We are currently working with a local historian to develop this section of our website. In the meantime, enjoy this excellent description of the name “Tuscarawas” from HeritagePursuit.com.

The Tuscarawas River in early times was known as the Muskingum. The Indians called it Muskkingum or "Elk's Eye." Maj. Robert Roger, who visited it in 1760, called the river the Maskongam. The name Tuscarawas was applied to the stream above its junction with the Walhonding at Coshocton, soon after the first settlers arrived. Of the origin of the word Tuscarawas, all accounts do not agree. The county was doubtless named from the river, and the river from the Indian capital which occupied the site of Bolivar, and was called Tuscarawas Town or Tuscarora. The name is said to have been derived from the Tuscarora tribe of Indians, a member of the Six Nations, some of whom had occupied this valley. The signification of Tuscarora is said to be "open mouth." Early historians make no mention of such occupancy, says Mitchener, and it is probable that Heckewelder gives the correct origin of the word; according to him Tuscarawas means "old town," and this was the name of the ancient Indian town, opposite the mouth of Sandy Creek.