One of our favorite hangouts in high school and college days in the early ’70s was The Flats in Mill Creek Park, seen in the distance of this picture, on the east side of Mill Creek through the trees. Valley Drive alongside The Flats was lined with cars, some of which were being waxed by their owners. You could see couples on blankets making out, a group gathered around a guitar player, guys and girls in cutoffs running around, throwing a frisbee, people smoking, whether cigarettes or something less legal. All of us enjoyed this open meadow just east of the Silver Bridge. A sunny, clear autumn day and you could barely get to the place.
I never knew it by any other name than “The Flats” but at one time, the area was known as Hiawatha Flats. John Melnick, MD, in The Green Cathedral, suggests that the name comes from a production of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “Hiawatha” by a group of Iroquois Indians in 1916, or possibly as early as 1912 or 1913 when a group was encamped there. Mill Creek was temporarily dammed to allow Hiawatha to float down the river on a canoe.
At various times, the area was know as the “Cricket Field” (yes, they apparently played cricket in Youngstown at one time!) or Orchard Meadows. It was a favorite picnic area and included a number of picnic tables and grills.
In the early days, Volney Rogers used the area as a deer park reserve, with a wooden building erected as a deer shelter. It was rare we ever saw deer there or anywhere else during the years I was growing up. I know deer in the park is a point of controversy with groups that want to save the deer and others to remove them. I’m not a local so I won’t even touch this one!
Back in 1976, parking was limited to pull in spaces in two areas. Today, park maps show a picnic area and “comfort station” in the area with part of the east Mill Creek gorge trail running through it. But it has no name on park maps that I can see. I’d love to know how it is being used these days. But “back then” it was the place to hang out on a sunny, spring, summer, or fall afternoon. Little did we know of the long history nor the other names by which this place was known. To us, it was always “The Flats.”
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
William “Bill” Whitehouse. Ⓒ Anthony F. Belfast. Used with permission.
One of the great assets that made Mill Creek Park such a treasure throughout much of its history was a succession of great naturalists, who knew about anything that lived in the park and loved sharing that knowledge with the public, especially school children, enhancing everyone’s love of the park. It began in 1929 when Ernest Vickers became the first naturalist. His son Lindley joined him in 1930, as assistant naturalist, and became naturalist in 1947 when Ernest retired at age 76. Many of us remember going on field trips and being led on nature walks with Mr. Vickers, who also had a regular column in the Vindicator of his nature observations in the park. The Vickers also established the nature museum at the Old Mill that many of you may remember visiting when you were young, before the Mill was renovated.
In 1952, Lindley Vickers observed a young man who was a regular at the museum from boyhood and offered him a job as attendant. That young man was Bill Whitehouse. At the time, he had been working up at Idora Park for $.75 an hour and the park was offering $1.00 an hour. That led to a thirty-three year career at the park and a volunteer association with Mill Creek for many years after that. In 1954, he became assistant naturalist, and soon began leading some of the nature walks. College followed at Youngstown College (later University) where he completed in 1966 a major in mathematics and a minor in biology, including a forestry class from Dike Beede! All this while continuing his full-time duties at the park, part of the time as naturalist, part of the time on a park work crew.
Nature hikes. Ⓒ Anthony F. Belfast. Used with permission.
Between 1954 and 1966, due to lack of public interest, there were no public nature hikes, only school programs. Then in September of 1966, they proposed the idea of Sunday afternoon nature walk was proposed, accepted and publicized. Over 200 turned up to the first and they became quite popular, and an ongoing part of the park programs. In this YouTube video, from a walk he led in 2016, he tells the story of these nature walks.
Bill Whitehouse presenting a nature program with a school group. Ⓒ Anthony F. Belfast. Used with permission.
When Lindley Vickers finally retired in 1970, Bill Whitehouse took over as the park’s third naturalist. One of his first projects was the opening of the Ford Nature Center. In 1968, the children of the late Judge John W. Ford donated the stone mansion the Fords had occupied to the Park. Working with assistant naturalist Tony Belfast, they created the exhibits that would go into the Nature Center. He was constantly on the go presenting nature programs at schools and with many community groups, as well as leading the nature walks and field trips from schools. Following in the footsteps of Lindley Vickers, he also wrote a regular column, Mill Creek Park Bulletin, that was also distributed to the YSU Biology Department and the public and parochial schools. He also consulted with Youngstown State’s teacher training course in “Elementary Science Field Experiences.”
“Mill Creek Park Bulletin” by William Whitehouse, Youngstown Vindicator, August 27, 1972
For many of us, The Green Cathedral by Dr. John Melnick is our Mill Creek Park Bible. Bill Whitehouse played an important role as a consultant in the writing of the book, which was published in 1976, during the time that Whitehouse was naturalist. He also became a mentor to Ray Novotny, who first met Whitehouse at age 12. Novotny told Whitehouse that he wanted his job. Seventeen years later, he succeeded him as naturalist, after Whitehouse’s retirement in 1985. In 1988, Novotny interviewed Bill Whitehouse on Mill Creek Park History as part of Youngstown State University’s Oral History Program, an interview that is the source for much of the material in this article. The men remain close friends until this day.
Following retirement, Bill Whitehouse continued to serve as a volunteer naturalist, helping with nature education programs until as recent as 2016. He was part of a line of four generations of naturalists extending from 1929 through 2016. Bill Whitehouse alone, worked for and volunteered with the park between 1952 and 2016, 64 years or nearly half of the park’s history. He and the others represented the “soul of Mill Creek Park”–its connection with the vision of Volney Rogers. It is to be hoped that the new generation of nature educators at the MetroParks will be keepers of that vision and that ways will be found to remember the legacy of Bill Whitehouse and the other great naturalists who taught us to love Mill Creek Park.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
Mill Creek Park Trail, Photo by Marilyn Trube, all rights reserved
One of my most cherished memories of childhood was going for hikes with my dad in Mill Creek Park. I think the first one I remember was the One Way Trail, which at one time was One Way Road, beginning near the Green House, occupied by park foremen, on Lake Glacier, opposite the Parapet Bridge and ascending to overlook the Lily Pond and coming out by Bears Den Road. I also remember class trips starting at the Lily Pond with park naturalist Lindley Vickers
Trails generally run along the east and west sides of the lakes and gorges of Mill Creek. I grew up on the West Side, near the north end of the park. So walking the whole length of the trails was a challenge. Before I drove, I’d often ride to a trail entrance, and then walk my bike on a portion of the trails. Some of my favorite were the trails along the east and west sides of Lake Cohasset, one of the most beautiful parts of the park. My other favorite was the West Gorge Trail between Lake Cohasset and Lanterman’s Mill. This stretch helps you see how the creek carved out the gorge over generations and seemed to me one of the most untouched parts of the park.
The climax of this walk came as you approached Youngstown-Canfield Road and the falls and mill just beyond, framed by the bridge. This was a view you could only see on the trail. Two other short trails, on either side of the Hemlock Gorge flowing north from Pioneer Pavilion are also quite scenic. The one on the west is appropriately called Artist’s Trail. One the other side is Slippery Rock Trail, leading to Slippery Rock Pavilion.
I most often traveled along the west side of Lake Glacier. It is a whole different view if you take the East Glacier Trail, which runs the length of Lake Glacier from Volney Rogers Field to Slippery Rock Pavilion, with a close up view of the Parapet Bridge.
There were no wetlands at Lake Newport when I grew up. The trails followed the lake on either side, coming out at Shields Road. Now there is a boardwalk wetland trail, allowing people to walk through the wetlands while keeping their feet dry. East Newport Drive is now only open to one way, northbound traffic, and serves as a paved walking and cycling trail. On the other side of Shields, the road on the east side of Mill Creek is now closed to vehicles entirely, making for an easy walking and cycling trail, arched by trees.
Looking at the current trail map of the park, I don’t see some of the trails I remember, such as the Bears Den Trail running from the parking lot to the rock formations, or the trail between the Lily Pond and the Rock Garden that followed a creek. I know there are quite a few trails in John Melnick’s The Green Cathedral (pp. 409-411) that I don’t see on today’s park maps. I wonder if these have been kept up. It would be interesting to go back and explore!
What walking the trails gave was a sense of the rugged beauty of the park. The trails were up and down, following the contours of the gorge. There was so much of the park you could not see just driving or walking along the roads. Nor could you listen to the burbling of the creek unless you walked along. In the fall, you could savor the smell and crunch of fallen leaves. It was part of the wisdom of Volney Rogers and those who worked with him to lay out trails, occasionally with bridges or stone steps, but mostly just packed dirt that gave you a sense that you were walking in the park, and not just through it. They are part of what make it such a special place.
To read other posts in the Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown series, just click “On Youngstown.”Enjoy!
The Lanterman Falls Bridge, the silver Suspension Bridge and the Parapet Bridge are probably the most photographed bridges in Mill Creek Park. But there are many bridges in Mill Creek Park. Several years ago, on a fall visit to Youngstown we took a number of pictures in the park. One of those was of the Cascade Run Stone Bridge. I was on the north bank of Cascade Run, between the bridge and Lake Cohasset, looking toward the bridge and up the ravine beyond in the afternoon sunlight.
That picture turned into the painting above a few years ago when I was practicing working with an easel and paints before joining my wife and a group of artist friends in a plein air retreat at Linwood Park on Lake Erie. I don’t claim this is great art, more of a beginners effort. I suspect I am just one of many who have been inspired by a place in the park.
A early photo of the Cascade Run Stone Bridge (Source: The Vindicator)
The pictured bridge is a small stone bridge over Cascade Run, just before it flows into Mill Creek at the south end of Lake Cohasset. If you are driving north on Valley Drive from the Suspension Bridge, it crosses the Cascade Run Stone Bridge just before West Gorge Drive and West Cohasset Drive. Cascade Run Ravine is one of the most scenic spots in the park, running parallel to West Gorge Drive. It is a steep ravine (as is West Gorge Drive) punctuated with cascading waterfalls as it makes its way to Lake Cohasset. According to John C. Melnick, it was one of Volney Rogers’ favorite places.
Cascade Ravine was among the earliest park acquisitions. 29.36 acres west of Mill Creek. The deed was signed by George Tod and H. H. Stambaugh on September 15, 1891. A steel bridge at the top of the ravine was built in 1894. A new bridge was built in 1990. The stone bridge over Cascade Run on Valley Drive was built in 1913, which means it has lasted over a century, like many of the other bridges in the park.
This is not one of the more dramatic sights in the park, yet it is one more example of the careful workmanship and aesthetic sense of Volney Rogers and those who worked with him to create scenic and durable structures to complement that natural beauty of Mill Creek Park. It caught my eye on an afternoon roaming the park, and on another afternoon when I painted the scene. It is one of the reasons the park is such a treasure–favorite places to return to at different times of the year, and a thousand new ones to discover.
Map of the Mill Creek watershed in Columbiana County from its origin with Mill Creek highlighted, from Mill Creek Watershed Action Plan (Ohio DNR)
Before there ever was a Mill Creek Metropark, there was Mill Creek. As it turns out, the portion of Mill Creek most of us are familiar with is only the northern half, running from Boardman Township north to Lake Newport, then Lanterman’s Falls and the gorge, emptying into Lake Cohasset, and then running to the south end of Lake Glacier, and from there emptying into the Mahoning River. It got its name from the grist mills built along the Creek. There are several “Mill Creeks” in Ohio.
Mill Creek originates in Columbiana County. For the first forty-plus years of Mill Creek Park, no one knew exactly where the headwaters of Mill Creek were. In 1904, Volney Rogers was finally able to try to search for the headwaters. It was a winter day. He began where Mill Creek flows into the Mahoning River and made it as far as Lanterman’s Falls, no where near Columbiana. In 1921, John H. Chase and his daughter followed the creek into Columbiana County but they were unsuccessful in identifying its source. This was complicated by small streams that flowed in, but weren’t Mill Creek. Finally John Chase and Bruce Rogers, Park Superintendent and brother of Volney, traced the headwaters to a farm owned by William Cope in Fairfield Township on a ridge about 2 1/2 miles south of Columbiana and 20.9 miles from where Mill Creek flows into the Mahoning River. The spring actually started underneath the farmhouse.
Bruce Rogers pointing to Spring by foundations behind the farmhouse. (Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, April 1934)
A ceremony was held on October 7, 1933 christening the headwaters, attended by a number of prominent local guests with remarks by Bruce Rogers, a poem, and an account of how they reached the determination that this was the origin of Mill Creek, an account later published in the Ohio Archaelogical and Historical Quarterly written by Charles B. Galbreath, who gave the keynote at the gathering. The christening involved water collected from the Bay of Fundy, the Suwanee River, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian River, Crater Lake, and snow melt from Mount Rainier.
In 1965, the farm was sold to Harry Pierson and became known as the “Headquarters Farm.” It turns out that this property lies just south of the Fairfield Township offices. Beginning in 2016, a combination of Boy and Girl Scout projects and township funded work created an observation and seating area that is Phase One of the Fairfield Township Trustees plan to develop the Headwaters Nature Trail. Phase Two, projected to be completed in 2019 involves more trail clearing, bridges, benches and trail marking.
(Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, April 1934)
Mill Creek at its origin is 1175 feet above sea level and falls 345 feet enroute to the Mahoning River. According to the Mill Creek Watershed Action Plan the creek cut through a clay and loam layer deposited by glaciers down through the Mississippian age siltstone and shales, and the Pennsylvanian age sandstone and shales, creating the beautiful gorges we know today. There are ten name tributaries feeding Mill Creek and 90 unnamed ones. Ultimately, all the water in this watershed flows into the Mahoning River, which joins with the Beaver River south of New Castle, Pa. and then flows into the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the Gulf of Mexico. It is amazing to think of the journey of that water from a hard-to-find spring in Fairfield Township all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. Equally amazing to me is to think that this little rivulet, joined with small tributaries over millennia cut the beautiful gorges of the park so many of us love.
Other source:
John C. Melnick, The Green Cathedral. Youngstown: Youngstown Lithography, 1976, pp. 311-318.
In childhood, my grandmother always loved to visit what we then called “the Rock Garden” when all the flowers were in bloom in spring. She loved the cascades of the yellow basket-of-gold flowers, purple creeping flox and the white flowers of the yucca plants they somehow managed to grow.
Most of the time, drivers probably give little thought to this rock retaining wall on West Drive between the south end of West Glacier Drive, and the Birch Hill Cabin and Lily Pond areas. That is too bad, because the Wall Garden, as it is formally called was part of one of the major construction projects in the development of Mill Creek Park.
In the early years of the park, created in 1891, most of the roads were little more than dirt roads along Mill Creek or Bear Creek, which flowed into Mill Creek from the west. There was one such road, called the Old Hamilton Road along Bear Creek at the base of the steep hill where the two creeks met. Atop of the hill was a dirt road for many years called One Way Drive (now One Way Trail, one I hiked as a kid). The road ran from McCollum Road above the Lily Pond, atop the hill and came out by the foreman’s house on West Glacier Drive.
After Lake Glacier was created, William Henry Manning, the consulting architect for Mill Creek Park, decided in 1921 to cut through part of the big hill above Bear Creek and create West Drive, connecting up with Birch Hill Cabin, the Lily Pond, and the Bears Den area further west. The project was known as “the Big Cut,” and to prevent soil and rock slides, or a collapse of part of the One Way Drive atop the hill, stone was quarried from Bears Den to serve as a retaining wall for the area below “Lookout Point” which overlooks the Lily Pond and Birch Hill area.
The Wall Garden was begun in 1925 and completed in 1927. Altogether, it is 552 feet long and 54 feet high and was planted with plants that could grow in the soil and crevices between the rocks. What may have been a necessity from an engineering point of view was turned into another facet of the beauty that is Mill Creek Park that has endured for nearly a century.
Sources:
John C. Melnick, M.D., The Green Cathedral (Youngstown: Youngstown Lithographing, 1976), pp. 117-120.
Carol Potter and Rick Shale, Historic Mill Creek Park (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Press, 2005), p. 81.
