National Treasure

On Dec. 27, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed a bill creating the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area.

Encompassing about 33,000 acres in Summit and Cuyahoga counites, the area is an important one in Ohio history, having been first occupied by Native Americans and then used for industry and agriculture. Natural highlights include rock ledges, wetlands, forests and waterfalls like Brandywine and Blue Hen falls in addition to the Cuyahoga River that flows to Lake Erie. Plans for recreational use had been floated a half-century before it officially became a recreation area.

Today, Cuyahoga Valley National Park — its designation changed in 2000 — receives more than 2.9 million visits annually as the ninth most-visited national park in America as of 2022. But it didn’t start so universally beloved.

John Debo, superintendent of Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area/Park, 1988-2009: President Ford came off the ski slopes at Vail to sign the law creating the recreation area four days before the legislation could have expired. It was a little miracle.

At the time, President Ford and the Department of the Interior were not receptive to the legislation. Parks were being added to the system with some frequency. The Department of the Interior was feeling beleaguered and felt like there wasn’t enough money to run these parks.

Jennie Vasarhelyi, CVNP supervisory park ranger: At that time, there was also a federal program called Parks to People that was looking to establish federal public lands that were more accessible. This policy resulted in federal public lands in metropolitan areas. Summit Metro Parks had hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architectural firm to create a master plan, and in 1925, it suggested a comprehensive Cuyahoga valley park but said it was too expensive. There was a state study in the 1960s, but again, that was deemed too expensive. There were also community groups interested in creating the park. After the park was established, the biggest source of tension with local communities was the land acquisition and how some communities lost their tax base. This was especially true of Boston and Peninsula.

More than 20,000 years ago, northern Ohio including what is now the CVNP — and most of the Great Lakes region — was covered with ice. As the ice receded, the land, rich with natural resources, was soon settled.

Vasarhelyi: This is a lived-in valley. The area was glaciated and as soon as the glaciers left, people were here. The Native American history is really complex. It’s something we’re still learning. There were eastern woodland people, there was a period of depopulation, and there were refugees. The area was resettled by tribes fleeing the impacts of colonization elsewhere.

Like most of northern Ohio, the Cuyahoga River valley was part of the Connecticut Western Reserve. In 1796, Moses Cleaveland came from Connecticut to survey and map out the Western Reserve land, including the city that bears his name.

Jason Klein, Holsey Gates Handyside chief historic preservation officer, Western Reserve Historical Society: Jonathan Hale purchased 500 acres of land in the area — sight unseen — in the early 1800s from the Connecticut Land Company, which had marked out this portion of the country as the Connecticut Western Reserve. It was 120 miles from the Pennsylvania border west and from Lake Erie down to about Poland. He moved there in 1810. There were no roads. There were no trails. 

The Hales were essentially subsistence farmers. Jonathan Hale was a brickmaker from Glastonbury, and he did bring that skilled trade with him. He’d use resources on his land to make bricks and sell them. Their family evolved as the area evolved.

Among the evolutions was hand-digging and opening the Ohio & Erie Canal, which promised to cut the journey from Cleveland to Cincinnati — that took weeks over land — to 80 hours.

Dan Rice, president and CEO, Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition: The Ohio & Erie Canal transformed Ohio from a frontier settlement to the third most populous state in the nation by 1850. It was the interstate highway of its day. It was a tremendous impact on the growth of our country and of Ohio. 

Daryl Revoldt, former district director for U.S. Rep. Ralph Regula: Ralph understood the canals had driven Ohio prosperity in the 19th century. He practiced law in Navarre, and the canal went right through Navarre. It wasn’t ancient history. It was in a lot of people’s recent memories.

When he joined the Ohio legislature, he had the state preserve — not sell — the canal lands to private property owners. He was elected to Congress and was appointed to the house of appropriations. He eventually became a member of the interior appropriations subcommittee, and that gave him the means to help develop the Cuyahoga Valley Recreation Area. 

Debo: There are two people who deserve the credit for the establishment and maintenance of the park. [U.S. Rep.] John Seiberling and Ralph Regula. Seiberling was the visionary. Regula, from the park’s very inception, was instrumental in providing funding. He worked [with the interior appropriations subcommittee] to provide money for land acquisition and operations.

Congressman Regula ultimately engineered a bill to create the Ohio & Erie [Canalway] National Heritage [Area] for the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath. This resulted in funding and a lot of other kinds of support. When I arrived at the park, the Towpath was completely undeveloped. When it was completed, visitation virtually doubled overnight.

Rice: Today, about 90 miles of the 101-mile [Towpath] trail from Tuscarawas County to Cleveland are completed, and the remaining miles are in planning and development. Once people saw the trail’s potential, they became more excited about it. … There were hikers and bikers right behind the builders. It was so popular. 

Vasarhelyi: In my mind, the trail completes the park. The Towpath physically links us to the communities and creates that physical tie from the valley to the cities. It’s called the Towpath Trail because mules and horses walked it, towing boats on the canal. It’s very flat.

The Towpath Trail is part of my route to work. I really love the trail. In a lot of places, the canal is full of water, so you see turtles and ducks. There are really nice wetlands along the canal. The other thing you can enjoy from the canal is a view of the river. The canal was next to the river because the river fed the canal. 

The opening of the Towpath Trail in the recreation area in 1993 ushered in a new era. The expansive recreation area included walking and biking trails, easy access to Brandywine Falls and the Pinery Narrows area and had historical and cultural anchors including Hale Farm & Village, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and Blossom Music Center. In 1994, the recreation area faced its biggest threat. 

Debo: In the early 1990s, the Gunds made the decision to move the [Cleveland] Cavaliers back to Cleveland, and they put the [Richfield] Coliseum up for sale. The alarm bells went off for me because it seemed very obvious that property was going to become a large-scale commercial retail development, which was almost a death sentence for the park.

They did a traffic study, which really seemed to change their opinion. [State] Route 303 between Hinckley and Hudson would be expected to handle 12,000 to 15,000 cars a day in either direction. It was a terrifying number. I engaged the Trust for Public Land, and congressman Regula was very receptive to helping come up with a $10 million appropriation for the land purchase, and we did the deal. A portion of that money came up with the demolition of the facility, and the day was saved.

The park now prospers — and is making plans for the next half-century as well. A new pedestrian bridge links the newer Boston Mill Visitor Center to the Boston Store Trailhead, and the park acquired the former Brandywine Golf Course, which is undergoing restoration to remove soil that contains mercury and is being evaluated for future plans. 

Vasarhelyi: The next 50 years are about fully fulfilling our potential. We’ll continue the restoration of our resources and continue to improve how we fulfill that Parks to People goal as a park that brings value to everyone in Northeast Ohio as a recreational and educational asset.

Restoration is such a part of the story of the park. All the land use across time has created all kinds of needs, and that’s a big focus of our resource management team. One of the things they’re exploring now is a project to lengthen the Cuyahoga River to hold more water, to address flooding issues. We’re in the bottom of the watershed, and because of all the suburbanization, that’s an issue we face.

We’re a really important park of the National Park System because we are different. We show the importance of public land in metropolitan areas. We show how restoration can create a wonderful place.