Cuyahoga Valley National Park guide · 1 min read
How Activists Created Ohio's Only National Park
By the 1960s, residents of the valley between Cleveland and Akron feared that urban sprawl would overwhelm its natural beauty.
The Cuyahoga River was a problem of its own. Factory waste and sewage were fouling the water, and the river caught fire in 1952 and again in 1969. Local citizens wanted a different future for the valley.
The valley already had some protection. Civic leaders in Cleveland and Akron set up Ohio's first two county park systems, and those systems soon bought land in the valley. The earliest parks there opened in the 1920s. The regional parks protected some spots, yet they could not shield the valley as a whole. Supporters pressed for federal protection, and local residents worked alongside officials at the state and federal levels to reach a permanent answer.
That answer arrived in 1974. The push was tied to the federal Parks to the People policy, which came out of the environmental and civil rights movements. On December 27, 1974, President Gerald Ford signed the bill establishing the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. After Congress approved land purchases, some houses were bought outright, and others came under scenic or preservation easements.
Today about 33,000 acres make up the park, and it includes 25 miles of the Cuyahoga River as it runs north toward Lake Erie. Four principal routes cross the flat lowland of the valley floor: the river itself, the Towpath Trail, the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad and America's Byway.
The Towpath Trail follows the historic route of the Ohio and Erie Canal, and walkers and cyclists can travel it on foot or by bike. Visitors can also paddle the Cuyahoga River or hike and bike the trails that climb into the highlands on either side of the valley.
