The Great Flood of 1913 was a major natural disaster event that many have scarcely heard of; however, this flood drastically impacted Greater Cleveland and the state of Ohio regardless of flood prevention measures taken before and during the disastrous flood. Prior to the flood, in January and February of 1913, there was an onslaught of snowmelt that thawed early for the season and raised the water levels of the Cuyahoga, Licking, Scioto, and Muskingum Rivers higher than average. On March 23 it began to rain, and rain continued for four days. Within only a few days, Ohio was drowning in rainfall levels that are typically only achieved in a two-to-three-month period. The worst-hit city in Ohio, and arguably in the nation, was Dayton which had flood waters reach 20 feet high. When this catastrophic flooding occurred, there was not much anyone could do. Some were able to evacuate, but many were unable to leave and had to wait out the storm.

During the storm, there were not many actions local officials could take to preserve homes, businesses, infrastructure, and most importantly life. Since there had been previous floods along the Cuyahoga River, many assumed that the dams would hold back a considerable amount of water from the city. However, these dams that were put in place to prevent catastrophic flooding were pushed to their limits. One Akron dam failed, pushing even more flood waters through Greater Cleveland. Local officials attempted to alleviate some of the flooding along the Ohio & Erie Canal by dynamiting several canal locks. Despite these preemptive actions, flooding was still severe in Greater Cleveland.

Local public officials attempted to preserve life during this massive flooding event. Officials called to evacuate people to higher ground; however, some individuals were caught in the path of the storm. Cuyahoga Lumber workers were trapped while attempting to preserve their lumber stock. In addition, train depot workers also became trapped and had to be rescued from the second floor of the depot. It was not only workers who had to be rescued from the flooding but also families. In one instance, four children and two parents were rescued from their home because they could not evacuate because the children had measles.

Launching rescue boats during the storm was a dangerous and arduous venture. The fire stations launched rescue operations because they possessed the necessary equipment for rescuing people from the flood waters: pulleys, ropes, and life preservers. The Flats were particularly difficult for rescue boats to navigate due to debris in the water and the strength of the current. In the Flats, several boats flipped while attempting to rescue people. In effect, while trying to prevent loss of life, many individuals inadvertently put their own lives at risk. Fortunately, no one perished while attempting to rescue those caught in the flood waters.

It took days following the flood to determine the extent of the damage as a result of telegraph and telephone service outages, as well as general communication delays in rural areas. Eventually, it became widely known that the damage was extensive. In Ohio, at least 428 people lost their lives, and 20,000 homes and an untold number of businesses were destroyed in the Great Flood. Public infrastructure was also a concern, such as backed-up sewers, contaminated drinking water, closed and inaccessible grocery stores, washed-out railroads, and destroyed bridges. It took weeks for the flood waters to recede enough to start the cleanup effort. Over half of all the property damage caused by the Great Flood occurred in Ohio and cost $3 billion in today’s money.

There were difficult decisions to be made in the days, weeks, and years following the flood. One of the major decisions following the flood was to discontinue the commercial use of the Ohio & Erie Canal. In the first decade of the 20th century, Ohio legislators appropriated funding for a series of renovations to the canal in the hopes of making the canal become a commercial corridor like it was in the early to mid-19th century. Despite repairs, Greater Cleveland industries did not switch back to utilizing the canal. When the flood hit, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Although the flood ended the Ohio & Erie Canal as a commercial waterway, thanks to later natural and historic preservation efforts, people can enjoy a day of recreation along the canal’s Towpath Trail today.

Another major effect of the Great Flood was the passage of the Vonderheide Act (Ohio Conservancy Law) in 1914. This enabling legislation authorized tax-funded flood infrastructure improvements and established watershed districts. Although the law was challenged all the way up to the Supreme Court, it stood and the Miami Conservancy District in southern Ohio became the country’s first major watershed district. The state of Ohio also repaired and added new levees and dams throughout the Ohio Valley with the hope of staving off any future major flooding event.

Although the Great Flood caused extensive damage across numerous states, the disaster is not widely known because the flood is often conceptualized in innumerable cities and towns as a local event rather than a large multistate event. Many may come across floods that are labeled locally, such as the Great Dayton Flood or the Great Indianapolis Flood, but all these floods occurred in March 1913 as part of a larger event. The Great Flood caused extensive damage that changed Ohio’s laws, flood precautions, and ended a major commercial waterway earning the flood its title as “Ohio’s greatest weather event.”

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Why have more people not heard of Samuel Prentiss Baldwin, the “Birdman” of Cleveland? Baldwin was born in 1868 and, as a young man, initially pursued a legal career. About midway through his life, however, he opted for a switch to ornithology. This by no means sprang out of nowhere; for much of his life, Baldwin had cultivated this interest during his spare time, inspired by the wonderful opportunities for studying birds in their natural woodland habitat on the eastern edges of Cleveland. It was around 1906, however, that he started down the path of ornithology on a professional level and truly devoted himself to this rather niche discipline. From here it was just a short step to establishing what would become his main haunt, the Baldwin Bird Research Laboratory on his Gates Mills property in 1914, taking advantage of its prime bird habitat.

In 1899, Samuel Prentiss Baldwin and his wife Lillian Hanna Baldwin, newlyweds, acquired a 450-acre forested farm called Hillcrest in the village of Gates Mills. It was at Hillcrest, as well as in the winter resort colony of Thomasville, Georgia, that the lawyer-turned-ornithologist began conducting his pioneering studies on wild birds. His achievements through his lab were considerable. Baldwin pioneered new methods for the study of bird migratory habits and physiology that became noted by the greater international ornithological community. Foremost among these achievements was his innovation of tracking bird migration through marked bird-banding.

Baldwin trapped and tagged birds before their migration, usually in their juvenile phase for the sake of their own well-being and for most efficient study, and tracking departures and re-arrivals and their timing so as to be able to understand breeding patterns. This enabled a new discovery: that the birds primarily studied, House Wrens, did not mate for life as previously hypothesized. Baldwin’s discovery was recognized by the Biological Survey of 1920. In addition to his pioneering research on bird migration and breeding patterns, Baldwin also made discoveries related to the regulation of their body temperature and further solidified that birds were, beyond a doubt, warm-blooded, just as their dinosaur ancestors were believed to have been. He used special lab tools to measure these temperatures not only from early adolescence in the bird life cycle, but from the embryo itself. To top that off, he published a book on that same topic, titled "Physiology of the Temperature of Birds."

By the 1920s, his Baldwin Bird Research Laboratory on the Gates Mills property was a focal point in the rapidly developing field of ornithology. The vast majority of articles about Baldwin and his work are found in publications from the late 1920s through the 1930s, when he made his most substantial impacts in the field. His bird-banding innovation was sufficiently well-known for him to earn an honorary degree in Sciences from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. He also was one of five American delegates to the Canadian National Museum exhibition in 1926. Finally, he was instrumental in collaborative work with Western Reserve University in the study of and experimentation on bird embryos. In his time, Baldwin was a figure of no small importance in the world of ornithology – and even science in general – and deserves more modern-day recognition.

Following Baldwin’s death in 1938, his wife Lilian deeded the S. Prentiss Baldwin Bird Sanctuary in his memory to the village of Gates Mills. Later, in the 1960s, an ordinance designated all of Gates Mills a bird sanctuary, and although a Cardinal appears on the village's "Bird Sanctuary" signs that mark the village limits, Samuel Prentiss Baldwin might wish it were a Wren.

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Tucked away in the oak-hickory forests of the Cleveland Metroparks Brecksville Reservation, the black walnut doors, American chestnut paneling and Berea sandstone that front the Brecksville Nature Center blend harmoniously into the surrounding wooded landscape. Constructed with regional materials by laborers of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, the historic exhibition space is a shrine to its location. Details of the interior and exterior design relay stories of the flowers, trees and animals native to the vicinity. A short path leading to the building extends visitors an invitation to explore, learn, and immerse themselves into the natural world. Opened to the public in June of 1939, the Brecksville Nature Center was one of three trailside museums operated by the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The construction of these trailside museums during the 1930s signaled the beginnings of a new era for the Cleveland Metropolitan Park System. Through the efforts and guidance of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, a foundation of educational and research programs emerged that both helped shape the use and provide cultural value to Cleveland's newest public spaces.

The partnership between the Metropolitan Park Board and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History that prompted the establishment of trailside museums grew from the board's efforts to display the benefits of a remote park system to Clevelanders. Through much of the 1920s, the Park Board had been busy both purchasing and pursuing eminent domain on what would amount to nearly 9,000 acres of land; while the property obtained was generally not suited for commercial, residential or agricultural uses, its speedy procurement was critical to keep prices low and prevent land speculation. By plan, the Park Board had devoted very few resources to developing spaces for public use.

With the skeleton of a park system in place, and the renewal of a tax levy up for a vote in 1930, the Park Board shifted the disbursement of over three-quarters of available funds to land improvements in 1928. By making portions of park land physically accessible and developing recreational spaces, the board hoped to garner public approval and interest in the metropolitan park project. There was a small hitch, however. While maintaining small departments for legal needs, draftsmen, accounting, landscape design, police protection, engineering and golf course personnel, the organization had no employees devoted to offering programs or educational services to the public. Additionally, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board was limited in its powers to enter into contractual relationships with outside organizations. The board relied on informal arrangements with civic institutions to provide cultural value to the public space. In 1929, the Ohio State Legislature empowered the Park Board to enter into working contracts with non-profit corporations. Collaboration between the board and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was cemented that year with the designation of Arthur B. Williams as the park system's first naturalist.

Williams tirelessly worked as a "one-man department" performing extensive field research of the park grounds, creating publications for professional and general consumption, and integrating his findings into interpretive programs for the public. Emulating a trailside museum model popularized at Bear Mountain State Park in New York, a small rustic cabin was opened under Williams' direction in the North Chagrin Reservation during the summer of 1931. Conceived as a tool to get people into the park, the North Chagrin Trailside Museum was embedded within the woods and acted as an adjunct to a nearby educational nature trail previously established by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Both the museum and trail were designed to convey an educational narrative of the beech maple climax forest to park goers.

Visitors to the museum were instructed by an assortment of hands-on exhibits pertaining to the natural history of the region - both inanimate and otherwise. The most acclaimed attraction was an array of tame or baby animals, which included black snakes, skunks, opossums, woodchucks, turtles and owls. Whether it be Pete the raccoon, a collection of arrowheads or cross sections of trees, all exhibited objects and animals were common to the area. Each was chosen to help inform visitors in their jaunts along the park trails. With Williams generally on hand to answer questions, or to summon crows to perch on his arm in anticipation of food, a visit to the museum was designed as an exercise in non-compulsory education. Weekly informal talks and guided nature trail hikes were offered for those wanting more.

The exhibits, events and presentations offered by both Williams and Cleveland Museum of Natural History staff at the trailside museum proved successful in attracting an enthusiastic public. By 1935, the informal outdoor lectures performed in a small clearing between the cabin and nature trail regularly packed in over 140 eager, inquisitive visitors. Over 34,000 persons had visited the North Chagrin Trailside Museum the prior year, and the educational nature trails continued to attract throngs of park patrons. With the immediate and apparent success of the trailside model in North Chagrin Reservation, plans had long since been concocted to build similar centers along educational nature trails in other parks. Limitations in staff and funding due to the looming economic depression thwarted these efforts.

With the assistance of federal funding and work relief projects, additional trailside museums were erected in the Rocky River and Brecksville Reservations during the mid 1930s. Each mirrored the characteristics of the North Chagrin museum: small rustic cabins were set into the woods adjoining educational nature trails, and were devoted to telling the story of the unique environments in which they sat. In Rocky River, construction of the museum was supervised by the Metropolitan Park Board's Landscape Department as a Works Projects Administration project. The cabin premiered in the fall of 1935, and was opened to the public the following summer. Under the guise of eyeballing resident toads, salamanders and pollywogs, programming and exhibits interpreted the habitat of the northern Ohio flood plain. Situated just a short walk from streetcars, the Rocky River museum soon matched the attendance of its North Chagrin counterpart.

The location of the third Trailside Museum was chosen to depict the oak hickory forests of the Brecksville Reservation. While work on the building was started by the Civilian Conservation Corps, its completion - as well as the fine craftsmanship - can be attributed to skilled laborers employed through the Works Progress Administration. Accompanying the opening of the Brecksville museum in 1939, the North Chagrin cabin was also enlarged and remodeled as a Works Project Administration project. A fourth Trailside Museum was opened in 1943 by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History at Gordon Park to interpret the habitat of Lake Erie. This collaboration with the City of Cleveland proved short-lived, however; the building became inaccessible and was abandoned during the construction of the Memorial Shoreway, but was eventually revamped as the Cleveland Aquarium.

The three Trailside Museums within the park system continued to offer informal lectures, guided nature walks, and a variety of rotating and permanent exhibits. Guarded by the forests from the sights and sounds of urban life, these small buildings acted as a hub for interaction between the public and representatives of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District. The Park Board eventually took over the reins of managing the museums in 1954 following the creation of its own educational department. Having consistently provided interpretive programming and hands-on educational opportunities at trailside museums for a quarter century, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History helped change the way the public perceived and used parks in Cleveland.

Building upon the Natural History Museum's legacy, the Metropolitan Park District continued to expand educational programming within the park system. New, modernized nature centers were built to house public events and exhibitions, as well as to provide amenities to visitors. While both the North Chagrin and Rocky River Trailside Museums were eventually destroyed by fire, the museum in Brecksville Reservation was revamped as the Brecksville Nature Center. The structure, dating back to the days of the Works Progress Administration, still stands as a reminder of the Park Board's earliest efforts to both engage with and provide educational programming to the public.

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In 1912, Harriet L. Keeler was chosen as the temporary superintendent of schools for the sixth largest city in the United States. The Cleveland Leader released a feature interview with the recently honored public figure to mark the occassion. The conversation began wth the most pressing of questions: had the unmarried 65 year old ever had a romance in her life? The accomplished author, suffragist, civic activist, social reformer, and retired school teacher offered the politest of responses, "I have lived an intellectual life for my romance, of course having that mother love which is natural to my sex, and which has had its outlet in the love and teaching of children, the love of animals and the love of plants." These outlets of Keeler's intellectual life served her well. Keeler's love of teaching and nature propelled her success as a writer. While Keeler was recognized in Cleveland for a 38-year career in the public schools and as a respected voice in the Progressive Era women's club movement, she was best known as an author in her day. The life-long educator penned a series of seven nature guides between 1894 and her death in 1921. Keeler's writing style was informed by her experience as a teacher and vast knowledge of botany, language, and literature. Her work as a nature writer offers a glimpse into the way privileged women operated within and utilized conservative gender roles to better their own lives and make substantial, lasting contributions to society. The opportunities afforded to Harriet Keeler in pursuing her passions as an author, educator, and amateur botanist inversely grew from a limitation of options available to American women during the 19th century. Born in the mid 1840s, Keeler followed a path taken by many young women with means and access to education during the era — she became a teacher. The job of providing an ethical and moral education to children seemed a natural extension of traditional female responsibilities; this allowed honorable, self-sacrificing women to take hold of an opportunity to be paid horribly as educators. After leaving school at the age of 14, Keeler worked as a teacher in Cherry Hill, New York. Working in schools provided women such as Keeler a temporary, socially accepted reprieve from domestic life and motherhood. It also gave them a chance to expand their education by attending either an Academy School (high school) or a "normal school" designed to train teachers. While the administration of schools remained predominately in the hands of men, the field of teaching became the domain of women. By 1900, 75% of American teachers were female. After a short stint teaching, Harriet Keeler studied at a college preparatory school and proceeded to attend Oberlin College. Keeler's decision to attend Oberlin College in the 1860s set her apart from her female peers; co-educational and women's colleges were scarce, but would grow in popularity toward the end of the century. Graduating with a bachelor of arts from the College Department at Oberlin College, Keeler likely received advanced training in classical languages, literature, and higher mathematics in addition to more common liberal arts studies that centered on education. With few professional job options deemed respectable for women at the time, it is no surprise that upon receiving her degree she accepted employment with a school system. Just as ideas of proper gender roles steered Keeler and other American women towards careers such as teaching, the study of nature had also become an acceptable pursuit for those deemed the fairer sex. Interaction within the tamed outdoors was already understood to be an extension of a woman's domestic life. With popular conceptions of nature morphing in contrast to an urbanizing country during the latter half of the 1800s, what the city lacked in virtue was imbued upon the natural world. The morality of womanhood found company in romantic visions of picturesque rural landscapes. Additionally, a division between "scientific" and "recreational" botany emerged early in the century — the latter being cast from the world of science and left to the musings of writers and women. By the end of the 19th century, women had long been active in the informal study of plants. Botany, with its practical application in preparing home remedies, had been taught to women in order that they could perform domestic duties and educate children. Women played an integral part in the identification and organization of North American plant life, but often in an informal role. By the time of Keeler's first foray into publishing nature writing, a tradition of women botanists preceded her. The opportunities and experiences afforded to Harriet Keeler as a teacher and student converged with the release of her first book on amateur botany in 1894, The Wildflowers of Early Spring. An extensive knowledge of science, Latin terminology, and classical literature, combined with the educator's sensibility for arranging information in a comprehensive and digestible format, can be credited for the popular success of Keeler's writing. Timing also played its part. Not only did her book coincide with the first realized efforts to develop a park system in Cleveland, but the concept of nature was finding new relevance throughout the United States. An increasingly literate female and male population was enamored with birds, flowers, and trees. The 1890s witnessed the beginnings of the nature study movement as well as the blossoming of a nationwide crusade to create idealized, rural-esque park spaces for city dwellers. It was a good time to be a nature writer. In 1893, the first publication of Frances Theodora Parsons' How to Know the Wild Flowers sold out within five days. By the turn of the century, similar "how-to-know" nature guides were commonplace. Within this overcrowded market, Keeler's comprehensive and scientific approach distinguished her writing from the glut of nature writing available to the public. Her 1900 book Native Trees and How to Identify Them became a seminal amateur work on the subject and would be reprinted over a dozen times. Harriet Keeler, in the company of countless other middle- and upper-class American women at the turn of the 20th century, navigated through cultural restrictions using preconceived ideals of womanhood as a springboard for creating professional and personal opportunities. While her work as an author and educator were informed by societal boundaries, these acceptable outlets for Keeler's intellectual life proved frutiful.  Through her chosen vocations, Keeler provided lasting contributions to Cleveland in the social changes she helped push forward, the lives she touched as a teacher, and the legacy of her written word. 

Harriet Keeler's life also inspired a different type of tribute. Following her death in 1921, colleagues and friends — including many prominent Clevelanders — immediatley began work planning a physical memorial to the author, teacher and social advocate. By 1923, three hundred acres of wooded terrain in Brecksville Reservation were dedicated as the Harriet Keeler Memorial Woods. The Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board agreed to preserve the grounds from future development, so that the land would act as a home to the flowers, trees and animals that the prominent Clevelander loved.

Thumbing through the writings of Harriet Keeler, one is reminded of the knowledge and pleasure she has provided to explorers of open fields and forests in Cleveland and throughout the country. Following in this tradition, find a moment to peruse her work and identify a tree or flower when taking your next hike through the Harriet Keeler Memorial Woods in the Brecksville Reservation. Using her words and vast reserves of knowledge as a guide, we are encouraged to discover connections between our natural environment and its underlying world of science, history, and literature.

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The city of Cleveland bought about 180 acres of land in 1894 to create Newburgh Park. In 1897, the park was renamed Garfield Park after former President James A. Garfield. The park, well known in Cleveland for its natural beauty and its mineral springs, provided many recreational opportunities. The park soon housed facilities for boating, swimming, and playing tennis or baseball. During the winter, visitors often went sledding and ice skating.

But starting in the 1960s, the park began to have problems due to the city's financial inability to maintain it. The once famous spring water became contaminated; the park pool was closed and allowed to deteriorate; and grass and weeds took over the tennis court. Crime in the park increased, though Garfield Heights repeatedly asked for an increased police presence. But the neglect continued, despite community concerns.

This neglect was prolonged until the 1980s, as the city of Cleveland and Garfield Heights fought over and over for solutions to the financial burden that the park had become. Owned by the city of Cleveland since the beginning, the park was now located within Garfield Heights boundaries, which were established later. The city proposed many solutions to the hindrance. It tried to sell the park to Garfield Heights, but the suburb could afford neither the price set by the city nor the cost of taking care of the park. By this time few people used the park, and many considered it an eyesore. Garfield Park had come a long way: once a treasured natural gem, it had become a dangerous eyesore. But the community's desire to keep the park never faded. The issue of the park had become so important to the community that those running for public office in Garfield Heights in the 1970s and 1980s made sure to address its future in their campaigns. Despite the attention, the problem dragged on. And the question remained: what to do with Garfield Park?

There was talk of leasing the park to the Cleveland Metroparks for many years, but it was not until the 1980s that talk turned into action. The Metroparks leased the park from the city of Cleveland in 1986 and began to restore it to its former glory. A nature center was built in 1987, which bustles with activity to this day. The park restored the lake, the marsh, some of the recreational facilities, and the trails, making Garfield Park once more a treasured place for city dwellers and suburbanites to find refuge in nature.

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Samuel H. Halle, who founded the Halle Bros. Co. department store with his brother, established his summer home far from the city in Kirtland, Ohio. Besides a summer house, the Halles added other extravagant amenities including a suspension bridge, a cottage, a horse stable, a vineyard, a rose garden, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and an air strip. The suspension bridge, built in the 1920s, was one-of-a-kind in Kirtland, and connected the summer house to a small cottage on the other side of the gorge. More than simply a leisure spot, however, it was a working farm. The Burnett family lived and worked the farm year-round.

The house sat on a large ravine. Easy to enter but very difficult to exit, the ravine became known as "Penitentiary Gulch." A local legend claims that the gulch was used to hold prisoners during the Civil War. True or not, the name "Penitentiary" stuck. Now a park, it is called Penitentiary Glen.

The Halle family used their summer estate to host parties, community celebrations, and important visitors. Each year the Halle family hosted and sponsored a "Pioneer Picnic" for the community that brought together people from all over Lake and Geauga counties. Samuel Halle continued to visit the summer home until his death in 1954. His five children inherited the property. The summer house burned down in the 1960s, and the horse barn, which had a hay loft and a considerably large tack room, was leased out in the early 1970s as a "Country Estate" under the Cleveland Trust Company's ownership. In 1975 Lake Metroparks purchased the property from the Cleveland Land Trust Company. The park district used the horse barn first as its headquarters. In the 1980s it was transformed into a nature center and continues to serve the public in this fashion today.

Visitors today can take a self-guided historic tour of the old Halle farm. Only two pillars on either side of the park's gorge hint at the onetime presence of the suspension bridge. All that remains of the Halles' summer home is its foundation. Remnants of the Halle gardens, landscaping, and orchards linger on in the park, and can be seen from the trails.

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The Trailside Interpretation Center was built in 1971, and is currently known as the Rocky River Nature Center. Located in the Rocky River South Reservation, it is the paragon of naturalist interpretation and education within the Cleveland Metroparks. Although constructed after his time, it could be said that the Rocky River Nature Center is the culmination of Arthur B. Williams' career with the Cleveland Metroparks.

Williams had a passion for and extensive knowledge of the ecology of the Cleveland Metroparks. His doctoral thesis concerned the ecosystem found within what would eventually become the North Chagrin Reservation of the Metroparks. He was appointed as a naturalist for the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board in 1930 to interpret the natural history of the Metroparks for the public. Williams took it upon himself to personally investigate each reservation within the Metropolitan Parks System, and the data he collected on these field studies would eventually be compiled to form educational programs. For some time he personally educated the public by leading people on interpretive nature walks.

Williams' nature walks and educational nature programs became so popular that Williams and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History realized a need for public facilities to carry out his interpretation of local natural history. During the 1930s, Arthur Williams was ultimately responsible for the founding of three trailside museums. These were located in the North Chagrin Reservation, the Brecksville Reservation, and the Rocky River Reservation (not to be confused with the later Trailside Interpretation Center in the Rocky River North Reservation).

The trailside museum in the North Chagrin Reservation is reputedly the first such museum established in the entire nation, and is known for a fact to be the first in Ohio. During its first year, the trailside museum in North Chagrin did not close until December because of its outstanding public visitation. More than 150,000 visitors came to the museum that year. The museum served as a bridge between nature and civilization. It aimed to introduce visitors to "natural wonders" so that they would develop an affinity for nature and wildlife in general but specifically for those in the geographic area of Cleveland which Williams found so unique. The trailside museum in North Chagrin utilized tactics such as making the museum accessible only by foot to preserve its wooded location, talks and lectures led by local naturalists, and even living exhibits containing local wildlife.

The Rocky River Nature Center represents the evolution of Williams' trailside museums. Here, visitors of all ages can become educated on geological formations by simply taking a step outside to the observation deck that overlooks the Rocky River, explore indoor exhibits which focus on wildlife and the early inhabitants of the area, and experience the gardens and nature trails surrounding the building. Through exhibits on the first Native Americans to inhabit Ohio, living-history presentations on Ohio pioneer life, and scientific experiments to maintain local fish populations, the nature center combines preservation and education of both the natural and historical aspects of the Cleveland Metroparks in a recreational setting. By doing so, the Rocky River Nature Center embodies the mission which Williams carried out as the park naturalist.

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