Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown–The Silver Bridge

April 2, 2016August 25, 2025 / rtrube54 / 5 Comments

By Rg998 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20195376

The Silver Bridge. The Cinderella Bridge. The Castle Bridge. The Walt Disney Bridge. It has been called all of these things. Strictly speaking, its name is the Suspension Bridge. For those of you who are not from Youngstown, Vindy.com has a wonderful video of the bridge in its autumn glory. Whatever you call it, it is truly one of the magical features that make Mill Creek Park the special place it is for all of us who call Youngstown home.

I learned that Volney Rogers, who helped establish Mill Creek Park, intended it that way. He wanted “fanciful entrances” to the park, and this bridge, the oldest in the park, clearly lived up to his expectations. It was designed by Charles Fowler and built by the Youngstown Bridge Company in 1895. The total length of the bridge is 89.9 feet and the deck width is 20 feet (32 feet with walkways). It is characterized as an “eyebar suspension” bridge. But what makes it stand out is the silver paint job, the decorative spires and arches and metal work. It is a favorite wedding picture location and any of us who have photo albums probably have a picture of the bridge somewhere. Perhaps some of the most gorgeous pictures are those taken after a big snowfall in the winter, when it looks like the central feature in a winter wonderland.

The bridge spans Mill Creek north of Lanterman falls and before it flows into Lake Cohasset and links the west and east sides of the park. In high school and college, I loved to cycle through the park and sometimes stop just to think and try to sort out life. One of my favorite spots was the rock formation on the west side of the bridge. I loved to clamber up on the rocks, which were shaded by trees and take in the bridge, the stream and surrounding area. There are so many places like that in the park and this was one of my favorites.

There is an open meadow on the east side of the bridge that we called The Flats. Coming off the bridge, the road bends to the right, with Mill Creek on one side and the meadow on the other. When I was a teenager The Flats was a favorite gathering place for young couples who wanted to sit in the sun, guys playing frisbee, and probably more than a few smoking weed!

The bridge is a functional bridge, open to traffic. In 2007, it went through a major rehabilitation project to restore its appearance and structural integrity. DOT Construction Corp of Canfield did the restoration work, important in safeguarding this river crossing in the park as well preserving its structural beauty. The Mahoning Valley Historical Society, Youngstown State University, and the Ohio Historic Preservation Office all consulted on the restoration. It was posted on the National Register of Historic Places on October 29, 1976. Truly a jewel!

What are your memories of the Silver Bridge? Do you have a favorite time of the year to photograph the bridge?

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Lindley Vickers, Naturalist

October 17, 2015October 17, 2015 / rtrube54 / 4 Comments

Picture appears in Historic Memories of Mill Creek Park, by Carol Potter and Rick Shale, Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2005

Among my reading tastes are books of nature writing. Currently I am reading Ohio author Louis Bromfield’s Malabar Farm, which tells the story of his restoration of a wornout farm in the Mansfield area back in the 1940s. I love the writing of Wendell Berry, Aldo Leopold’s Sand County Almanac and others. Perhaps the reason is, as I mentioned last week, that I grew up reading Lindley Vickers’ columns in the Vindicator.

I thought it would be interesting to write a bit about his life and see if I could find an example of his columns. I was successful at both. I discovered that he was the son of the first naturalist of Mill Creek Park, Ernest Vickers, who held the position from 1929 until 1947, when he stepped down and Lindley Vickers assumed this position. Lindley was born in Ellsworth February 1, 1900 and lived until September 17, 1981, when he died of a heart attack. He is buried in Ellsworth Cemetery.

He was known for leading nature walks through Mill Creek Park. Dottie Nespeca Cerimele wrote this about him in Mill Creek Park Memoirs:

“We would meet Mr. Vickers at the Goldfish Pond (now called the Lily Pond), and our guided walk through selected areas of the park began. Mr. Vickers stopped at each variety of flower to point out something unique about it. Upon hearing the chirp of a bird, he’d quickly raise his binoculars to his eyes, and describe its species, color, and nesting habits. Even before he had finished, a new sound or sight would distract him. “Shhh–listen–Oh look! There’s a black-capped chickadee in that tree.” Immediately, a new lesson began.”

I am almost certain that one of our elementary school field trips involved a very similar nature walk with him–this sounds very familiar!

Vickers wrote a column every, or nearly every day in the Vindicator. I was able to find examples in every issue of the Vindicator I looked at on Google. The column was called “A Nature Diary” and appeared on the editorial page of the Vindicator. Here is his column from June 1, 1960, describing another school field trip:

“The goldfish at the Lily Pond were at the height of their spawning activities May 27 when two busloads of Hubbard Junior High classes had their annual visit. Sometimes several groups of two or three of these German red carp would half jump out of the water simultaneously. Because the eggs are scattered over the water plants near the surface, the fish were forced to go where the swimming was most hazardous.

Once, one of the fish had the misfortune to land topside on a large water lily pad. The central portion of the leaf went down under the weight of the fish while the edges of the leaf stuck up all the higher. The frantic fish flopped vigorously for several seconds before releasing itself from the natural booby trap.

Rough-winged swallows were insect catching, turtles sun-bathed, and a few frogs sat in the shallow water as long as every hiker remained on the trail.”

Lindley Vickers never came across as an environmentalist or as stridently advocating for nature. He just helped children from the neighborhoods bordering on steel mills and manufacturing discover the wonders of a world not made by human beings and the jewel that was (and is) Mill Creek Park. He opened our eyes and ears to the things that were around us that we often didn’t notice. It seems fitting that the Vickers Nature Preserve, a 200 acre preserve in Ellsworth Township, was created to remember the father and son team of Ernest and Lindley Vickers.

Did you ever go on a nature walk with Lindley Vickers? Did you follow his “A Nature Diary”?

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Autumn Leaves

October 4, 2014October 8, 2016 / rtrube54 / 7 Comments

The Lily Pond — On of my favorite places to visit in the fall

I was cutting my grass on Thursday evening and mulching in some of the leaves that had fallen and the smell of autumn leaves brought back memories of autumns in Youngstown and some of the rhythms of life during that season.

There were those leaves. As a kid, I was recruited early on to help rake up all the leaves in our yard, mostly from the huge oak and maple trees of our neighbors. I’d come home from school and a couple times a week would grab the rake, and rake the leaves into a pile in the fire ring in our back yard. There was a time, before air pollution laws, where we would burn the leaves. Dad would do this when I was young but by junior high, I was burning the leaves. During this season, a haze of leaf smoke would add to anything coming from the mills. To this day, whenever I pass a farm in the country where the farmer is burning leaves, my mind jumps back to those days.

I think one thing everyone from Youngstown did was go to Mill Creek Park to look at the leaves as they turned. It was always fun to walk on the trails and hear the leaves crunch under our feet and to take in the greens, the brilliant reds, the deep oranges, the yellows that glowed. I still love getting back to the park during the fall and savoring the beauty of the skylines along the lakes and the changing colors of trees that frame Lanterman’s Mill.

Do you remember school projects where you had to collect leaves of different types of trees, press them between sheets of wax paper and identify the trees from which they came? I wonder how many of us came across these long forgotten leaves years later, perhaps as we cleaned old books out of our parents homes.

With the autumn leaves came those crisp, cool mornings with deep azure blue skies. Usually the brisk air woke me up enough to notice the changing season. In the afternoons, when we weren’t raking leaves, we often met up with our buddies to play touch football until it was time to come home for dinner. Friday nights would find us in the stands for our local high school cheering our team on, bundled up in sweatshirts and eventually heavier coats.

With the turning of the leaves and cooler weather came trips to farm stands or the Whitehouse Fruit Farm and other places where we could pick apples and get pumpkins to make pies and decorate for Halloween. And then there were the groups who used “haunted houses” to raise money while they attempted to scare the bejeebers out of us!

Autumn was a time for those who labored where it was neither too hot nor too cold. We could be outdoors without working up a sweat or without bundling up. Autumn leaves, though, reminded us of the passage of another year, sometimes the end of a summer romance. It was, and is for me a time of both beauty and wistfulness.

What are your favorite autumn memories?

Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown — Mill Creek Park

May 16, 2014August 27, 2025 / rtrube54 / 9 Comments

First of all, I have to say a big “thank you” to all of you (mostly Youngstowners and former Youngstowners) who viewed and commented on my last post on Growing Up in Working Class Youngstown–Food. Far and away, this has been the most viewed post in my nine month experience of blogging. It has been a delight to share food memories with so many other Youngstowners (and our laments over the lack of good Italian food anywhere else!).

Lake Cohasset (c)Robert C Trube, 2014

Along with food, Mill Creek Park (now MetroPark) has played a huge part in many of our lives growing up. The park grew up along the course of Mill Creek, a scenic stream that flowed into the industrial Mahoning River. It was initially created through the efforts of Youngstown attorney Volney Rogers in 1891. In 1906, Lake Glacier was created by damning the stream at a narrow point. I remember that it was during the 1960s that the Lake Glacier Boat House was built. Lake Newport, added to the park through a land donation in 1924, was dammed in 1928. More recently, the south end has been allowed to revert to a wetlands area. By far, the most beautiful of the lakes in my opinion is Lake Cohasset, the earliest to be created, in 1897. Lanterman’s Mill, the recipient of proceeds from the sales of Recipes of Youngstown, and featured on the book’s cover, was built in 1845-46 and is still in operation and you can purchase freshly ground grain from the mill. (All the factual information for this part of my post comes from Wikipedia.)

The Lily Pond, (c) Robert C Trube, 2014

Located southwest of the industrial belt of steel mills lining the Mahoning River that runs through Youngstown, the park provided a respite from the hard work, noise, and pollution associated with steel-making. Picnic shelters situated throughout the park provided a wonderful place for family gatherings. Taking boats out onto Lakes Glacier or Newport on a summer Sunday afternoon or a baseball game on one of the diamonds at Rocky Ridge (now the James L Wick Recreation Area) or an evening family walk with day old bread to feed the gold fish at the Lily Pond were refreshing breaks from work in the mills or other manufacturing plants.

My life’s journey runs through Mill Creek Park even though we haven’t lived in Youngstown for many years. I treasure walks my dad and I took along the many trails running through the park. I still remember a Saturday morning when we got up early, took a frying pan, bacon and eggs, and made breakfast over an open fire at one of the fire rings in the park. My brother and his wife had wedding photographs taken on the little footbridge near the boat house at Lake Glacier in 1968 (I was best man). Often when I had free time in high school or college, I would be on my bike, riding the roads through the park, sometimes finding a scenic overlook where I might read or write or just think. Fellows Riverside Gardens, a beautiful public garden developed beginning in the 1960s was the site of countless wedding photographs (including ours in 1978) overlooking Lake Glacier and the site of our best friend’s daughter’s wedding just a few years back. In 2001, we celebrated my parents 60th anniversary at the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center. In my fathers last years (he passed in 2012), one of our cherished memories was rides through the park and listening to him revisit his youthful memories.

Lake Glacier from Fellows Riverside Gardens (c) Robert C Trube, 2014

When we were growing up, the park reminded us that life was not all hard work and toil–that there was beauty, and peace, and goodness to life as well. I may not be able to speak to this as well as those who still live in the Youngstown area, but I sense that the renewed efforts to maintain the park in the formation of the MetroPark district represents a symbol of hope that as Youngstown seeks to “re-invent” itself, this city can be a good place not only to work, but to live.