On any given night people flock to Spice Kitchen on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland’s Detroit Shoreway neighborhood for great food, but diners might not realize where that food comes from prior to arriving at their table. Ben Bebenroth of Spice Kitchen has a 13-acre farm aptly named Spice Acres located in Cuyahoga Valley National Park which supplies some of the food that he cooks. The produce he grows also inspires the dishes he cooks, which vary based on what’s in season. The food he cooks in early summer will be vastly different than what appears on his menu in the early fall. What he doesn’t get from his farm he buys from local farmers in a 150-mile radius from his restaurant. Bebenroth is committed to the farm-to-table ideal as a means to provide the best cuisine to offer his guests. Even the floral decorations that grace the tables come from his farm.

Spice Acres is one of eleven farms that are part of the Countryside Initiative, which promotes sustainable farming practices within Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Those lucky few, like Bebenroth, who get a long-term lease, are then able to continue the tradition of sustainable farming practices. The process of acquiring a lease is a time-consuming process, in order to ensure that the lessee’s vision and business plan are in line with the Initiative’s stated mission. The Countryside Initiative was started in 1999 as a way to incorporate working farms into the National Park landscape. Farming was a part of the Cuyahoga Valley for generations prior to the suburbanization that started to consume farmland starting in the early 20th century. One farm that has been able to hang on is Szalay's Farm, which has been around for about 80 years. With the creation of the Countryside Initiative the plan was to implant farming ventures back into the Cuyahoga Valley as a means of education as well as allowing farmers to come in and farm the land. As part of the lease process, a farmer who is bidding on one of the current farms submits a business plan which outlines how they will use the land once they sign the lease. The application process takes several months to complete so as to ensure the right fit for the prospective farmer and farm. This process also helps to sort out those who are able to really farm for a long period of time. Once the application process is complete, the Initiative and the farmer enter into a 60-year lease agreement.

Bebenroth’s vision is to promote the farm-to-table ideal in which people are able to get food within a 150-mile radius of their home, which aligns with the Initiatives mission of preservation. What started as a small garden in his back yard led to signing a multi-year lease with the Countryside Initiative so as to expand his growing capacity for Spice Kitchen. At Spice Acres he brings that vision to life as he adds a variety of produce and livestock to his property to support the variety of menu items on offer at his restaurant. Thus far he has added pigs to his farming venture and hopes to continue to add other livestock to his ever-expanding farm bounty. Farming for Bebenoth has also become a way of creating an environment of social change on a local level. He has found that educating children is often easier than reeducating adults in healthy eating habits. Although he offers a variety of education programs that focus on being health-conscious in what they eat, Bebenroth also encourages people to be good stewards of the land.

In recent years Spice Acres has offered themed outdoor dinners, called Plated Landscapes Dinners, which feature in-season produce. As part of the dinner Bebenroth offers tours of his farm prior to the beginning of dinner, and he also engages with his guests during dinner. His hope is to show people the benefits of eating food that is grown closer to their home. Offering these outdoor dinners allows people to get a better feel of how the farm-to-table movement works and could have a positive impact on their daily lives. Interacting with people on his farm while having a meal together also allows for dialogue between those who grow the food and those who partake in the themed dinners. Interacting with his guests is an important aspect of his work, at both Spice Acres and Spice Kitchen, to inspire people to eat more local food. During the summer months he also allows families to visit his farm and encourages them to procure items from special meals from his farm. One example of people getting food items from his farm is obtaining flowers for their Easter table or a ham for Thanksgiving.

The Countryside Initiative has impacted how the Cuyahoga Valley National Park educates visitors on farming practices not only within the boundaries of the park but within the greater Cleveland-Akron area. Over the years the Initiative has increased its presence not only by leasing farms but also by setting up farmers' markets so people have a means of buying locally grown food, such as the farmers' market at Howe’s meadow during the summer months. The hope is to ensure that people can become more aware of how their food is grown and encourage engagement between the grower and the buyer. Allowing farmers to lease land from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park has meant that a way of life may be preserved for future generations to experience a way of life that is slowly fading from the American landscape.

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Stephen and Mehitable Frazee emigrated to the Cuyahoga Valley after purchasing 190 acres near the Cuyahoga River. Settling near the intersection of what are now Canal and Sagamore Roads, they cleared enough land to begin farming and, in 1812, erected a log cabin for themselves and the four children who accompanied them from Poland, Ohio. By 1827, they completed the distinctive Federal-style home that, to this day, overlooks Canal Road—one of the first brick houses built in the lower Cuyahoga Valley. By the standards of the day, this was a grand “home-made home”: The Frazees fashioned many of their own tools and building materials. Lumber was cut and hewn from the property’s walnut, chestnut and oak trees. Bricks were crafted with clay from the back yard. One can still see the couple’s hand-engraved initials on several bricks. Only window glass and door hardware were purchased from “back east.”

So how did the Frazees marshal the funds and resources to build such a fine home? From 1812 to 1825 Stephen and Mehitable worked and expanded the farm. They also opened a way station in 1820 when an old trail near their home became a stage coach route. But the opening of the Ohio & Erie Canal in 1825 was their silver bullet. On the one hand, the canal brought produce buyers literally to the Frazee’s front door, while affording them access to national markets. In addition, the new home likely served as an inn/ tavern. The National Register of Historic Places notes an "inch of wear on the sandstone doorsill leading into the tavern room." The family profited further when Stephen Frazee sued the State of Ohio because Canal work damaged his property and split it in half. The $130 he was awarded certainly helped finance the two-story structure.

The Frazees occupied the home for 35 years and raised seven children in it. In the early 1860s, they sold the property to John and Elizabeth Hynton for $3,500. Hynton died two years later and is buried at Tinkers Creek Cemetery. The National Park Service purchased the home from its last private owners, the Foote family, in the 1970s. As a residence, the house was never updated with indoor plumbing and electricity, but extensive structural work has been done, including threaded rods (sometimes referred to as “stars and bars”) installed to hold the walls tight to the joists.

The Frazee House now resides within the boundaries of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park—the only national park in the state of Ohio. In 1976, the home was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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The mid-nineteenth-century construction of the Ohio & Erie Canal connected smaller townships and farms to cities outside of the Cuyahoga Valley. The project, which lasted from 1825 through 1832, also brought new people into the valley as part of building crews. Thousands of men, including many immigrants, were hired to dig ditches, build embankments, and construct locks and gates. To manage the water levels, engineers needed to find a way to prevent local creeks and rivers from intermingling with the canal water. The construction of at least three aqueducts allowed the canal water to pass over smaller bodies of water without interruption.

Tinker's Creek represents the largest tributary flowing into the Cuyahoga River. Named for Captain Joseph Tinker, a boatsman and member of Moses Cleaveland's survey crew in the late eighteenth century, the creek originates in Streetsboro and then flows west where it meets the Cuyahoga River in Valley View. To bridge the Ohio & Erie Canal over Tinker's Creek, contractors hired men to build an aqueduct. Between 1825 and 1827, laborers earned about $.30 per day, as well as whiskey, to work on the project. Workers built a wood-lined trough, steel truss, and sandstone piers to transport canal water and boats over the creek. Canal workers also constructed similar aqueducts at Furnace Run, Mill Creek, and Peninsula.

Excessive flooding, a problem for many man-made structures in the valley, required the aqueduct to be rebuilt in 1845 and 1905. The last aqueduct to survive in the valley, the National Park Service was forced to remove the structure in 2007 after severe deterioration. In 2011, the National Park Service began a restoration project to rebuild the aqueduct and rehabilitate its masonry foundations. Today, the restored aqueduct stands as a testament to the history of human impact on the valley's environment, and how such technological developments transformed the daily lives of past and present valley residents.

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Both historic and modern farmers in the Cuyahoga Valley faced significant daily choices about what to grow or raise on their properties each year. Early nineteenth-century farmers had few livestock, and mostly for personal and family consumption. Innovations in transportation, including the Ohio & Erie Canal and later railroads in the mid-nineteenth century connected farmers to the city and made it worthwhile to start raising larger numbers of dairy cattle. Cheese factories in Akron and Cleveland, which purchased unprocessed milk from dairy farmers, emerged along the canal routes, causing the value of milk produced in the valley to almost triple between 1870 and 1910. With these new sources of income, dairy farmers invested more money in specialized grains, better barns, and breeds of cattle known for higher milk yields. Dairy farming became so important to nineteenth-century valley life that the Western Reserve became known regionally as "Cheesedom."

In the 1870s, Jonas Coonrad (1836-1919), built a cheese factory on his 300 acre farm in Brecksville. Coonrad moved to Cleveland in 1866 and, despite his lack of farming experience, decided to purchase a farm in the southeast corner of Brecksville Township to begin his own cheese-making business. Coonrad obtained milk from his own 500 cows, as well as from other farmers in the surrounding communities. The profitable business also allowed the Coonrad family to build a large brick farmhouse in 1875. According to its National Register of Historic Places nomination, the Coonrad farmhouse represents "one of the finest late-nineteenth-century residences in the Cuyahoga Valley."

Jonas Coonrad competed with other valley cheese factories, including the Oak Hill Factory in Peninsula, which produced over 70,000 pounds of cheese per year. Allen Welton built the Oak Hill Factory in the 1860s, as well as a second cheese factory at Hammond's Corners in Bath Township. The Cuyahoga Valley also included the Tilden Cheese Factory on Richfield Road, and Sumner Creamery on Medina and Granger Roads. Sumner Creamery, the only business to survive into the twenty-first century, now operates out of Akron.

Near the end of the nineteenth century, new and faster forms of transportation forced valley cheese factories to compete with larger businesses in Cleveland and Akron. Jonas Coonrad closed his factory in 1879 after the completion of the Valley Railroad created competition between his company and cheese distributors in Cleveland. Despite the failure of his cheese factory, Coonrad's elaborate farmhouse, now the Coonrad Ranger Station, still stands overlooking what remains of the Ohio & Erie Canal.

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The Cuyahoga Valley National Park contains over 1500 wetlands, which remain important sanctuaries of biodiversity and habitats for endangered species. Also important for the local environment, these wetlands store nutrients and reduce erosion and flooding in the valley. Threatened by pollution from the nearby human residents, as well as invasive plants and disturbances from development, these wetlands need scientists and park rangers to continuously monitor and protect their water quality and levels.

Just south of the Village of Everett, on the western side of the Cuyahoga River, the Beaver Marsh stands as a testament to the success of community efforts to protect the valley's wetlands. Beginning in the nineteenth century, local land development drained water and resources from the original wetland. As industry, transportation, and valley populations increased, the wetland's plants and animals struggled to survive. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Ohio & Erie Canal passed through the marsh. Later, a local family owned and operated a dairy farm on part of the original wetland property, adding to the devastation of the area's resources. Further damaging the environment, an auto repair shop purchased the land in the twentieth century and began dumping old cars and broken parts on the former marsh.

Clean-up and restoration of the wetland began in the 1980s by the Portage Trail Group, Sierra Club, and National Park Service. These groups and local community members cleaned up trash, including car parts. Beavers, who had been absent from Ohio for over one hundred years due to fur trappers, slowly returned to the valley. The beavers' dams flooded the former wetland, creating deep pools of water so that the beavers can enter their lodges from below the surface. The help of both humans and beavers removed pollution and restored water levels to create the wetland we see today.

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Industry in the Cuyahoga Valley developed around natural features in addition to the man-made Ohio & Erie Canal. At sixty feet, Brandywine Falls stands taller than any other waterfall in the national park. Brandywine Falls provided early settlers of the valley with a beautiful landmark, as well as an important source of waterpower. In 1814, entrepreneur George Wallace built a sawmill to be powered by the rushing falls. Over the next ten years, Brandywine Village developed around the sawmill, which eventually included grist and woolen mills, as well as small group of houses for the mill workers and their families.

One of the earliest local communities in the nineteenth-century Cuyahoga Valley, Brandywine Village and its history illustrated the close ties between local industry and transportation networks. In 1825, George Wallace transferred his mill and properties to his children, who then established the Wallace Brothers Company. For thirty years, the village's mills and distillery thrived, producing wool, animal feed, and whiskey. The introduction of the Ohio & Erie Canal in the mid-nineteenth century brought new business and settlers to the Cuyahoga Valley who populated new communities in Boston and Peninsula. Without direct access to the canal, however, Brandywine Village watched as goods traveled between Akron and Cleveland, bypassing their own industrial settlement. Railroads, which came to the valley a few decades later, only hastened the village's demise. During the 1920s, Brandywine Village found new life and industry when Willis Hale built the Champion Electric Company amongst the ruins of Wallace's gristmill. Hale's company manufactured restaurant appliances until 1937 when lightening destroyed the factory and ended his business in the valley.

A boardwalk now invites visitors to enter the mossy gorge that once housed Brandywine Village settlers. The James Wallace House, built by George's son in 1848, now operates as the Inn at Brandywine Falls, inviting guests to immerse themselves in the location's history. Besides the restored house, only trace ruins of the village remain. Years of disuse and the construction of Interstate 271 contributed to the settlement's loss. With only the foundations of the gristmill visible to visitors today, the grandeur of the falls often eclipses the memory of the forgotten Brandywine Village.

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Reputed to be a bootlegging tavern where numerous illegal and unsavory transactions occurred in the 1920s, the former inn at Hell's Half Acre now serves as the Canal Exploration Center for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Nineteenth-century life in the Cuyahoga Valley revolved around the Ohio & Erie Canal, the most important means of transportation between the valley, Cleveland, and Akron between 1827 and 1840. Completed in 1832, the Ohio & Erie Canal transformed how local farmers moved and purchased products. Using the canal, area farmers could ship their products, including corn, wheat, and whiskey, for an average price of five cents per ton, (as opposed to fifteen or twenty cents per ton by wagon). This connection to city markets also meant that the canal boats could bring back new luxuries for valley residents, including cloth, coffee, tea, and glass.

In addition to the exchange of commodities, the canal boats also brought visitors to the valley's small and formerly isolated communities. The Village of Peninsula, for example, thrived as a canal and mercantile town, receiving money and fame as canal travelers stopped by for some leisurely hours in the local dance hall or tavern. Hell's Half Acre, a tavern and inn located at Lock 38 along the canal, represented one of many local businesses that took advantage of the new clientele. During its 150 years, the building at Hell's Half Acre served as a tavern, store, private residence, boardinghouse, and blacksmith shop. Around 1837, Moses Gleeson purchased the property and structure to take advantage of the canal traffic.

The Ohio & Erie Canal shaped almost every aspect of valley life, changing both economic and social fabrics. The canal connected the Cuyahoga Valley to a national transportation system that stimulated growth and specialization for local farms. Instead of growing diverse sets of produce and grains, farmers chose one or two crops to grow in large quantities, such as oats for the Schumacher cereal mills in nearby Akron. Linked to New York's Erie Canal, the Ohio & Erie Canal also brought new residents to Ohio, which became the third most populated state in the 1840s. Irish and German immigrants also travelled to the Western Reserve as canal diggers, working long hours for little pay. Now a part of the larger state and regional economy, Cuyahoga Valley farmers learned about new equipment and scientific farming practices that arrived through new residents, farm journals, and agricultural fairs.

Although the Ohio & Erie Canal transformed daily life in the Cuyahoga Valley, the canal reached its zenith by the last decades of the nineteenth century. Unable to compete with the Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal and the Cleveland & Pittsburgh Railroad, producers used the canal less and less. Railroads, which skyrocketed in production in the 1860s, shipped products faster and with less dependency on weather conditions. A catastrophic flood in 1913 caused the final destruction of the valley's canals.

While no longer a tavern or inn, Hell's Half Acre remains an important location for valley visitors to learn about the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal. Presently the Canal Exploration Center, the structure hosts interpretive rangers for the National Park Service who conduct daily canal boat and lock demonstrations, as well as educate visitors about the canal's important role in the history of the Cuyahoga Valley.

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Passing by the Everett Road Covered Bridge, you can still hear the shuffle of feet moving to a lively tune. Both young and old come together at the bridge to share in a tradition passed down from the Cuyahoga Valley's first settlers from New England: the contra dance. Several times a year, friends and neighbors gather together to dance at historic locations near the Village of Peninsula. One of the most popular settings, the Everett Road Covered Bridge, allows dancers to connect to a tradition deeply rooted in the valley experience. Incredibly popular during the early 20th century, dances offered young men and women the rare opportunity to enjoy entertainment together. A local orchestra played while a caller announced instructions for the dances, which took place in nearby dance halls, or even in the street. The modern use of the Everett Bridge evokes these historic traditions of engagement with the local community.

The Everett Road Covered Bridge, which crosses over Furnace Run, is the only remaining covered bridge in Summit County. To take advantage of the Ohio & Erie Canal, and later railroads, valley residents needed roads. According to valley legend, the Everett Bridge was built in response to a local tragedy. In 1877, farmers John Gilson and his wife supposedly attempted to cross Furnace Run after melting ice made their usual ford impassable. Although Mrs. Gilson survived the stream, John Gilson's horse pulled him into the icy water where he soon drowned. Although historians concluded that the bridge was constructed in the late 19th century, its actual construction date remains unknown.

Nestled deep within the valley, the Everett community witnessed many changes since its beginnings in the 1820s. Visitors to the village in the 19th and early 20th century could cross Furnace Run through the covered bridge and enter a small neighborhood complete with a blacksmith, church, one-room schoolhouse, general store, saloon, dance hall, and railway station. After the establishment of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the Department of the Interior purchased and rehabilitated many properties in Everett. Despite the sense of loss that accompanied the demise of the lively Everett village, the Everett Road Covered Bridge and contra dance participants testify to the persistent sense of community in the valley.

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During a trip on the scenic railway, visitors to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park will notice a collection of small yellow buildings clustered around the railroad crossing at Vaughn Road in Brecksville. Now the national park's headquarters, the buildings once comprised the railway depot and company village of the Jaite Paper Mill. A part of the valley's larger story of rising and falling industry, the Jaite Mill affected the lives of numerous valley residents in the early twentieth century.

Josephine Davis, who grew up in Brecksville in the 1920s and 1930s, remembers most of her immediate family members working for the Jaite Paper Company. During the twentieth century, competition from western agriculture made farming in the Cuyahoga Valley less profitable and more challenging. Although the Davis' farm produced enough food to feed her family, Josephine's parents, brothers, and sisters needed to help supplement the farm with additional income. For valley residents in Brecksville, Boston, and Peninsula, the Jaite Paper Company offered jobs conveniently close to home.

Charles Jaite founded the Jaite Paper Company in 1905 and purchased acreage in Northfield Township to begin construction. Charles, who emigrated from Germany as a young boy, had a history of paper manufacturing experience. At the age of thirteen, Charles worked at a paper mill in Cleveland, and eventually became the president of Standard Bag and Paper Company, and vice-president of the Cleveland Paper Company. Both businesses eventually became the Cleveland-Akron Bag Company, which opened in 1900 in Boston, Ohio. In July 1905, Charles resigned and decided to found his own business.

The Jaite Paper Company provided local farmers with extra construction work to create the buildings and connecting railroad. The mill's location provided easy access to the Ohio & Erie Canal and the Cleveland Terminal & Valley Railroad. In addition to providing jobs to local farmers, both the Jaite Mill and Cleveland-Akron Bag Company altered the ethnic makeup of the valley's population. Large numbers of Polish and other immigrants moved from Cleveland south to the valley to find work in the paper-making business.

By 1918, the mill employed about 250 people, including women who sewed bags and provided administrative help. Male workers used cylinder machines to produce "Blue Line Paper" for flour and cement bags. By 1919, the Jaite workers expanded production to include fertilizer bags and bread sacks. These workers made up the company town, which included homes, a general store, post office, and railway station.

Unable to compete with larger paper bag manufacturers, the Jaite family sold their company in 1951. The company exchanged hands several times before becoming a part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 1975.

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In the southwestern Cuyahoga Valley sits a tall red brick house on over 140 acres of the Hale Farm and Village. Now a tourist destination and educational trip for school groups, the Hale Farm provides a window into 19th century valley farm life. Jonathan Hale arrived in the Western Reserve from Connecticut in 1810 to begin a new life of hard work and dedication to his farm. In 1824, Jonathan and his sons began laying each brick of the famous home, an architectural landmark in the Cuyahoga Valley.

Jonathan's son Andrew Hale, who inherited the farm after his father's death, increased the Hale Farm's size and productivity. Based on market demands, Andrew developed specialized farming practices, which included commercial orchards and dairy products.

The third generation to own and operate the Hale Farm, Andrew's son Charles Oviatt (C.O.) Hale (1884-1938), was a farmer in name only. Part of the newer generation of "gentlemen farmers," C.O. Hale transformed the farm into an inn and recreational retreat for friends and visitors. Hiring local families to work on his land, C.O. Hale oversaw the labor and production of fruits and vegetables, hay, and maple syrup.

In the 1930s, the great-granddaughter of Jonathan Hale and C.O. Hale's niece, Clara Belle Ritchie, inherited the farm. A business woman with a strong interest in the investment-value of the farm, Clara Belle supervised the farm's restoration and donation to the Western Reserve Historical Society. Visitors to the farm today experience a living history museum that features reenactments, crafts, and historical interpreters to educate about Western Reserve farm life in the 1800s.

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The Cuyahoga Valley's early settlers from New England arrived to find their purchased properties hidden beneath a wilderness of dense forest. By the early 19th century, small hamlets and townships developed where farm families cooperated and exchanged goods. James Stanford, who moved his wife and children from Pennsylvania to Ohio around 1802, participated in surveying parties who gathered information about communities throughout Summit County. After surveying near Boston Township, James decided to move his family to a nearby 169-acre property on the western bank of the Cuyahoga River. James and his wife Polly continued to live on and work the farm for the rest of their lives. Later owners included James' son George, and grandson George C. Stanford.

Creating a new and successful farm required hard work, perseverance, and patience. Farmers often waited up to five years for their farm to become self-sustaining, and even longer for their land to become prosperous. By the 1880s, George C. Stanford cultivated about 100 acres of the farm, and focused his efforts on raising wheat, hay, cattle, and sheep. Like all farmers in the valley, the Stanford family also kept a garden where they grew a variety of fruits and vegetables.

The history of the Stanford family illustrates the importance of participation in local communities during the early years of valley townships. George Stanford and his son George C. Stanford served in a variety of offices in Boston Township. Both father and son were elected as justice of the peace during their lifetimes. George C. Stanford additionally served as township assessor and Boston postmaster. Each generation's active community involvement lent prominence to the Stanford family name.

Like many of the valley's properties, the Stanford farm and house witnessed many occupants throughout the centuries before becoming a part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Stanford House now serves as lodging for the national park's visitors, who can eat, sleep, and explore the valley's past within the walls of this historic house.

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For thousands of years, the land that encompasses Virginia Kendall Park has been a place of nature, recreation, and history -- from its prehistoric formation to its housing of some of the area's first inhabitants. Once the site of a public works project during the Great Depression and now a modern-day urban oasis, visitors have always appreciated the variety the park has to offer.

Now a part of the greater Cuyahoga Valley National Park, this multi-purpose land unit was the first property in the area perpetually designated for park purposes. Upon his death in the late 1920s, Cleveland businessman Hayward Kendall donated 430 acres of land around the Ritchie Ledges to the Akron Metropolitan Park District, calling it Virginia Kendall to honor his mother. Long before Kendall owned the land, Native Americans lived among the rock outcroppings there, getting food and water from nearby woods and streams. A favorite place for Indians to store things back then was between the crevaces of the rocks, like that of the famed Ice Box Cave, which provided a natural form of refrigeration.

In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built shelters and trails as a part of the New Deal's public works programs. Young men ages 18-25, who were jobless due to the Great Depression, were recruited to cut locally quarried sandstones to build steps among the natural rock outcroppings. CCC workers also built shelters from wormy chestnut trees found in local forests. The Happy Days lodge they built there was named after the song, "Happy Days are Here Again," featured prominently in Franklin Roosevelt's 1932 Presidential campaign. The unique shape of the octagon shelter is a good example of how architects incorporated their designs into the natural landscape.

Today, the park contains four primary trails, four secondary trails, four shelters, a lake, sledding hills, open spaces, rock outcroppings, an old cemetery, and various flora and fauna. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park makes available Questing pamphlets and Self-Guided Nature guides at most trailheads, allowing visitors to more easily explore Virginia Kendall's many treasures.

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It is hard to imagine Cleveland developing into the city that it did had it not been chosen to be the northern end of the Ohio & Erie Canal. George Washington discussed the possibility of building a canal to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River as far back as the 1780s, but it was not until 1825 that the Ohio Legislature voted to fund the project and construction commenced. An initial span opened between Akron and Cleveland on July 4, 1827. When fully completed in 1832, the Ohio & Erie Canal traveled 308 miles through 146 lift locks on its path between Cleveland and Portsmouth, Ohio.

The canal almost instantly turned Cleveland into a major commercial center. The city became the hub of a continental transportation network that connected with New York City via Lake Erie and New York's Erie Canal as well as with the nation's developing frontier areas and New Orleans via the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Goods like wheat, corn, coal, and lumber came north to Cleveland from the frontier while manufactured products from factories in the northeast arrived in Cleveland in return. Travel by road at this time — in places where actual roads existed — was unreliable and expensive. The canal dramatically cut the cost of transporting goods. It opened up new markets for manufactured goods, and tied Americans living at the margins of the nation into an expanding national economy.

The banks of the Cuyahoga River soon became populated with warehouses, docks, and shipyards. It was not long before the area became a center of industrial production as enterprising Clevelanders started turning the raw materials arriving from the hinterlands via the canal into new and highly demanded products like steel and petroleum. Many of the Irish immigrants who built the canal remained in town to work in these new industries.

Traffic and revenue on the Ohio & Erie Canal peaked around the 1850s. Already by then, railroads were taking over as the dominant mode of transportation. Cleveland, which had already established itself as a major city thanks to the canal, continued to prosper. Raw materials and finished goods poured into and out of town, but they did so on boxcars instead of canal boats.

The canal gradually fell into disuse. Steel factories tapped into it for use in their mills and flooding occasionally wiped out portions of it. Towards the end of the twentieth century, portions of the Ohio & Erie Canal came under the protection of the National Park Service with the creation of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Other federal and local projects have preserved many sections of the canal. Thanks to these efforts, future generations will be able to view Ohio's original interstate highway system: the man-made ditch that brought prosperity to Cleveland on the deck of a canal boat.

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