In 1879, local hardware store owners L.W. Loomis and H.E. Parks established a summer resort at Front Street and Prospect Avenue. The High Bridge Glens and Caves park spanned both sides of the Cuyahoga River and featured a dance and dining pavilion, scenic trails and overlooks, cascades and waterfalls, deep caverns, curious geological formations, and a suspension footbridge. The park also offered several man-made attractions, including what is believed to have been one of the earliest roller coasters in the area. At the height of its popularity, the park attracted more than 8,000 visitors a day, including Congressman (later president of the United States) William McKinley.
The park closed in the early 1900s, and in the years that followed, manufacturing sites were constructed along the banks of the Cuyahoga River to harness its power, whereby blocking public access to the river. The rededication of the High Bridge Glens Park by Mayor Don L. Robart in 2009, the Year of the River, celebrates the return of this important asset to its people. Named one of only fourteen National Heritage Rivers, the Cuyahoga River is uniquely shaped in that it flows both north and south beginning just fifteen miles from Lake Erie where it empties after the 100-mile journey.
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