Dec 5, 2018 4 min read

If there’s anyone singularly responsible for Toledo, Ohio’s, reputation as an uninspiring Rust Belt ruin, it could be John Denver.

Back in the early 1970s, the usually cheerful purveyor of hits like “Rocky Mountain High” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads” tore into Toledo with gusto in the song “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio.” The tune was written by Randy Sparks of the New Christy Minstrels, and it says that “Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio, is like being nowhere at all/ All through the day, how the hours rush by/ You sit in the park and you watch the grass die.”

It continues, “Ah, but let’s not forget that the folks of Toledo unselfishly gave us the scale/ No springs, honest weight, that’s the promise they made/ So smile and be thankful the next time you get weighed.”

Ouch.

Sure, Toledo will never be mistaken for a sunny tourist destination or a cultural mecca. Like Cleveland, Chicago, Buffalo, N.Y., and other cities within a stone’s throw of the Great Lakes, Toledo can be gray, grim and forbidding in January and February. A mid-sized metropolitan area comparable to Harrisburg or Augusta, Ga., Toledo doesn’t have the full complement of cultural amenities you will find in a larger city, and it has been slowly ebbing population in recent years.

Still, a sturdy case can be made that Toledo does not deserve to be a punchline (Full disclosure: I am a native of Toledo, and still have family residing in the area).

First, Toledo is not a cultural wasteland. The Toledo Museum of Art can stand toe-to-toe with museums in larger cities, with holdings in its collection by Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and Matisse. Founded at the turn of the 20th century by Edward Drummond Libbey, widely regarded as the father of Toledo’s glass industry, it contains the Peristyle, the regular performance space for the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. In 2006, the museum opened the Glass Pavilion, spotlighting the institution’s wide-ranging collection of glass objects.

The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library system is one of the most highly regarded in the country, and is in the top 10 of the biggest-spending library systems in the United States. The Toledo Zoo and Aquarium lures more than 1 million visitors a year, and they can see 720 different animal species within its 51 acres. Founded in 1900, around the same time as the museum, it has permanent exhibits on, among other things, bald eagles, penguins, tigers and snow leopards. During the summer, the zoo’s amphitheater hosts concerts by national acts – Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr and Steely Dan are among the artists who have played there.

Another Toledo advantage is its proximity to other cities. You can get from Toledo’s downtown to Detroit’s downtown in about an hour. Cleveland is about two hours to the east. Columbus is two-and-a-half hours to the south. Ann Arbor, Mich., and the University of Michigan, is about 45 minutes north of Toledo.

At the same time Denver was lambasting Toledo, actor Jamie Farr was extolling its virtues as the homesick Maxwell Klinger on the television series “MASH.” More to the point, Klinger frequently yearned for delicacies from Tony Packo’s Cafe, easily Toledo’s best-known restaurant. It’s known for its “Hungarian hot dog,” which contains a sausage from Hungary called kolbasz. The restaurant has expanded to five locations in the Toledo area, and some of its products, like peppers, sauces and T-shirts, can be ordered online. The original restaurant near downtown has drawn a bevy of celebrity visitors over the years, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bing Crosby and Tony Bennett.

When the weather does warm up in Toledo, visitors can partake of its expansive metropark system, which covers 10,000 acres of land at a variety of locations, and includes a botanical garden and a bike trail that runs by the University of Toledo. Also, in the summer, the Toledo Mud Hens, the Triple-A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers, plays at a stadium in downtown. This year, the team won the International League West.

Cathy Miller, director of tourism for Destination Toledo, explained that the dismissive attitude toward Toledo has been fading over time. She also said that when first-time visitors come to Toledo, they are sometimes surprised by what they find.

“There are a lot of gems tucked throughout the city,” Miller says. “The location is great. It’s great for travelers.”