Over the years the power of the Cuyahoga River has shifted from industry to recreation and scenic beauty.
Cuyahoga Falls was founded as an industrial city, taking advantage of the Cuyahoga River power. The Cuyahoga River falls here descended over 200 feet in 2 miles, and the river below the falls was navigable north to Lake Erie. Francis Kelsey and Isaac Wilcox built a grist mill near Front Street and Bailey Road in 1809, and in 1812 a dam across the Cuyahoga for a sawmill. Within a short time, additional dams were constructed to power industry. In 1825, Wetmore’s son William constructed a dam near Stow Avenue, just north of the Portage Trail bridge, “flooding the Kelsey and Wilcox dam [to the north] and shifting the growth of the village south”. Wetmore Jr. used the dam to power mills that processed and produced lumber, grain and linseed oil. By the 1830s, the town consisted of two small paper mills, a flour mill, two sawmills, a pump-making establishment, a tilt-hammer, axe and scythe factory, a woolen mill, a chair factory, a lumber-finishing mill, a furnace and foundry plant, and an engineering and machine shop.
In 1837, three dams exploited the power of the river for industry; four decades later by the 1870s, five dams had been created within a quarter of a mile of each other, creating an estimated 3,460 units of horsepower.
In 1913, a devastating flood severely damaged the dams and the vicinity, including the resort area (High Bridge Glens and caves park). Four dams were rebuilt by 1915.
Eventually, other sources of power replaced that of water power, and the industries did not necessarily need to locate near the river. However, the river continued to be the core of the commercial and industrial development of the city. Recently, two of the last remaining dams were removed.
(Information from “Design Guidelines for the Cuyahoga Falls Downtown Historic District”, 2017, by Chambers, Murphy & Burge Historical Architecture | A Studio of Perspectus Architecture)
The coordinates are near the starting point for the scenic boardwalk along the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cuyahoga Falls under the Portage Trail bridge. The coordinates are at the site of historic ruins of the Falls Hollow Staybolt company. If you are able, post a picture of yourself or your GPS under the Arch. Be aware that the city occasionally closes the boardwalk when snow and ice make the pathway dangerous and a portion is closed now for repairs. As always – slippery when wet!
To log this cache, get information from the plaques at the posted coordinates and answer the following questions:
1. When was the machine shop of Turner, Vaughn and Taylor built?
2. What did Henry Wetmore produce in December, 1830?
3. When was the Vaughn dam removed?
The Boardwalk Hike at High Bridge Glens and the Prospect Street observation bridge are also not to be missed! See additional waypoints for boardwalk access points and grab the nearby caches! Downtown Cuyahoga Falls has been transformed over the years! It is packed with great restaurants, shopping and breweries. Save time for exploring while grabbing the caches! There is plenty of parking at all of the sites and please no pictures of the plaques! Logs with pictures of the plaques will be deleted.
Congratulations to markymark66 and MommajenRN for FTF!
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.