Mill Hollow is one of my favorite places on this planet. Besides its nostalgic appeal to me as the place where my family first learned to tent camp in the 1960s, I also visit it frequently as it's less than ten minutes from where I live in Vermilion. Thus it's no surprise Mill Hollow has been a favorite topic on this blog, with 15 posts featuring the beloved Lorain Country Metro Park.
Sixty years ago, the big news was that the historic (but outdated) bridge in the park over the Vermilion River was going to be replaced, as noted in the article above from the Journal of Thursday, July 16, 1964. Accompanying the article is a map showing the various ways of accessing the park with the bridge closed.
"The birds and the animals at Bacon Woods, Brownhelm, are as lively as ever this week, but it may take a bit of driving to see them," begins the article.
"As of Wednesday, the historic Mill Hollow bridge was closed to traffic. A new bridge is being built.
"A sign at the top of the Mill Hollow switchback hill states: "Road Closed at Bridge."
"Alternate routes have been announced by Lorain County Metropolitan Park officials for driving to the Bacon Woods Reservation from Lorain and Elyria.
"The Mill Hollow hill is still open as far as the bridge. The steep grade can be handled easily by the new brakes, but was a real challenge to jalopies of the 1920's.
"Mill Hollow was a traditional testing ground. If you could negotiate a Model-T Ford around the hairpin curve and up the rough climb you had passed some sort of driving test without benefit of police supervision.
"Parker Miller, ranger superintendent, said the bridge will be closed for about two months. It will require at least 10 days to take the old bridge down.
"Two new concrete pillars are already in position. Others will be erected as soon as the old bridge is removed.
"The new concrete bridge with iron super-structure will be a full two lanes wide as compared with the present lane-and-a-half bridge."
A day after the above article was featured in the Journal, the photo and caption below appeared in the paper on July 17, 1964. It depicts the construction of the supports for the new bridge.
A preview of the unfinished new bridge appeared in the Journal on August 14, 1964.
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I first wrote about the bridge replacement back in May 2019, posting a photo of the historic structure here.
2 comments:
Like you, Dan, I have many happy memories of summer afternoons with my cousins at Mill Hollow, wading in the creek or in winter, sledding down the hill. My mom, having grown up in Vermilion, frequently liked to impress upon us how she had to practice going up and around the hill, with a standard shift car and no power steering, to get her driver’s license - coincidentally today, just got her license renewal in the mail - maybe I better have her drive that hill again! Also, I enjoyed seeing the ad for the Mad, Mad World movie, recalling my dad took me to see it at the Avon Lake theater.
Thanks for leaving the great reminisces about Mill Hollow, Wendy! And I'm with you when it comes to "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World!" I did a whole post about how it's one of my favorite movies too, due to seeing it at the Palace theater In Cleveland with my family when it first came out.
https://danielebrady.blogspot.com/search/label/It’s%20a%20Mad%20Mad%20Mad%20Mad%20World
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