Since its inception in 1978, the trailblazers along the byway had been white-on-green signs with a pair of footprints adjacent to the words "Seaway Trail". On June 22, 2010, the Seaway Trail unveiled a new marker design as part of a larger rebranding of the byway itself, which was renamed the Great Lakes Seaway Trail. According to Seaway Trail, Inc. president Teresa Mitchell, research revealed that the Seaway Trail name was publicly associated more with the Saint Lawrence Seaway than the Great Lakes region, prompting the change. An extension of the Seaway Trail further westward into the Great Lakes—specifically Ohio—was considered in December 2000; however, that state established the Lake Erie Coastal Ohio Trail instead.