fished, milled, and lived in for a very long time. Most of that history was never written down, and much of the habitat that carried it is gone.
The Maumee River Collective was formed to work on both problems at once. We put volunteers on riverbanks and in marshes. We sit down with people who have spent their lives here and record what they know. And we are building a small press so that the best of that material ends up in print instead of in a box in someone's attic.
We are a young organization — incorporated in Ohio in the spring of 2026 and funded at the start by Wild Side Brewing Co. Everything here is being built in public, on purpose.
Three programs
The work, plainly stated.
01 · Stewardship
Watershed Stewardship
Riverbank and trail workdays, native plantings, invasive removal, and volunteer water-quality monitoring from Grand Rapids down to the western basin.
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02 · Archive
The Living Archive
Recorded oral histories, family photographs, letters, and maps — collected, catalogued, and made available to the public rather than lost to a move or an estate sale.
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03 · Publishing
Three Presses
River Craft Press for nonfiction, Black Swamp Press for fiction and poetry, Great Lakes Books for young readers. Submissions open in stages.
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Craftsman Spotlight
Somebody in this valley knows how to do something nobody else does.
Our recurring series profiles the people who work with their hands here: boat builders, welders, bakers, luthiers, quilters, brewers, farmers, sign painters, and the shop teachers who taught half of them.
Each profile is a recorded interview, a set of photographs, and a written piece. The interview goes into the archive. The writing runs in our newsletter, and the strongest of it becomes a book.
Acres in the Maumee watershed — over 6,500 square miles, the largest drainage basin in the Great Lakes. What happens here reaches Lake Erie.
Programs running in parallel: stewardship in the field, oral history in the archive, and publishing through the press.
Founding members we are recruiting in our first year. Broad-based membership, not a single donor, is what keeps an organization like this independent.
Coming up
Where to find us next.
Most of what we do is public. Cleanups, recording days, readings, and the occasional fundraiser in a taproom.
Fall River Cleanup
A morning on the banks below the rapids with bags, waders, and a truck. Gloves provided. Date being confirmed.
Grand Rapids, Ohio
Winter Reading & Book Launch
An evening of readings from local writers, with the launch of a new memoir set in this valley. Date being confirmed.
Wild Side Brewing Co., Grand Rapids
Get involved
This valley keeps its own records. We are trying to keep them well.
Membership is what makes the work steady instead of occasional. Dues fund cleanups, recording equipment, archival storage, and the first books we publish.