Qualla: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, and the outrage helped launch the modern environmental movement. Today that same river threads through one of America's most unusual national parks -- a patchwork of forests, waterfalls, and century-old farmsteads wedged between Cleveland and Akron in northeast Ohio. Cuyahoga Valley National Park exists because ordinary citizens refused to let urban sprawl and industrial pollution erase the last stretch of wild river valley between two of the Rust Belt's great cities. When President Gerald Ford signed the park into law on December 27, 1974, the administration actually recommended a veto, declaring the valley possessed "no qualities which qualify it for inclusion in the National Park System." Half a century later, it draws over two million visitors a year.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: The Grandfathers' Valley

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Long before canal boats and factory smoke, the Cuyahoga Valley belonged to the Lenape Nation, known as "the Grandfathers" of many Native Nations of the upper Ohio River Valley. The Hopewell Culture left their mark here as early as 200 AD, constructing the Everett Mound near what ...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Fire on the Water

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Ohio and Erie Canal, built between 1825 and 1832, turned the Cuyahoga Valley from a sparsely settled wilderness into a vital transportation corridor linking Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Industry followed, and by the mid-twentieth century, the river had become a dumping ground...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: Stone, Ice, and Falling Water

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The valley's geology tells a story measured in hundreds of millions of years. The Berea Sandstone and Bedford Shale beneath the park were deposited in a river delta during the Lower Mississippian period, over 300 million years ago. Glaciers from the Wisconsin Ice Age carved the v...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: The Towpath and the Train

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The park's spine is the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail, which follows the historic route where mules once towed canal boats loaded with goods and passengers. Stretching from Independence in the north to the Bike and Hike Trail in the south, the towpath is now popular with hike...

Cuyahoga Valley National Park: An Arena Becomes a Meadow

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Where the Richfield Coliseum once hosted Cleveland Cavaliers basketball games and rock concerts, a grassy meadow now draws birdwatchers scanning for grassland species. The arena was demolished in 1999, and the site became part of the national park upon its 2000 designation. It is...