Akron Bed Breakfast Ohio

Cuyahoga Valley National Park preserves and reclaims the rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. The 51-square-mile (130 km ² ) park is the only national park in Ohio.

Cuyahoga means "crooked river" in Mohawk.

Administrative history

The valley began providing recreation for urban dwellers in the 1870s when people came from nearby cities for carriage rides or leisure boat trips along the canal. In 1880, the Valley Railroad became another way to escape urban industrial life. Actual park development began in the 1910s and 1920s with the establishment of Cleveland and Akron metropolitan park districts. In 1929 the estate of Cleveland businessman Hayward Kendall donated 430 acres around the Richie Ledges and a trust fund to the state of Ohio. Kendall's will stipulated that the "property should be perpetually used for park purposes". It became Virginia Kendall park, in honor of his mother. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built much of the parks infrastructure including what are now Happy Days Lodge and the shelters at Octagon, Ledges, and Kendall Lake.

Although regional parks safeguarded certain places, by the 1960s local citizens feared that urban sprawl would overwhelm the Cuyahoga Valley's natural beauty. Active citizens joined forces with state and national government staff to find a long term solution. Finally, on December 27, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed the bill establishing the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. The area was redesignated a national park by Congress on October 11, 2000, with the passage of the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001 , House Bill 4578, 106th congress. It is administered by the National Park Service. David Berger National Memorial in Beachwood, Ohio, is also managed through Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

The Richfield Coliseum, a multipurpose arena in the Cuyahoga River area, was demolished in 1999 and the now-empty site became part of Cuyahoga Valley National Park upon its designation in 2000. It has since become a grassy meadow popular with birdwatchers.

Attractions

Many visitors spend their time hiking or bicycling the parks' many trails which visit its numerous attractions, including the crushed limestone along portions of the 20 miles (32.2 km) Towpath Trail, following a former stretch of the 308 miles (495.7 km) Ohio and Erie Canal.

Waterfalls, rolling hills, winding river scenery attract many park visitors. Steep narrow ravines, a rolling floodplain, and lush farmland contrast one another throughout the park. Animal life is also plentiful.

The park offers an array of preserved and restored displays of 19th and early 20th century sustainable farming and pastoral or rural living, while catering to contemporary interests with art exhibits, outdoor concerts, and scenic excursion and special event railroad tours on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.

It includes compatible-use sites not owned by the federal government, including several local regional parks in the Cleveland Metroparks and Metro Parks, Serving Summit County systems, Blossom Music Center, and the Hale Farm & Village. In the mid 1980s, the park hosted the National Folk Festival.

Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail

The multi-purpose Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath trail was developed by the National Park Service and is the major trail through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. From it visitors can make connections to many of the natural and historic sites in the park and to other trails that intersect it along the way. or through one of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor centers.

History

The Towpath Trail follows the historic route of the Ohio & Erie Canal. Before the canal was built, Ohio was a sparsely settled wilderness where travel was difficult and getting crops to market was nearly impossible. The canal, built between 1825 and 1832, provided a successful transportation route from Cleveland, on Lake Erie, to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River. The canal opened up Ohio to the rest of the settled eastern United States.

There are numerous wayside exhibits that provide information about canal features and sites of historic interest. There is also a virtual tour.

Today visitors can walk or ride along the same path that the mules used to tow the canal boats loaded with goods and passengers. The scene is different than it was then; the canal was full of water carrying a steady flow of boats amongst the constant conversations of "canawlers." Evidence of beavers can be seen in many places along the trail.

Towpath trailheads

Visitor centers

Points of historic interest

National Register of Historic Places

Many of the listed homes are in private ownership.

References

  This article incorporates public domain material from the National Park Service document "http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuva/planavisit/todo/recreation/ohioerie.htm".

1. ^ "Encyclopedia of Cleveland History - The Cuyahoga River". Case Western Reserve University . http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=CR9 .  
2. ^ "The Cuyahoga River". Cleveland Memory, Cleveland State University . http://www.clevelandmemory.org/ellis/chap03.html .  
3. ^ Cuyahoga Valley National Park - Frequently Asked Questions (U.S. National Park Service)
4. ^ govtrack.us summary of HR 4578
5. ^ "CVSR". Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad . http://www.cvsr.com/ .  
6. ^ "Towpath Trail map". National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior . http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuva/planavisit/maps/towpath.htm .  
7. ^ ^{a b c d} "Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail". National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior . http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuva/planavisit/todo/recreation/ohioerie.htm .  
8. ^ "Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail Tour - Sites to Visit". National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior . http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuva/visitonline/towpathtour/interact.htm .  
9. ^ "Ohio & Erie Canal - Towpath Trail Tour". National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior . http://www.nps.gov/archive/cuva/visitonline/towpathtour/index.htm .

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