summer vacation yellowstone

funding for generations: cuyahoga valley national park has been provided by... the cleveland foundation, the herbert w. hoover foundation, national park service, ppg industries foundation. the ppg industries foundation is proud to support educational television and western reserve pbs. ppg has been committed to supporting

the cleveland community, where our employees work and live for more than 60 years. the john p. murphy foundation, first energy foundation. together with the volunteer efforts of first energy employees, the first energy foundation helps make our communities attractive places.

at first energy, we believe the greater good is better business. george and susan klein and family, the s. livingston mather charitable trust, neoea...working for great public schools for every child. the harry k. fox and emma r. fox charitable foundation. additional support provided by the goodyear tire and rubber company.

at its birth...glacial remains and untamed wilderness... later, lush home to native american people who named it... eventually, a land tamed and transformed by immigrants who linked a great lake to meandering rivers that empty into a vast ocean... forever linking ohio to the world. what the natives named "cuyahoga" became, for generations, home.

♪ in northeast ohio, and for generations, people have called it home. scarred by glaciers, then carved out by a crooked river, this land has hosted many. native americans... settlers... and immigrants. mill owners, quarrymen and railroaders...

all sought the valley and found a wellspring of resources. this subtle wilderness of hills, ravines and waterfalls became prized for its bounty, beauty and heritage. there is no vast canyon, no 14,000-foot peak, no erupting geyser... but, this 33,000 acre valley in northeast ohio

is no less a natural treasure. visionaries imagined preserving the valley and worked together to make this land one of the country's 58 national parks... cuyahoga valley national park. john seiberling, an early champion of the park and a district congressman from 1971 through 1987 grew up near the valley... the history of this valley is terribly important

not only the history but the prehistory before the white man came and maintained historicalrecords... there were thousands andthousands of indians that lived in this valley,10,000 at one time. and the reason was thatthe iroquois declared the valleysacred ground because it was so importantto the indians for trade and transportation.

for generations, those native americans traveled and traded through this land, rich in game and abundant natural resources. then others came to make the valley their home. the european people who arrived here, of course, mostly are from new england, this being part of the connecticut western reserve brought with thema lot of their traditions and culture and architecture.

peninsula boston township,of course, was part of that connecticutwestern reserve. that was in the early 1800s. real growth in the valley came with completion of the ohio & erie canal, from lake erie in cleveland to portsmouth on the ohio river, in 1832. the 38-mile section of the canal through the valley took the mostly irish and german immigrants

two years to dig by hand and was completed in 1827. the new transportation route contained 44 locks to raise and lower canal boats between lake erie and akron's summit, and it was this link between the two growing industrial cities, that changed not only the valley but ohio and the nation. ohio was a primitive state because we didn't have access

to markets for wheat, lumber, and the products ofour farms and the canal was the originalinterstate highway system only it was water. the canal opened ohio to the world and by 1850, the state ranked third in the nation in population and economic development. communities prospered, and very quickly the business of the canal

enriched the social and economic landscape of the valley. well, it all started with my grandfather. he started me when i was about 6 years old sitting on his lap and he'd tell me about the canal coming through here, and he remembered canal boatscoming through akron.

he used to date my grandmotheron the canal. (william lewis) well, i had a great grandfather, hiram katie that actually owned a canal boatcalled the banner and his wife, who was sarah broughton, she was the cook on the boat and my dad's mother,my grandmother, she grew up on that canal boat. but that special place and time of the canal was short-lived. mules pulling canal boats

were replaced by steaming iron horses... [train whistle blowing] in the 1870s, they announcedthe railroad was coming so againthere was another boost. farming could go from moreof a subsistence type business into a cash for profit, and that made some of the farmsin the valley more prosperous. while the arrival of the railroad foretold the decline of the canal,

it continued in use through the beginning of the 20th century. in the mid-1800s, fugitive slaves followed the canal along the underground railroad, an escape route recreated today by a cast of park rangers and volunteers. it was so realistic,so scary, and you are walking throughthe dark woods with lanterns and we were slaves, you know,

we were all playing a part. and, we would hide in this barn while people werelooking for us and they're shooting offthese guns and... i actually was terrified. i thought, oh my gosh,this is really so authentic. the flood of 1913 destroyed the canal, making it a quaint relic of a bygone era... but only for several generations.

the valley meanwhile, continued to grow. from that pointon we went to paper mills and we had two paper millsin the community and the paper millsbrought with them a new wave of immigrantsin the form of eastern european, polish and slovenianpopulations that changed the valleyconsiderably. a fixture in the valley in those years was the jaite paper mill....

i never heard of jaitein my life. i was from north royalton. when my husband, the first time he took me down to jaite, i thought my gosh where is he taking medown the hills. well, i heard of itbecause uncle bill, who was her father-in-law,worked at the paper mill. which not only employed many from the community but also was a "company town" with its depot, store,

post office and company houses. but for generations, many memories have been of farms in the valley. the kitchen of the farmhouseis what i remember. the pies thataunt catherine baked and the food thatwas there all the time. and then alsoleaving the kitchen to go to the outhouse [giggling]

and the cows in the barn, and picking the cornalong the river. everybody knew everythingabout everybody. it was just a couple, three farms were surrounding it and we all were a family. when paper mill worker mary ellen vaughan read a farm bureau magazine ad placed by farmer frances lube, it sparked a new business opportunity...raising pigs.

i said, "how much do you wantfor that pig?" he said, "she's pregnant," and he said, "i'm asking $60 "but for you mary ellen,i'd give it to you for $50." next day she had 13 baby pigs. [laughing] but we literally would pull up on sunday, grandmother would have dinner and we would be goneuntil my dad beeped the horn.

so, he had cows up the hill,which was not indigo lake then, was where we wouldclimb and play. there were beech trees wherepeople had carved their names or love with little hearts. they had a gladiola garden right where that sign that says"special events," we would standat the roadside and sell these glads for50 cents a bunch. the thing is when we would go down in the valley

it was like a stone's throw away but it was going into a different world. you're stepping back in time, i would call like a time machinewhen you go down there. my aunt and uncle always had a brand new cadillac, convertibles mind you, and occasionallyi would come out with uncle eddy and aunt bettyto horseshoe pond. in those days there wasone big speaker in the back

of the back seat and i remember alwayslistening to the music. i learned to drive in the park, legally and not legally. but, i think i'vedriven on every road. i know every wonderfulold house, every barn, every structure and so it's interesting to seehow things have evolved. i was here when nobody knew where peninsula was. a lot of us loved the valley then.

i loved it as a child, i hiked all over,hiked the hills. it's an ideal place to grow up. and nobody knew where it was. it was kind of nice; we had no people coming through,very little traffic. it would be my dad and unclesthey'd hay in august. take that big tractorand flatbed. my grandmother would have us;

our big job was to take waterin a mason jar out to them. you know, and the hay'sall sticking on their back, it would be a day like todaybecause if i remember it was probably augustso it was very hot. i just remember the womentaking care. the women did taketheir lunches out to them. and at the end of what i knowwas a very hard day would be a family gathering. so, it is all about family.

idyllic times in the valley were about to end. suburban sprawl, an expanding interstate highway system, and a massive sports complex threatened the valley in a destructive way not seen since 1937. back then ohio edison proposed damming the river south of cleveland and north of akron to create lake cuyahoga for a coal-fired power plant. it would have been the end of the valley.

by the late 1960s, plans called for high-tension wires and towers. congressman john seiberling stepped in along with a grassroots movement to preserve the 20 miles of green space between akron and cleveland and brought local attention to the national sentiment to bring parks to the people.

there were many organizations that were quite enthusiastic about saving the valley. the garden clubs,the league of women voters. i became convincedthat the only way we could protect this land was to havethe land in public ownership or at least a great part of it. (david seiberling) he knew it was notthe most dramatic landscape, but it has a nice combination of valleys and the cuyahoga river, the tributary rivers,

the buttermilk andblue hen falls, brandywine falls, the other areasthat were integrated, the other regional parks thatbecame integrated, kendall. o'neil woods is an example. here's this park that was rightnear where my parents lived on martin roadthat is like home to me. i go back to that land that iplayed on since i was a child. there may not be majestic mountains or creeping glaciers,

but there's a beauty to this valley that goes beyond words... from the ledges in virginia kendall park to waterfalls, river banks and trails, in all four seasons, that photographers of all ages and experience have captured. it's amazing what's hidden in the 33,000 acres that constitutes the cuyahoga valley. we have tremendous wildflowers.

one gentleman did research and found overa hundred waterfalls. we have interestingrural culture. we have architectural culture. as a microcosmof many areas in the midwest it's full ofinteresting things. despite all the "interesting things," beauty, and grassroots support, the valley park almost didn't happen.

democrat john seiberling called republican ralph regula... and with that, last-minute pressure on president gerald ford to sign the bill has become legend. john called me at homeone night and said, "ralph, the president, jerry's,going to veto our bill. "what are we goingto do about it?" mr. regula then telephoned ray bliss, the former chair of the republican national committee

and an akron native ... ray told me afterwards he called jerry in vailand said, "jerry, you can sign the bill,you gotta run next year, "you might win ohio "but if you veto the bill,you'll surely lose ohio." so jerry must have reconsideredand decided in spite of rogers morton,he signed the bill. well, as it turned out,he lost ohio to jimmy carter

but by a very small margin. but the point is,it was signed, it was law, it was created. regardless of whether it was preservation or politics, as of december 27, 1974, northeast ohio had its national park. it was a concept, an ideathat's time had come; here you have 5 million people within thirty,forty minute drive!

carving a park out of farm and urban landscape, much of which was privately owned, was not as easy as it looked, as the park's second superintendent, lewis albert, reflected years later ... so when you buy intoa national park, sometimes you don't get whatyou think you're going to get. when the park, originally classified a national recreation area.

was authorized and the boundaries drawn, some people couldn't wait to sell their property. others resisted...mostly families who'd been in the valley for generations. we are the third generationin the park but there was four and five generations in the park that were thrown off their land. i think the people herereally believed when this park was created

that we wouldn't buy any real estate. there tends to be a psychological thing, and this isn't necessarilyfor the record but, there's a "last in" theory, i want to move tothis nice place and make sure no one elsecan go there and screw it up. well, there's a certainamount of that.

and i think oneof the attitudes here that made it possible to create the park was the belief that we couldcome and stop other people, outsiders,from coming into the valley, that we would keep everythingexactly as it was in 1936. well, that is not feasible, we're not in the business ofkeeping people out, we're in the business ofbringing people to enjoy these resources.

so, many legitimateexpectations are just not going to be met because it's like asking ibmto make automobiles, it's not what we do. essentially, congress drew a line around 33,000 acres for the park. the national park service identified private property within those boundaries and contracted, for the first two years

with the army corps of engineers to buy the land. to say that didn't work as well as the park service had hoped would be an understatement. and i felt bad for someof these people. they didn't really understand what was going on; they weren't really fully apprised of their options. statements were being made, "if you don't sellyour property to us "you're never going to be ableto sell it on the open market

"and then you'll bestuck with it." and i think even some peoplewho maybe wanted to stay, found themselves persuadedto ask to be bought just because they were afraid ofbeing stuck with property that they couldn't sellto anybody else on the open market. there was not muchfriendship or respect when the park first came in. they took over houses,they burnt them down.

they wouldn't let you takeanything out of it if you wanted to save it,they were just burnt down. and that was hard to watch. so land acquisition for the park became a perfect storm. prices escalated; a federal moratorium was placed on purchases; and there was no comprehensive land acquisition plan. the view of the park's first superintendent, bill birdsall,

was that "if you're going to manage it, you have to own it." that philosophy brought frustration and fear to some valley residents and led to the formation of the cuyahoga valley homeowners and residents association, lawsuits, and national media exposure. and the idea was that nobody'sproperty could be taken without their being givena choice. residents thought the majority of the properties were to be protected as scenic easements

and only a few dozen properties would need to be acquired. there are some roads inthe community that 26 to 30 homes are goneon just that one single road. so, i think that's one ofthe things that changed the perception thatthe scenic easements weren't being usedas was promoted. when all was said and done, the park acquired hundreds of homes and properties... and erased the heritage that went with them.

even a generation later, there is still anger and distrust... when you are forced,or your aunt was forced, or your brother was forced off the land where his great great greatgreat grandfather lived, that's not a scar thatgoes away very long for some, very soon. while the scars will remain, healing has begun... we took my mom and my uncle,who are like mid-80s,

we took them out last summerand then we went to fishers. we looked at the menu andit said grandpa george's burger. well, my grandfather's namewas john w. gray but everybodycalled him george, so all eight of us ordered, we said, "for grandpawe have to order "grandpa george's burger." there's things that you wouldnever been able to do anywhere else.

so, now if other people areenjoying what we enjoyed and we can'tdo anything about it anyway, i think it's probablya wonderful thing. i can't really sayanything bad. [oh, i do too.] you're just so proudthat you, the park system has developed itinto a beautiful untouched area. i mean, indigo lake,really rough-shod, just a cliff-hanger,

now it is beautifulfor so many people to enjoy. so i feel that's the gift, you know,if it had to be taken then the gift isthat it's been returned, not only to us but to allof humanity that wants to visit. there are 15 communities adjoining the park, but the two most affected are peninsula village and boston township. there was, and still is, swimming in the quarry,

sledding at virginia kendall, sunsets at the ledges, and walks along the river. but there are still bills to be paid in those communities, and land acquisition by the federal government meant a shrinking tax base. arguably 60, 70, maybe 80 percent of boston township is withinthe national park boundary, and the village of peninsula, easily half of the villagewithin the national park,

but again whollysurrounded by the park. it is hard to maintain roads when you havea population of 602 and you have,by somebody's count, either 3 or 4 million peopleusing that road. it's just a challenge and it's a challenge that sometimes everybody getsa little feisty about. one of the things, i think,that does build some resentment

is that this is held up asa jewel of northeast ohio, but northeast ohio doesn't seemto want to pay the costs associated withkeeping it up and running. i think there's a perceptionthat if there's green space on a map it doesn'tcost anything to run. the park service has softened the economic impact with funding for roads and additional police services, grants for planning, as well as property for building a new fire station.

i think most people haveaccepted the fact well, this national parkis here to stay so we better find waysto work together to furtherour mutual interests. and that's really worked outi think quite well. turning generations of history and heritage in the cuyahoga valley into a national park was a monumental job. as the years passed, the valley slumbered;

its land was preserved but the hundreds of historic structures purchased by the park were deteriorating. the park's identity was emerging but like the proverbial elephant in the room... everybody knew it was there but nobody knew quite what to make of it. in the late 1980s, the park's third superintendent arrived to what he said

felt like a patchwork of federal ownership. to give the park "identity," focus was placed on "a few big things," including one that changed the park forever... the ohio & erie canal towpath trail. i often say thatthe towpath is to cuyahoga as old faithful is toyellowstone. it is the iconic resourcefor this national park. when we cut the ribbonon 20 miles of canal towpath

it changed the nature ofthis park dramatically. visitationto the cuyahoga valley doubled overnightwhen the towpath was open. the 20-mile towpath trail not only provided an "identity" to the national park, but it became a linchpin in the ohio & erie canalway national heritage corridor, that parallels the route of the canal from cleveland, through akron to new philadelphia.

and then we began to focus onthe infrastructure associated with the towpath, the beautiful historicbuildings, like the frazee house and the canal visitors center, the boston store,the hunt farm, and others. we began to focusour development efforts on turning those intovisitor resources. the canal and towpath have been called

the interstate highway system of the 19th century, in the 20th century two interstate highways were built over the park, with signs welcoming visitors. one of the things that has been interesting to me in the years since the name was changed from cuyahoga valley national recreation area to cuyahoga valleynational park is how many more peoplecome off the interstate

or come from out of stateto this place. before that, i think, manypeople tended to do what i did and just pass right on across and not come down andinvestigate what the park is. and thousands drive through the park daily, using its serenity as a buffer in hectic lives. turning into riverview roadoff of alexander and seeing the swans, driving up the hill around the bend, i thought to myself, this is wonderful. it's rural,

it appears rural,and here i am 12 miles from the center ofa vibrant city. the river, the canal and the railroad that have been intrinsic to the valley for generations remain so today. well, the cuyahoga river,everybody who grows up in northeast ohio learnsabout cuyahoga, and how to spell it, how to say it, some of us pronounce it kai-ah-hog-a,

others pronounce it kai-ah-hoe-ga,but it means crooked. and, you learn that in schoolsat an early age, i know i did as a young kid. twenty-two miles of the cuyahoga river flow through the valley. 40 years ago, the river was a mess. part of it caught fire, but that was hardly the first time the river burned.

as a matter of fact,the river burned regularly in the twenties and thirties. but the cleveland firedepartment notes regularly burning of the river. the river that runs through it when we came out here in '72, because you'd go down and the stench was so bad that you couldn't standthere on the bridge

and you could see the stufffloating by. when the clean water act the cuyahoga river wasn't and it violated but the river especially on river day. elaine marsh, co-founder of the friends approached park superintendent

i said, you know, john,it would really be wonderful if in celebration we would get those cars out of the riverbank that are just downstreamof your building here, which were placed thereby some farmer in order to stabilizethe river bank. so the two of them hiked and counted up 72 cars.

on the day ofthe actual clean-up, when they gotthe heavy equipment in, they removed 113 cars. so that was a wonderfulcelebration for the river, it was a triumph of river day and a great visualfor the newspapers. seeing the river, and how fast it has come back has been so impressivebecause people would say,

you know we always hadthose who felt that it would take much, maybe a hundred yearsor longer to recover, and to see that in my lifetimehas been very impressive. to go from a riverhaving no life in it to a river that is living with all kinds offish species and other insects and animals and plants,it's been quite impressive. if the river had been for centuries,

it was the canal that changed it was the historic structure that sort of was connecting everything from cleveland to akron when the original ideaof creating the park was first brought upback in the late sixties, early seventies, right? the devastating flood of 1913

and put an end to transporting there were a lot of peoplethat were killed, there were severalmillion dollars worth of property damage, and the problem with the canalas the water started to drain, it was causing backups. all the debris was gettingcaught against the canal locks and they actually dynamited them and literally blew the doors offthe canal locks.

and after that flood there wasno political will whatsoever to rehabilitate what was nowa completely destroyed canal system. but parts of the canal were there were three houseboatsthere and i used to go and visit with the people thereon several occasions. one was a young gal; one wasa bunch of biker people, which were absolutelyamazing people, just really nice, you know.

and then an older manlived in another one. and one day i found out thatthe gal had an asthma attack and she had passed on. i felt so bad, but as time went on andthe house boats just became dilapidatedand disappeared. while the flood and put an end to the canal's 80 years later, the canal,

has again taken it's a revitalizedtransportation route that probably no one would of course it was used to haul and now isn't it ironicthat 150 years later, it's hauling another commodity which is recreation andoutdoor experiences for folks. when you think about historic the railroad is the final

the real change thatthe railroads brought to this valley were movinggoods and people at much higher speeds. the canalway moved people at four or five miles an hour and it was a long trip just to get from cleveland to peninsula. the railroads went 25 to30 miles an hour,

then later withpassenger trains, at 60 or 70 miles an hour. so it opened up the valley toship out lumber and paper. the jaite paper millat one point moved paper out by rail, and then moving coal inthrough the cities at much higher speeds andgreater tonnages. valley railway and its depots in the early years of

but like the canal before it, the railway became the tracks still cut through but with limited use. with the formation the national park and the cuyahoga valley the combination of river, and rail line was complete.

but in 1989, the first yearthe railroad became operational, the railroad transportedsomething on the order of 6,000 visitors that year. fast forward now to 2008,last year, and our railroad, the cuyahoga valleyscenic railroad, carried 152,000 passengers upand down the cuyahoga valley. this is reallysomething unique, it's a scenic railroadthat you can see nature and go at a scenic paceat 25 miles an hour,

in air-conditioned comfort,in vintage equipment. i did take my granddaughteron the railroad and she thought the train was and so she asked the conductor, she says "can't you takethis train a little faster?" he explained to her thatif they went too fast, people couldn't enjoythe scenery as much as they'd like to. not only are there wine

murder mystery trains, polar express, and bike aboard, the cuyahoga valley links the past to the present and the present to the past. is one of the top ten welcoming 3 million it's an interesting amalgam ofnatural, cultural

and a village landscape whichall comes together to create, in my opinion,kind of a magical landscape. and that magical landscape extraordinary resources, among them a partnership with metro parks which was established in 1921 and to the north, ohio's first park district,

the relationship betweencleveland metro parks and the national park actually does have the federally createdcuyahoga valley national park actually legally includestwo of cleveland metro park facilities bedford reservationwith over 2,300 acres of park land, and brecksville reservationwhere we are today,

nearly 3,500 acres, are included in the federallydesignated boundaries of the national park. so, in that context,we were "married" together in washington. although we'rea little bit different in how we go about those, they're all similar enough that it's seamlessfor the public, i think.

i truly believe that manypeople don't really care which entity they're visiting. i think the cuyahoga valleynational park has a very unique roleamongst national parks as being very homegrown,local, easy accessible and very much integratedinto the local community. the depression-era civilian built many from locally harvested

these buildings the former virginia kendall an early acquisition farming in the valley at the end of the 19th century there were between off the upper bike trailthere was this one gentlemen, i'm not sureif his name was ben or not, but he raised buffaloin his yard

and these buffalo werehumongous and it was a little fencelike this, if that, you know, that these buffalo could just walk right through andthey didn't. by the end of the 20th century, had been purchased at that time, superintendent to resurrect the park's and for years now,

has been doing just that. and we have 11 farmsoperational this year, another one being added that has given us a foundation that will allow usto get started, that will allow usto engage the public, in a significant way, we think. as a national park, there are to guide those who farm there.

under the countryside these farms produce fruits dairy and meat products, poultry and wine grapes. all of these products and more are sold directly to and the truth is, some of usthink that is going to be the future of agriculturearound urban centers. the inn at brandywine falls

has been part of the park's and about that same time, we learned about the historical properties and learned that there were properties available right here, not far from wherewe were living, and the ideal place to be. there's plenty to see and do

in and around cuyahoga valley skiing at boston mills golfing at brandywine buying locally grown goods and live productions at kent state university's or first-person interpretive at hale farm and village. and scouts can camp,

at the three scouting i was a boy scout, and we used to come outto camp manatoc all the time. we used to singand had a song leader all the time at the mess hall, and i've often said that everythingi needed to know in life i learned in the songsthat we sang at camp manatoc. the richness of the valley and

art, music, photography and the boston mills art fest of the valley's culture since that first year ... we got a thousand peoplein the gate, we had 29 artists and3 craft people, and it was inside the buildingand outside on the sidewalk and that's what it amounted to. and the sales were likeover $2,000.

everybody thought we'dstruck gold. now, the two weekends draw between spending upwards of there's been music for generations as well, and it was the heritage that explored those historic friday, saturday, sunday,

the festival had we had a large main stage at down at howe meadow. tents, food vendors,there were crafts artists, there were multiple stages with80 to 90 musicians each year. over time, the heritage and festivals from the conrad botzum

hundreds of thousands flood blossom music center, not only the summer home but also host to a wide variety to heavy metal to country. ♪ she's got brazilianleather boots ♪ ♪ on the pedalof her german car ♪ ♪ listening to the beatlessinging ♪ ♪ back in the ussr ♪

♪ spanish mossin the moonlight ♪ ♪ just another americansaturday night ♪ music is one way to capture but it's photography that captures the heart of whether documented by or amateur photographers... there's something out thereto photograph every day of the year if you'reinterested in photography.

even the 3 million don't seem to scare away i was one of the peoplewho said don't put the towpath trail in because the animalswon't come around and exactly the oppositehas happened. i love that i'm wrong on that because actually that's made iteasier for us because the animals getso used to seeing people

that when we show upwith a camera, they don't fly away. most of us in our backyard are far more accustomedto the kind of scenery, the more gentle scenery that we havein the cuyahoga valley and that's whatwe need to preserve. the park's staff helps by providing programs

from exhibits and to bird watching, and education, through a partnership with cuyahoga valley our largest program is cuyahoga valley environmental a 128-bed residential facility where children come and staythroughout the school year

and also duringthe summertime and learn about the park andlearn about the environment and how to be caretakers ofthe environment. i am particularly impressedwhen i go out there and see these kidsfrom inner city that they havein these programs. i mean this to them is amazing, just absolutely uniqueto their experience. we're out here in the fallfor four days, three nights

at cuyahoga valleyenvironmental education center. then i bring them back outin the springtime again to reinforce all the habitats and how they interactwith each other because during the school year and reinforcing that. it's part of the sciencecurriculum for fifth grade in the state of ohio, and this is an absolutelyfabulous place and environment

for the kidsto be able to explore. many of the kids that we serve in cuyahoga valleynational park, they are not going tohave a chance to see the rocky mountains orglacier or yosemite, so here we are, a national parkin their backyard that belongs to them. many of the park's programs and first among them is

whose mission is to support in numerous ways. i believe the park's ability toconnect with the community has been dependenton the park association and the other park partners who help connect peoplein their interests, in their passionabout the park, bring their talents to bear and also create the kind ofprogramming

that draws peopleto the national park. volunteers have been part of providing thousands of it's actually part ofa stream restoration initiative this is a volunteer effort and help to stabilizethe river. we've got about 70 to 80volunteers who came out today, all planting trees, all from differentorganizations,

from the conventionand visitors bureau, from leadership akron, cuyahoga valleynational park volunteers. there's a variety of trail among them and the trailblazers. the trailblazers isa 120-strong person group that patrols the trailsin the park to educate, inform and assist

and also to act as eyes and earsfor the protection rangers. we have mounted patrolson bicycles, we have hike patrols, and also a 15-person stronghorse-mounted group. we had a hundred people show upone sunday because they were so excitedabout being able to ride their horsein the cuyahoga valley. so we sent them home,

said come back next sunday because if you come back you're going to be committed next sunday,50 people showed up and that's when the ohiohorseman's counsel started. this club now is committedto over 600 hours a year of volunteer work, and "volunteer" isto maintain trails and anything else, i would say,the park people wants us to do.

here's a park willing to puthorse trails in and this is an opportunity, you can't pass this up, you got to go help them,you know. i remember when we startedthe first mile, we thought we hadmoved mountains. and now the park has more than including 37 miles of within park boundaries.

there are the runners, the runners who appear to berunning recreationally, the runners who are training orin organized groups who are in their own zone, who are clearly just onlyinterested in running. and then you've gotthe recreational bicyclists, you've got serious bicyclistsi'd say. you've got the mounted users,of course, though i haven't seenmany mounted users

other than our trailblazers, but there certainly are people. you'll see the parking lotsoften with a significant number of horse trailers in and they're obviously offon the bridle trails. every sort of person youcould possibly wish to see. we've been hiking forever, 26 years. for a long time.

we estimated that, between uson those saturday hikes, over the years we've hikedtogether about 3,000 miles. at least. in the valley, and then both of uswould do a couple more hikes eachweek by ourselves. so, we figure 3,000 togetherand probably at least 4 to 5 more thousand each,alone. i figured i carried my kidon my back for over 2,000 miles.

we have pictures in therefrom when the kids were babies and now my son is 6-2, i don't carry himlike i used to. [laughter] his legs drag on the groundwhen he goes in the backpack. when we are on the busy trails right down by the river, it can be,maybe sometimes, a little bit too many people.

i often pause and think; well, i'm glad there area lot of people here because that means thatthey are aware. i would call this parkmy home away from home. i spend about 10-15 hours on the trails running, both with friendsas well as my fianc㉠and three rescue dogs fromthe humane society. it hasn't just been people

until 1830, beaver were part of the valley, but they were trapped that there were none left. since then, they've returned at the site of the parkjust cleaned things up, the beaver createdthe wetland totally. if you let nature be

and give ita little helping hand. we use the phrasebuild it and they will come. and we use that in two ways. the beaver build the marsh andall the wildlife come, then the park builtthe boardwalk for the towpath and all the people come. it's beautiful; it's really neat it's amazing the way nature

there are now signs rookeries of blue herons, coyotes and the first nest in the cuyahogavalley national park, as far as we know ever,occurred in 2006. that part was inthe cuyahoga county. that was the first nest in and the ledges at are perfect for birding.

typically, you would expecta standard population of birds, but the ledges area microhabitat that allows certain birdsthat normally don't nest here, to nest in this location. so, canada warbler has nestedhere on occasion, magnolia warbler, and you just don'tfind that happening in the state of ohio. since 1985, great blue herons

new generations in stick nests high in the trees if you go down there whenthey're building nests, the wife builds the nest, but the husband has to bringthe new branches in. and, when he bringsa branch in, the wife carries on like the endof the world is happening. she cackles at him andyells at him and everything, the guy's therewith his wings hanging down

feeling like the whole worldis gonna come to an end, then she takesthe branch out of his mouth and startsputting it in the nest, and he says, well,i better go get another branch and pretty soon,he takes off... for better or worse, even the deer have in 1981,if you saw a white tail you'd see one a year,

usually on a very distressedday, so on and so on. now any day of the year, if you and i wentfor a drive in the car, we'd probably see, if it was right at dusk we would safely see without even trying. we unfortunately,because of the presence of a very large numberof white tail deer,

have a serious shortageof wildflowers compared to what we had25 years ago. it's hard to find a great standof trilliums, for example,in the cuyahoga valley. what is easy to find in is the unique connection people it's in their backyards; it embodies their history and has been part of

it was a national park. it's where we were engaged and on a really cold, ugly christmas eve, my husband, well, my boyfriendcame to our house and asked if i wantedto go hiking and i certainlydidn't want to go hiking, it was gray and who wantsto go out on a day like that. i was in the store one day

and i found a walnut hey, i could crack the walnutand put a ring in it and lay it down on the ground and she'll find it orsomething like that. so, that's how i did it. drug her out there in the middleof 20-degree weather. nobody in their right mind would have been out on a daylike that at all, plus, my boyfriendwhen we'd go on hikes;

it was always some kind oflecture about nature because he's a biology guy. and so, i didn't really wantto hear about whatever he had to saythat day. i didn't give her any lectures. i still don't believe i lecturewhen we get out in the woods, but she claims, i think my wife has a difficultylearning from her husband. he found this little nuton the ground

and here i am thinking it'ssomebody's garbage and he's likewhy don't you pick that nut up? she thought that somebody haddropped it out of their pack or something,their lunch. so, when he picked it uphe said, "you should try to see if youcan't crack that open "to see what's inside it." and i got it open andmy ring was inside it and everyone had beenin on the whole plan,

and of course i'm crying andhe gets down on one knee. we both grew up in the area going to the park with our families, our friends. we have that kind ofrelationship with nature from the beginning, and then together,when we met, some of our first dateswere in the park and ultimately we were marriedin the park.

we got married here in thisbuilding, in happy days. the ceremony was onthe screened in porch and the receptionwas right here. while cuyahoga valley national the "glamorous" parks, its strength is that it's and many can use it it isn't the grand canyonobviously, but how many people ever getto the grand canyon

and if they doit's a one-time thing. the cuyahoga valley isa weekend thing and that's the beauty of it. i am big intothe national parks. there are some, i was thinkingabout this today, i love glacier national park,i love the grand canyon, there are so manythat are beautiful, but this is my backyard and this is what i can lovemore frequently.

i can't afford to go tothe grand canyon every year. i can't get to glacierall the time, but i can getto the blue bells, i can getto blue hen falls, and i can getto buttermilk falls, and i can getto brandywine falls, and i can getto all these places. it's part of me. it's part of who i am.

i think it's made me moreadventurous, i just can'tsay enough about it. once it gets in your blood,it'll never leave. it's heaven in our own backyardfor a million-odd people in northeast ohio,so we should treasure it. i can't imagine being without access to this park. it is the central thing thatholds me here and draws me here

and makes me celebratecleveland as opposed to other placesi've lived. it's just a treasure. you get that sense of strongnative american history in the area, and pipeline forthe underground railroad. so, we're living within history, but oftentimes we're justnot realizing it. but you kind of get thatsensation when you're out there

that you are partof something bigger. the point is this park will behere for generations to come. it will be herein a hundred years. it will be herein 500 years. it's really, i can't imaginethe circumstance where as the world changesaround us, this park won't bea constant. it will be always what it is,preserved and protected for all americans forperpetuity.

it's a wonderful thing. we are standing on land nowthat will be protected forever, for all practical purposes,because the people own it. this is the people's land. a chinese proverb reads: "if you want happiness "help the next generation." the valley is a monument to and a testament

who sought to preserve it. the valley and the park are in a tapestry of scenic beauty, and man's determination, preserved for generations to come. funding for generations the herbert w. hoover the ppg industries foundation

educational television ppg has been committed where our employees together with helps make our communities we believe the greater good george and susan klein the s. livingston mather neoea...working for great

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