Before the kiosks, the app, and the multimillion-dollar riverfront redevelopments, the Great Miami Riverway was just an idea backed by a 2015 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study — one that suggested ten river towns in Southwest Ohio could do more together than apart. The coalition's first activities report, covering April 2017 through September 2019, captures that scrappy startup phase: building a brand from scratch, launching a website, and throwing the region's first big party to introduce itself.
In the early days, the Riverway didn't even have a website — just a placeholder page holding the URL while the real work got underway. The Miami Conservancy District brought in Guide Studio to build out the visual identity, brand guidelines, and a rack card, and secured a registered trademark for the logo. A members-only "Inside the Riverway" Facebook page gave coalition members and brand ambassadors a place to swap stories and photos.
The full Great Miami Riverway website launched on May 10, 2018, funded in part by grants from the Troy Foundation and the Dayton Foundation. From day one, it included trail itineraries, a live trail conditions map (built with the University of Dayton's Innovation Center), a trip planner, and an events calendar.
Signage was a major early focus for the Southwest Ohio river trail network. MCD worked with Guide Studio to design kiosks and medallions, then contracted with KAP in Dayton to fabricate and install 11 kiosks and 124 medallions in 2018, with four more kiosks added in 2019. The Greater Dayton RTA pitched in by adding Riverway information to eight bus stops.
Safety became a priority after attendees at the 2018 Riverway Summit flagged signage and wayfinding as top needs. That feedback led to a River and Trail Safety Signage committee, which proposed emergency locator signs coordinated with GIS codes for 911 dispatch — an idea that would eventually grow into the ODOT bridge-signage partnership seen in later reports. A Dayton Rotary grant of $5,000 helped get the safety signs designed and fabricated.
Marketing in these early years had a scrappy, try-everything energy. The Riverway launched a podcast called "Hidden Gems" in May 2018, featuring guests like the president of American Rivers, and won an Ohio Travel Association RUBY Award for it that September. A video series called "I Am the Riverway" profiled locals who lived, worked, and played along the corridor. The e-newsletter grew to 2,670 subscribers by November 2019.
The coalition also launched Tour de Way, a QR-code-based passport program spanning 100 locations — parks, businesses, and events — that drew 850 participants and generated an estimated $13,000 in advertising-equivalent media coverage by mid-2019. Even in these formative years, the seeds of a bigger vision were being planted: it would still be a few years before West Carrollton dreamed up its river surfing park, but the idea of turning the Great Miami River into a genuine recreation and surfing destination — not just a trail alongside water — was already taking shape in early placemaking discussions.
The inaugural Riverway Summit, held March 23, 2018 at the Dayton Art Institute, drew 180 attendees for sessions on branding, safety, and regional tourism. The following year's summit, at Hobart Arena in Troy, nearly doubled attendance to 215 people, pulled in 43 exhibitors, and raised $30,000 in sponsorships — enough to cover the event and fund a printed river map and guide.
Perhaps the most consequential move of this period was commissioning a study from Tourism Economics. Released in August 2018, it put a number on what many suspected: the Great Miami Riverway generated $773 million in tourist spending in 2017 and supported 9,110 jobs. That figure would become the coalition's go-to talking point for justifying continued investment — and by the 2021 follow-up report, it had grown to $913 million and nearly 9,700 jobs.
By the fall of 2019, the young coalition had already picked up national recognition, including a Silver Award for Excellence in Economic Development from the International Economic Development Council for regional and cross-border collaboration — a strong note to end the founding chapter on.
Read the full Great Miami Riverway Activities Report, April 2017–September 2019.