Cuyahoga Valley: The Park That Locals Fought to Create—and Sometimes Fought Against
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Transcript
Cuyahoga Valley was created by grassroots pressure.
It was also created through conflict with some of the people who already lived here.
Both facts matter.
Local conservation advocates spent years arguing that the valley between Cleveland and Akron needed stronger protection from highways, subdivisions, industrial expansion and other development.
Congress finally created Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area in December 1974.
But land acquisition was controversial.
Some residents believed the federal government was forcing them to sell.
A homeowners' association formed to challenge the process.
This is easy to simplify into heroes and villains.
The reality is harder.
Without land protection, much of today's continuous park landscape might have been fragmented.
But protecting land at national scale can impose real costs on individual owners and communities.
The park later became known for restoring degraded sites, preserving canal and industrial history, supporting local farms and providing recreation to millions of nearby residents.
In 2000, Congress redesignated it a national park.
So what is Cuyahoga Valley?
A recovering river.
A transportation corridor.
An industrial landscape.
A New Deal recreation landscape.
A local conservation victory.
A federal land-acquisition controversy.
A national park.
All of those answers are correct.
That is why this place is more interesting than the phrase “Ohio's national park” can possibly explain.
The park's later history continued the same pattern of active intervention.
Contaminated industrial and dump sites required cleanup.
Threatened parcels were purchased.
Historic buildings were stabilized or reused.
Farms were kept in production through partnerships.
Even a former arena site was restored after demolition.
The green landscape visitors see today contains expensive decisions hidden under vegetation.
A park can look effortless only after decades of people doing work intense enough to make the work disappear.