Did your family ever make the drive out to Castalia to see the
Blue Hole? I'm guessing every Baby Boomer and their family saw it at least once in their lives, before it closed in 1990. Since then, a couple generations have grown up who never saw it, much less heard of it. It was just a nice, peaceful place to visit on a Sunday afternoon.
But while the Blue Hole will always seem linked to the 1960s to me, since that's when my family first visited it, it's easy to forget that it was popular for a long, long time. Here's a sample of clippings and ads from over the years, culled from the pages of the Lorain Journal. I've inserted a few vintage postcards here and there too where appropriate.
Here's a mention in the society column of a visit by a Lorain couple and their out-of-state guests from the Sept. 9, 1924 edition.
This article from the June 11, 1925 includes an interview with Andrew Englert, angler and forester, "the only man in Castalia who really knows the true history of the hole." His version of the story of the Blue Hole dates from 1875. The article notes that it is a "two-hour ride by motor car or trolley from Lorain to quiet little village of Castalia."
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| Circa 1926 |
Here are a few clippings from 1930.
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| Feb. 8, 1930 |
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| July 2, 1930 |
This two-part article from July 13, 1932 provides a nice history of the Blue Hole, and claims that it was discovered in 1760 by a man named Robert Rogers.
This article from May 21, 1934 notes that the Blue Hole was being illuminated at night, and that a new entrance had been constructed.
This clipping from April 4, 1940 reminds us that kids liked to toss pennies into the Blue Hole.
In the 1950s, advertisements for the Blue Hole began to appear in the
Lorain Journal.
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| July 29, 1953 |
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| Aug. 12, 1959 |
