Indian Lake, so named by European-American settlers because several tribes lived in the region and found the area to be ideal for fishing and hunting, was originally a group of small lakes and wetlands occupying about . In the 1850s it was adapted as the "Lewistown Reservoir," in order to collect water for the Sidney Feeder to the Miami and Erie Canal, which extended from Toledo to Cincinnati. Within a few years after its construction, the canal system became an obsolete form of transportation compared to the new and growing railways.