Another Walk in the Park

Last week I wrote that since my local recreation center is closed due to the pandemic, I got some exercise by taking a long walk in the Cleveland Metroparks.  Last Friday I hiked a section of the Rocky River Reservation.  Just to the south of that is another reservation which forms another gem in the "Emerald Necklace" that encircles Cleveland.  On Monday I went to the Mill Stream Reservation for another walk in the park.

The Mill Stream Run Reservation, which continues to follow the course of the Rocky River, passes through the Cleveland suburbs of Berea, Middleburg Heights and Strongsville.  It is also a very short drive from my home.  I parked my car at the northern end of Baldwin Lake.  There is a small, man-made waterfall where a dam had been built.

Baldwin Lake was originally a stone quarry.  There is not much left of the lake as it has over the years filled in with sediments where grasses and reeds now grow.  But I can remember open lake here when I was a boy.

Across the road from Baldwin Lake is Wallace Lake.  This lake has not filled in.  At one end of the lake is an area where swimming is allowed in the summer.

Wallace Lake was also a stone quarry.  The town of Berea was once the center of an important sandstone quarrying industry.  The stone underlying this area is some of the best quality sandstone in the world.  Berea sandstone was used for making grindstones and for construction.  In the late 1800s, 93% of the grindstones in the world came from Berea, and buildings all over the world, including the Canadian Parliament, were built from Berea sandstone.  Four hundred tons of stone were shipped from here every day.  The quarries employed more than 500 men, including my great-great grandfather, who came here from Switzerland.  By 1934. because of diminishing demand, the last of the Berea quarries was closed.  In 1937 the Cleveland Metroparks purchased the property encompassing Baldwin and Wallace Lakes.

Canadian geese by Wallace Lake.

I continued along the reservation's all-purpose trail through the neighboring suburbs of Middleburg Height and Strongsville.  In a couple of months this will be the leafy, green forest that gives the park system its nickname of the "Emerald Necklace"

In Strongsville I came to this this covered bridge.  It was built in 1983, but it is in the style of the covered bridges that were popular in many parts of the U.S. in the nineteenth century.

This humorous sign on the bridge is something that you might have seen back in the 1800s.

"Five dollars fine for driving more than twelve horses, mules, or cattle at any one time or for leading any beast faster than a walk on or across this bridge."

At that point I turned back.  I could have gone farther, but the skies were growing cloudy, and I did not want to be caught in the rain.  I returned to my car after a round-trip walk of around four miles.