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MAINSTEM:
The Mainstem of the Black River begins at the confluence between the east and west branches of the Black River in downtown Elyria. Spanning 15.3 miles in length before pouring into Lake Erie in downtown Lorain, the mainstem is a short yet important stretch of the Black River. Many of the earlier clean-up efforts of the Black River have focused on industrial point sources and sewage treatment systems along the mainstem.  Significant improvements have been achieved. However, several stretches of the mainstem still possess poor environmental quality, due in large part to pollution and sediment loading from the 95 miles of river between the east and west branches south of Elyria. The more recent activity of the Black River Remedial Action Plan has concerned addressing the “nonpoint source” pollution that culminates in the mainstem of the river.
The mainstem possesses a great number of significant sites for our virtual tour. The mainstem includes the majority of the population of Lorain County, with Lorain and Elyria as two major urban centers. Most industrial development in the county has concentrated in this area as well, with Lorain providing a major economic center for Great Lakes commerce. Our tour of the mainstem features a mix of sites that are significant for historical reasons or because of current contributions to the cleanup of the Black River. From the lighthouse and steel mills of Lorain, such natural features as fisheries and heron rookeries, to archeological sites along the Black River and French Creek, to the water treatment plant and historical Cascade Park in Elyria, our trip along the mainstem features a diverse collection of sites.
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LIGHTHOUSE
Lighthouses in Lorain were first built in 1859. Due to heavy water traffic feeding steel and shipbuilding industries, the current lighthouse, the largest of three, was constructed in 1917. Standing three stories high, concrete and steel make up the foundation and the 10.5-inch thick walls. This manned lighthouse, uncommon today, was built to appear like a residence while being sturdy enough to withstand the often-harsh Lake Erie weather.
In the raised basement a water pump, oil tanks, and paint locker supported the lighthouse operation. An engine room containing many of the necessary lighthouse components resided on the first floor. The living quarter, consisting of a bedroom, recreation room, and office, made up the second floor. Finally the third floor houses a fresh water tank, an equipment storage area, and the foghorn mechanism. The 50,000-candle power light rests 58 feet above Lake Erie at the top of the building. The U.S. Coast Guard maintained a lighthouse keeper who operated the lighthouse until 1966 when an automated light system was installed.
The original light mechanism was based on a holophotal lens, often called a Fresnel lens, which is a large glass mirrored cylinder that refracts light in one direction. This lens was replaced in 1966 with the automated light. In 1978 the lighthouse was due to be destroyed but, because of the outcry of local citizens, the lighthouse was designated a National Historic Place and stands proudly today as a reminder of the history of Lorain industry.
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STEEL MILLS
The presence of the steel industry has shaped the history of Lorain, impacting the community, the city, and its local environment in significant ways. Thomas Johnson originally introduced steel to Lorain in 1894. At the age of 22, Johnson owned the entire Indianapolis Street Car Railway System. A few years later he gained control of the Cleveland Street Railroad System. In the mid-1880s he decided to form his own steel company to provide material for his railways. The Johnson Steel Street Railway Company was originally established in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Five years later, Johnson moved the company to Lorain, where Lake Erie, the Black River, and an accessible railroad system offered access to the ore, coal, coke, and limestone needed for steel processing. Many acres of forest were cleared to make room for the construction of the steel mill and supporting offices. The City of Lorain straightened the river channel and began the ongoing tradition of dredging the Black River to allow for passage of large ore boats.
The total river frontage of the Johnson holdings at the river’s mouth covered over six miles, including three-and-a-half miles of navigable water. The present site of Oakwood Park, as well as several hundred acres of land south of 36th Street, was included in the original tract of land owned by the company. The company owned 200 acres of property and a significant amount of land 45 feet above the floodplains of the river. A compact shale layer beneath four to seven feet of firm clay soil provided an ideal foundation for the construction of the plant.
Land for the mill was cleared in May of 1894. After a year of construction, twenty buildings were built, including power and boiler house facilities, a 38-inch blooming mill, and a rail mill. Air was first blown into the blast furnaces in 1895. Six barges took the first shipment of steel to New York City that year via the Erie Canal. Only three years later, the company was refinanced and its name was changed to Lorain Steel Company. As a result of this financing, the mill doubled in size and three million dollars went into the construction of furnaces and coke ovens.
The arrival of steel in Lorain enabled the city to pull itself from the depression of the 1890’s that plagued much of the country. Lorain historian, William G. Wickens, told the Black River Journal that the steel mill provided the real foundation for this dynamic city. “‘It was just like a story out of the West when a town would mushroom overnight and turn into a city,’ he said. "It had been a little, sleepy boardwalk town with a hitching post, and there’s no doubt that it was the Black River that brought the steel mill."” The presence of the mill allowed Lorain to become a major city and a destination for people in search of employment. The mill, upon opening, immediately employed 1,200 men who moved to Lorain from all over the northern United States. The mill opened the door to further development in Lorain. The steel mill bought many acres of land surrounding the plant, south of the Black River. Because it was on the south side of the river, this area was referred to as South Lorain and provided housing for incoming steel workers and their families.
In 1901, Johnson Steel became part of the U.S. Steel Corporation, consolidating several of the steel companies from across the nation into one major corporation. The National Tube Company became a subsidiary of the newly formed corporation. The tube mills were built on the east side of the property, with construction beginning in 1903. The first pipe was constructed in 1905, and the mills were completed a year later. An important advance occurred in 1909 when open-hearth furnaces were added to the plant. This new process made it possible to produce a better grade of steel than the Bessemer process did. On July 1, 1989, following two years of negotiations, U.S. Steel merged with the Japan-based KOBE steel to become USS/KOBE steel. In 1999, yet another corporate merger occurred. The pipe mills became Lorain Tubular Company, a subsidiary of U.S. Steel. Republic Technologies International purchased the remainder of the mill.
The production of steel has had a major impact on environmental quality in the area around Lorain. The environmental effects of steel production was a major factor in the International Joint Commission’s listing of the Black River as one of forty-three Areas of Concern in 1987 for pollution in the Great Lakes basin. The earliest effort to reduce environmental pollution by the steel industry occurred in 1971 when the National Tube Company invested $120 million to install two bar mills and a Basic Oxygen Process furnace. Founded at the turn of the century, the mill now produces about 2,000,000 tons of steel each year. The furnace, which blasts pure oxygen into the molten mix, raises productive efficiency while reducing air pollution through more complete combustion. As a result of National Tube’s upgrade, twelve open hearths and the last of the Bessemer furnaces were removed. These old furnaces polluted Lorain’s air with a thick plume of orange smoke. Their installation of the new furnace helped to lift the orange tint that would collect in the area above Lake Erie, obscuring views and filling the air with particulate matter. Additional equipment upgrades further cut water and air emissions during the process of making bar steel for the automobile industry. These equipment upgrades greatly reduced the impacts of steel production on the local environment. Since the 1960’s, the time environmental concerns began to surface, the steel industry has reduced water and air emissions by 90%.
In 1983, the Black River and the steel plant received negative attention when fish consumption advisory was issued for the five miles of the river south of Lake Erie. The fish, particularly brown bullhead catfish, experienced high incidences of cancerous tumors as a result of exposure to high concentrations of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH’s) in river sediment. Tumors and deformities in fish continued to plague the Black River mainstem through 1994. USS/KOBE Steel closed its coking facility in 1983, eliminating the primary source of this pollution. Despite this, tumor rates did not decline until after 1990 when the river bottom was dredged and toxic contaminants were contained in a hazardous waste landfill installed on-site. While PAH’s have been reduced, high levels of PCB’s, mostly from other industries, remain a major problem. PCB’s particularly affect wildlife that consumes fish, mussels, or other bottom feeders. The water quality around the steel plant has improved significantly, causing the ban on fish consumption to be changed to an advisory to restrict brown bullhead, freshwater drum, and carp consumption.
In 1998, as an acknowledgement of their progress in improving environmental quality through pollution prevention and waste reduction, USS/KOBE steel received an award from the Ohio Environmental Council. Their efforts, detailed below, included improvements in energy use, spent acids, solid waste, oils and lubricants, and volatile organic compounds.
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AMERICAN SHIPYARD BROWNFIELD
The steel plants in Lorain provided the raw materials for a variety of other manufacturing industries in the area. Given the high cost of transporting steel over long distances, industries realized benefits to locating in proximity to the plant. While wooden vessels were constructed as early as 1819, the first ships to utilize steel came at the end of the 19th century. The Cleveland Shipbuilding Company built a plant on the east side of the Black River in 1897 and immediately began the construction of Superior City, the first steel ship to be built in the Great Lakes region. With an ore cargo capacity of 7,000 tons, the 450-foot ship was the largest on the Great Lakes at that time. Specifically designed for the ore trade, Superior cost its owner, Zenith Transit Company of Duluth, $255,000. Unfortunately, Superior’s days ended in 1920 when it sank in Lake Erie, killing twenty-nine people.
The Lorain shipping industry boomed with the formation of the American Shipbuilding Company (AmShip), a consolidation of the Cleveland Co. with the smaller ship building companies in Lorain. AmShip led the industry in design and construction for almost a century between 1899 and 1983. It constructed thirty giant steel vessels, ranging from 252 to 500 feet long, in just the first four years of its existence. In 1906, AmShip added another twenty-three acres to the twenty acres of land it already owned and constructed the largest dry-dock on fresh water in the world at that time.
AmShip was especially valuable to the United States during times of war. It was given a $50-million order from the United States to construct an emergency fleet in 1918 and built both minesweepers and net tenders for the United States Navy during World War II, as well as the usual freighters and commercial boats. Two important events linked to the war occurred in 1944. Ernest J. King, a resident of Lorain, achieved the Navy’s highest rank when he was named Admiral of the Fleet and took command of naval operations during World War II. It was also the year that the U.S.S. Lorain, an anti-submarine and escort vessel in the Atlantic Ocean, was constructed by AmShip at the request of the Navy. The ship, launched in 1944, was presented to France three years later to join the French fleet.
One of the most noteworthy vessels, created in 1950 by AmShip, was the Wilfred Sykes, not only the largest Great Lakes freighter, but also the fastest. Spanning 670 feet in length with a 70-foot beam, the freighter was capable of hauling 20,000 tons of ore to be used by the Inland Steel Company. AmShip also produced the first American vessel steamer, the E.G. Grace, to haul iron ore from Labrador to the lower Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway. The vessel carried 15,300 tons of ore from Seven Island, Labrador to Ashtabula for delivery to the Youngstown Sheet and Tube steel mills in June of 1959.
Only a year after this accomplishment, AmShip began an era of lengthening existing ships into super ships. One such tanker, the 483-foot Chiwawa, was lengthened to 716 feet, transforming it into an ore carrier with a new name, the Walter Sterling. One of AmShip’s final achievements was the James R. Banks, the first 1,000-foot ship built on the Great Lakes, which was launched in 1976. Only two years later, AmShip suffered the longest strike in its history. The strike lasted for ten months, but the company did not budge to the demands of the workers. They almost received a contract for a $300 million Navy tanker that might have saved them in 1983, but the project ended up being assigned to the company’s shipyard in Tampa, Florida. AmShip closed its yards in December of 1983, ending one of the region’s first and most prosperous industries.
The American Shipyard Company was a significant part of Lorain’s historical manufacturing base. However, like much of Northern Ohio’s manufacturing base, the shipyard became an abandoned redevelopment industrial site. Today, the redevelopment of the shipyard is helping to return new life to downtown Lorain. A local developer purchased the American Shipyard Company grounds in 1985 and is in the process of putting together a $100 million Harbor Walk, which includes a 415-unit housing complex on the east bank of the Black River, across from the Grove site. The site will also feature a marina with 315 slips and a restaurant.
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HERON ROOKERY
The Great Blue Heron is a bird frequently encountered in waterways and wetlands in the Black River Watershed. The heron is a lean, gray bird standing about four feet in height. It features long legs, a long neck and dagger-like bill. The heron, when in flight, folds its neck and sweeps its legs behind its tail feathers.
Since the 1980’s, the number of active blue heron nesting sites along the mainstem of the Black River has been increasing. Typical heron rookeries in the watershed have 5-20 nests. These sites grow slowly in size and then become abandoned. In the early 1990’s, a major rookery was identified on the property of the then USS/KOBE steel company along the mainstem of the Black River. Increased sightings of herons have been reported in places where nesting and foraging does not typically take place (such as urban settings or industrial sites). Nonetheless, the location of a heron rookery on the steel plant property indicates improvements in water quality conditions. Herons require sizable fish populations to support their feeding habits.
In addition to herons, several Great Egrets have also been observed. Similar to the heron in stature and physique, these large, white-feathered birds feature straight yellow beaks and black legs and feet. When feeding, egrets assume an eager, forward-leaning pose. USS/KOBE has been providing annual updates on Blue Heron rookery populations in the vicinity of its facility along the Black River mainstem.
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FRENCH CREEK
As with most heavily urbanized area, the land surrounding the mainstem of the Black River and its tributaries is covered with residential developments, streets and roads, commercial and industrial sites, and urban parks.  However, below the surface of these developments lingers evidence of more ancient civilizations that occupied this area over the last several thousand years. Two important archaeological sites, the Eiden site and Burrell Fort, are located in the northeastern section of the Black River Watershed within Sheffield Township in the French Creek Reservation. Eiden is situated southwest of the junction of state highway 611 and East River Road on a bluff overlooking French Creek. Burrell Fort is located almost directly across the Black River from the Eiden site on a promontory forty-five feet above the bed of French Creek. The sites are located two miles south of the Lake Erie shoreline near the confluence of the Black River and French Creek.
The ceramics and tools found at both Eiden and Burrell Fort indicate that these sites were part of the Sandusky Tradition, including tribes that occupied the area as recently as 400 years ago. Eiden represents the eastern boundary of the Sandusky Tradition although it is possible that additional sites further east lie undiscovered. Inhabitants of the Sandusky Tradition left northeastern Ohio, possibly migrating to Wisconsin or the Ohio River Valley to erect new villages. Archaeologists are not sure why inhabitants left either Eiden or Burrell Fort though, because Europeans did not settle northeastern Ohio until the late 1700’s. Regardless of these unanswered questions, the artifacts in both the Eiden and Burrell Fort sites offer significant clues to the lives of the earlier inhabitants.
At about 620 feet above sea level, the Eiden site sits on a 36-foot bluff on a nearly flat lake plain formed by Lake Erie when it was at a higher level. Excavations of the site covered about one acre, approximately 1/5 of the total 5.5-acre site. Charcoal samples collected by anthropologists date occupation to about 1490. During this time, vegetation surrounding the site included an elm-ash swamp forest following the Black River and the lower course of French Creek. Mixed mesophytic forest extended in a band to the south and mixed oak forests extended north to the shores of Lake Erie. The opossum, raccoon, weasel, mink, fox, coyote, woodchuck, squirrel, beaver, white-tail deer, bear, wolf, elk, water birds, fish, and mollusk were all present in northeastern Ohio at the time of Late Woodland settlements. The animals provided food, clothes, and bones for decorations and tools used by the inhabitants of Eiden.
Location and surface geology help to determine the optimal sites for settlement. Located on a bluff not visible from the creek, the Eiden village site provided good protection. The village was established on a beach ridge deposit on the top of a steep bluff. Shale cliffs rise up from the creek to meet the clay-like soil of the site itself. A small ravine to the west of Eiden allowed the villagers easy access to the creek’s natural resources.
Burrell Fort is a smaller site than Eiden. This type of site is typically referred to as a hilltop fort because of its location on a promontory, as well as the presence of strategically placed trenches to defend against attackers. It may have also been used as a village for a short time. It is also conceivable that this unique hilltop fort functioned as a ritual enclosure where ceremonies took place. The cliffs stretching between the site and French Creek also consist of shale. Presumably, the site was named after R. Burrell, Esq. who was at one time the owner of the land where the site is located. The first description and map of Burrell Fort came from Charles Whittlesey, a prominent figure in the early history of Lorain County. The Baldwin brothers, David C. and Charles Candee Baldwin, first excavated the site during the 1870’s. Parts of their records are on file at the Western Reserve Historical Society Museum in Cleveland under the title of the Baldwin Collection. Following their work at the site, Emerson Greenman, Curator of Archaeology for the Ohio Historical Society, spent several days conducting test excavations in 1929. Records of his work are on file at the Ohio State Museum in Columbus.
Orrin C. Shane III undertook a more thorough excavation in 1966 in connection with the Lorain County Metropolitan Park District. He wrote a detailed analysis of his findings in his thesis, titled "The Leimbach Phase and its Position," for the Case Western Institute of Technology. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History conducted the most recent excavations of the site during the 1970’s. Unfortunately, the quality of artifacts at the Burrell Fort site has been disrupted by careless neglect over the years. Burrell Fort has been the site of intense vandalism. Numerous people have dug holes there trying to find artifacts, giving it a cratered appearance. From 1816 until the 1930’s the sight was also cultivated by farmers adding even more damage. The French Creek Reservation has taken measures to disguise the entrance to the fort to deter further disturbance.
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WHITE FORT
Further south of the French Creek sites is the White Fort site, investigated recently by the Cleveland Natural History Museum.  The archaeological significance of the White Fort site was first realized in 1844, about 450 years after its original inhabitation. Based on 19th-century accounts, Dr. Brian Redmond, Curator of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, decided to run a series of test excavations to answer questions about the site in 1995. He located White Fort after taking a small group of people to look for it in a little used portion of the Lorain County Metropolitan Park District in March of 1995. After spotting a low bank of earth with a shallow ditch along one side, he knew he had found its location. The exact area of the site, now well documented, lies about 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) upriver from Lake Erie on a flat, sandy bluff 89 feet above the west bank of the Black River. It is on land owned by the Lorain County Metropolitan Park District in the Black River Reservation, just north of Elyria.
Overlooking the Black River, White Fort sits on a bluff that is a remnant of the 13,000-year-old glacial Lake Warren beach ridge. The fort is named after Robert White who owned the farmstead that contained the site. Because inhabitants of the site left before European contact was established, archaeologists cannot give White Fort’s inhabitants a historic name. They also have no way of knowing what language was spoken among the villagers.
Geology was an important consideration for late pre-historic village inhabitants. The sandy soils at the White Fort site provided good drainage and easy excavation for pits. Villagers also looked for more secluded sites not easily visible to other Indians in the area. White Fort was almost imperceptible to canoes floating down the Black River. Another important natural feature of White Fort was two natural springs located at the edge of the sand on the bluff where the steep shale banks rise to meet the sandy top. The site’s inhabitants used these natural water sources instead of climbing down the cliff to reach the Black River. The mounds were located near the springs before they were plowed down.
Plant samples gathered from the site provide a glimpse of the original forest ecology of the area. Dr. Frances B. King (Research Associate, CMNH Department of Archaeology), identified the following preserved plant remains from the 1996 excavations: oak and hickory with smaller amounts of pine, maple, and ash. Her findings, as well as other sources (Ives 1947:28-29), indicate that the native forest along the ridge was dominated by oak, hickory, chestnut, and tulip as well as some black ash, elm and soft maple present in lower, poorly drained areas. White Fort’s inhabitants ate nuts from these natural sources to supplement their dietary needs. Nutshell remains of shagbark hickory, black walnut, and acorn were present at the site along with strawberry, blackberry/raspberry, and grape seeds. There is also evidence that the inhabitants of White Fort cultivated tobacco, beans, squash, a domesticated variety of chenopod (Chenopodium berlandieri), sunflowers, and maize.
The inhabitants needed a large area to set up their village so they cleared out the trees with stone axes called celts. To clear small garden plots on the outskirts of the site, they likely used the slash and burn (swidden) method to cut small plots in the forest. They also burned the undergrowth to make room for crops grown on these small plots. Today, the site is covered by abandoned farmland surrounded by cornfields. What forest does remain consists of the same tree species observed by White Fort’s early inhabitants. Of course the forests observed today are less dense and less mature than the forests encountered in these pre-historic times.
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CASCADE PARK
As the “crown jewel” of Lorain County, Cascade Park provides a unique feature of downtown Elyria. More than a typical, manicured urban park, Cascade Park contains a rich natural history and social legacy. Cascade Park sits on the confluence of the east and west branches of the Black River. Amid the sandstone outcroppings, shale cliffs, and towering waterfalls lingers a historical convergence between Native American and European cultures. This natural and historical legacy can provide the foundation for a re-kindling of civic pride and regional identity. At a time when city parks often mean more ball fields and grass, Cascade Park is uniquely positioned to provide an area that inspires awe in the natural wonder of the Black River watershed.
Rivers, like the Black, often fostered early inland settlements by providing food and transportation. Since it is geography and geology that dictate the paths of rivers, the real history of Elyria begins tens of thousands of years ago. The beautiful waterfalls and rock cliffs in Cascade Park today are the result of a relationship between the materials on the Earth’s surface and the power of running water. This ongoing relationship has persisted ever since the water level of Lake Erie dropped below the elevation of Elyria. A little less then 13,000 years ago, Main Street in downtown Elyria was lakeshore property and Cascade Park was submerged beneath the waters of one of the ancient lakes that preceded Lake Erie. Over the next one thousand years, the lake dropped to the elevation of North Ridge Road, north of the present day confluence of the east and west Branches of the Black River. During this time, Niagara Falls remained covered by a glacial ice sheet thousands of feet thick. When the “honeymoon capitol” was finally freed from its icy tomb over 5,000 years ago, the Black River had already been sculpting Cascade Park for thousands of years.
The Black River’s confluence is a masterpiece in progress. In the past 13,000 years, the river has carved its way down through the soft glacial till and found routes through the solid bedrock of sandstone and shale below. The rock layer that dominates Cascade Park’s trails and waterfalls is the famous Berea sandstone that is used as a building material throughout the region. Builders prefer sandstone because of its aesthetic appeal and its resistance to the elements. The Berea sandstone is the gray-to-buff-colored stone over which the west branch waterfall tumbles. The sandy sediment that comprises the sandstone was deposited during the Mississippian period, between 320-345 million years ago. During this era, Ohio was covered by a shallow inland sea. Much of northern Ohio provided a near-shore environment where large amounts of sand were sorted by this ancient sea’s waves. Some of the wave ripples from this Mississippian sea can be detected on the faces of Berea sandstone formations throughout the park.
Berea sandstone dissolves at a rate that is fairly insignificant on a human time scale.  The sand grains in sandstone are much larger than clay particles, allowing water to slowly filter through the stone. Most water moves through tiny cracks in the rock’s structure. Grain by grain, the stone is either slowly washed away by force or carried away by dissolution. It takes decades for noticeable change from this carving process, but the features created by water running over sandstone are not invisible. For example, rounded pits are visible in the streambed that forms the base of the west branch waterfalls. Rough edges on boulders in the stream channel have been smoothed through the passage of water. Plants and moss also hasten the erosion process, breaking apart the stone as roots feed on water contained in the cracks. On the underside of caves in Cascade Park, water trickles through from cracks above, allowing organisms to thrive.
A second common bedrock feature in Cascade Park is Bedford shale. This brittle shale carries a reddish tint and lies underneath the sandstone layer. The particles that comprise this shale were deposited before the Berea sandstone during the shallow Mississippian sea. Shale is made of ancient clays and mud, which collected in a quiet aquatic environment. The mud and clay particles accumulated as a result of the erosion of the ancestral Appalachian Mountains. Flowing water in ancient Appalachian streams carried these smaller particles to the sea, where waves further sorted the small materials, collecting on the sea bottom in large areas. Over 300 million years, the weight of other sediment layers and glaciers compressed the shale and sandstone, forming the rock formations visible today.
Because of the composition of the material, the erosion patterns of the soft Bedford shale contrast with the overlying Berea sandstone. Unlike sandstone, shale is less permeable, which means that water flows over the surface of the rock without penetrating the layer’s matrix. The softness of the rock allows moving water to easily cut into it from the side and remove small platy pieces of the shale. The steep shale cliffs that characterize the northern portion of the Black River resulted from a process of quick erosion; water in a channel undercuts the shale banks and the overhanging cliff eventually succumbs to gravity and collapses.
The Berea sandstone and the Bedford shale are the only two types of bedrock found in Cascade Park. A fifty-foot thick surface deposit of glacial till blankets the bedrock. This till layer consists of a loosely packed assortment of rock, including compressed organic matter, clay, sand, and occasional boulders, left behind by glaciers. The till layer washes away quickly with surface runoff, especially when vegetation has been removed from the surface. The till layer which covers much of northern Ohio accumulated after the final retreat of the Wisconsian glaciers between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago. In Cascade Park, the Black River reveals this history, having carved a deep channel that exposes 300 million years of geological history.
In addition to its rich geological history, Cascade Park is believed to be the location of the first interaction in the watershed between Europeans and Native Americans. In 1754 James Smith entered a small Wyandot settlement near the confluence of the east and west branches of the Black River. A band of Wyandots took Smith into captivity. Smith was initiated into the tribe and spent four years with the Wyandots, traveling upstream in a birch bark canoe, hunting and fishing to prepare for the long Northern Ohio winters. Smith’s captivity ended in 1759 when he was exchanged for Indian captives.
Elyria, the county seat for Lorain County, was established near Cascade Park in 1816. Herman Ely arrived from Massachusetts to the present location of Elyria. At the time, the watershed, like much of northern Ohio, was a part of the Western Reserve, an extension of the state of Connecticut. Ely owned a large portion of this Western Reserve land. He established a small settlement in the forest above the East Branch Waterfall, chosen because of the potential economic value of the falls. After establishing a boarding house, a gristmill, and dams, the settlement grew into present day Elyria. The seeds of commerce were sown early in Elyria with the establishment of Red Mill, which provided meal and flour for settlements around the area. The mill’s life was short-lived, however. In 1832, following an exceptionally heavy rainfall, a flood destroyed the mill beneath the falls. The remains of the foundation of the mill are still visible today.
Like Lorain, present-day efforts in Elyria are focusing on revitalizing the downtown core. Plagued by boarded-up shop windows and abandoned housing, there is a lot of potential to restore Elyria as a vibrant economic and residential center for the county. Much of the focus of revitalization lies around improving Cascade Park and utilizing its charm as a rich natural treasure within a heavily urbanized area.
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NATIVE PRARIE
Downstream from Cascade Park and north of downtown Elyria lays the Black River Reservation. This reservation features a unique mix of habitats and natural formations, including shale cliffs, wetlands, and a footbridge that connects one bank of the Black River to the same bank around a tall shale bluff (the longest footbridge in the United States to connect two points on the same embankment). Perhaps one of the most unique and easily missed features of the reservation is a prairie fragment about a ¼ mile in from the Day’s Dam entrance.
While dominant in the central United States, prairies and grasslands are rare ecosystems in the Black River Watershed. Historically, the watershed consisted primarily of mixed forests, including beech-maple and elm-ash forested swamps. The prairie in the Black River Reservation is not native, as the area had been cleared of trees in the recent past. When the reservation was acquired by the Lorain County Metroparks in the early 1990’s, biologists quickly identified the unique assembly of plant species in the meadow and decided to preserve it as a unique natural feature in the park. Prairies and grasslands are most frequently encountered today in old farm fields that have recently been abandoned. These fields quickly become dominated by opportunistic annual plants that take over the area and, through their rapid production, begin to restore the topsoil on the site. Left alone, these fields would eventually become forested.
To maintain a grassland or prairie environment requires active management. The Metroparks mow the prairie at least once yearly, preventing woody plants and exotic invasive plants, such as buckthorne or multiflora rose, from becoming established. The prairie is also burned every several years, a practice that clears grasses and produces an ash which helps to fertilize the soil and accelerate future growth.
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