Conneaut is the last city in Ohio before Pennsylvania — the northeasternmost in the state and in the county, about 66 miles out from Cleveland. I-90 and Route 20 both cut straight through it, and State Route 7 ends here at the lake. About 12,300 people live in the city.

Surveyors for the Connecticut Land Company put up a log storehouse at the mouth of Conneaut Creek in 1796. Settlement followed in 1798, the place incorporated in 1832 under the name New Salem, and it became a city in 1898. Everything since has turned on two things: the harbor and the railroad.

The Harbor and the Ore Trade

Conneaut Harbor still loads railcars with iron ore bound for the Pittsburgh-area steel mills, the Edgar Thomson Works among them. That is the same job it has been doing for well over a century, and it is the reason three railroads run into a city this size. The downtown harbor district is quieter than it was in the ore boom, but the port itself has not stopped working.

The rail history here is not all good. On March 27, 1953, three trains collided near Conneaut and twenty-one people died. It is still one of the worst wrecks in Ohio history.

D-Day Conneaut

Every August, Conneaut Township Park becomes Normandy. D-Day Conneaut started in 1999 when a group of living-history enthusiasts staged a landing on the beach, and it has grown into the largest World War II reenactment in the United States. Recent years have run around 1,400 reenactors and better than 45,000 spectators across a long weekend, with veterans attending as guests of honor.

The reason it happens here and not somewhere else is geography: the beach and the bluffs at the township park are a close enough approximation of the Normandy coast to make the landing read. For local businesses it is the single biggest weekend of the year — hotels fill across two counties and into Pennsylvania, and restaurants plan around it the way Andover plans around camping season.

Seven Miles of Shoreline

Conneaut has more than seven miles of Lake Erie frontage, with public beach, boat launches and a summer trade that comes with them. Conneaut Township Park is the main one. Walleye and perch charters run out of the harbor through the season, and the campgrounds and rentals fill from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

What Conneaut Makes

There is more manufacturing here than the lakefront suggests. CSP of Ohio, General Aluminum and CW Ohio all run plants in the city, supplying automotive and building products. Astatic built microphones in Conneaut from 1944 to 2000, and its successor CAD — Conneaut Audio Devices — still makes microphones used in studios well outside Ohio. Lake Erie Correctional Institution is one of the larger single employers in the area.

Eating in Conneaut

If you scan the listings above you will notice how many of them are restaurants: Angela’s Cafe, Biscotti’s, Maverick’s Bistro, Hanako, Pueblo Real, Franco’s, Pat’s Fireside, Grandpa Pizzi’s, Sparky’s Place, Rainbow Cafe, Charlie’s New Beginning, JT’s Bagels, Heavenly Creamery and more. Part of that is a real strength — a lake town with summer traffic supports more kitchens than its population would predict. Part of it is that this directory started with restaurants and is still filling in the rest. If you run a trade, a shop or a service in Conneaut, there is room on this page.

Community

Conneaut Area City Schools runs the public buildings. The Conneaut Public Library is on Buffalo Street, the Conneaut Convention and Visitors Bureau is on Broad Street, and D-Day Ohio Inc. — the nonprofit behind the August reenactment — keeps an address on Buffalo Street as well.

Find a Conneaut Business

The listings above cover Conneaut and the surrounding area in the 44030 ZIP code. If you run a business here and you are not on this page, you can add your listing free.

More to See in Conneaut

Three covered bridges cross Conneaut Creek and the Ashtabula River nearby. D-Day Conneaut, the largest World War II reenactment in the United States, fills the township park every August, and the railroad and D-Day museums are open year round.