The river itself was cut through the Allegheny Plateau as glaciers receded in the area at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation.

This material marks the uncertain transition between the Devonian and Pennsylvanian periods in the region and is also an important source of local fossils.

On December 31, 2004, the Daniels Park Dam failed due to excess pressure from ice and water.

In 2007, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were notified that, in violation of both state law and Federal Regulations, 8,700 feet (2,700 m) of the East Branch of the river was channelized and diked to prevent flooding on agricultural land owned by the Village of Kirtland Hills.

Both the village and Osborne were cited for the activity, which threatened the riparian floodplains and increased the likelihood and severity of downstream flooding in the communities of Willoughby and Eastlake.

In 2012, the Ohio Attorney General's Office under Mike DeWine sued Osborne's company for failing to obtain the proper permits.

[12] In 2016, Lake County Commons Pleas Judge Richard L. Collins Jr. ordered the now-late Osborne estate to pay a civil penalty of $404,240 plus interest to the Ohio State treasury.

[13] The Ohio Department of Natural Resources later dedicated $2.2 million to the restoration of the East Branch, which is ongoing as of 2024.