Those Cascade Park Bears – October 16, 1968

Back in early August, I featured some vintage articles about Cascade Park that included one (courtesy of Rick Kurish) about how the park’s beloved bears managed to survive the notorious July 4, 1969 flooding.

Since the time of that post, I found another article about the three bears. This one ran in the Lorain Journal on October 16, 1968 – 50 years ago today – and speculates about the future of Grandma, Gracie and Sophie.

At that time, it was unclear as to whether Elyria was going to be able to keep the bears due to insufficient city funds.

The grass-roots campaign to save the bears also included the goal of enlarging the bears’ den.

The article explains that Grandma “has been in the park for more than 20 years.

“The old bear was born in the den under the big ledge and is the last known descendant of the original pair of bears brought to the city.

“Gracie, who was born in 1957, might possibly be the daughter of Grandma.

“Sophie, who is not as gentle as the other two bears, was given to the city by a hunter who brought the cub back from a hunting trip in 1957.”

Cascade Park in the News Through the Years

Cascade Park re-opened a few days ago (you can the read the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram coverage of it here), so it's not a bad time for this post. 

It includes a couple of newspaper articles about Cascade Park through the years, courtesy of longtime blog contributor Rick Kurish.

The first article dates back to 1901. Rick wrote, "The other day I ran across an article in the Elyria Reporter Newspaper of July 17, 1901 describing some of the park improvements being made at that time – 117 years ago. 

"The wildest improvement at that time was a cable foot bridge to cross the west branch of the river. I had seen old postcards of this bridge, and it looked rather dangerous. The attached article describes the bridge as being 161 feet long, 4 feet wide, and suspended about 40 to 50 feet over the water.

Here's a vintage postcard of that cable bridge. It looks like it was designed for thrill seekers!

And here is that 1901 article (below) from when the cable bridge was new.

Rick noted that another bridge had already been built in the park. He observed, "For the more faint of heart, a stone footbridge was also constructed across the west branch of the river."

And here is a vintage postcard of that bridge, courtesy of Rick.

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A much older newspaper article about land that became part of Cascade Park captured Rick’s interest.

Rick wrote, "Imagine my dismay, when the other day I came across a notice in the Ohio Atlas and Elyria Advertiser of July 19, 1843 that basically advertised for sale the west falls and what would later become the core of Cascade Park as a site for a dam, and erecting buildings for machinery and manufacturing purposes!" 

Here is the article. 

"I know that at about this time there was some industry at the site of the east falls, and a sandstone quarry operated for a time in the park,” noted Rick, “But I'm thankful that the area was spared worse desecration. Imagine the confluence area of the two branches of the river with a 15 foot high dam blocking the river!”

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The most recent article Rick found – and probably the most timely – involved Cascade’s popular bears.

Rick wrote,"While reading a recent article on the new playground that recently opened at Cascade Park, I found it interesting that the park included the image of a bear on a piece of playground equipment. It was a neat way to pay homage to the series of bears that called Cascade Park home for many years. 

"As a kid in the 1950s no visit to Cascade Park was complete without a visit to the bear den and some climbing among the rocks — after we had spent time at the playground of course. The bears are no longer kept at the park, which is just as well as the enclosure was much too small for their needs. Still they added to the sense of “wildness” along with the rocks and waterfalls.

"I am sending you a brief article on the bears which appeared in the Chronicle-Telegram of February 11, 1952, which undoubtedly featured the bears I visited as a kid in the 1950s. I’m sure many of your readers have similar memories about the bears.”

Here’s Rick’s article. 

As a follow-up, Rick brought up the well-known story of the bears and the infamous July 4, 1969 flood. He wrote, "The article on the Cascade Park bears got me thinking about when they were removed from the park. I remember reading a reminisce by someone who thought the bears died in the flood of 1969 which devastated the park. 

"I’m happy to report that a little research revealed that all three bears survived the flooding — although their cage was flooded to the point that they had to spend the night swimming until the water started to recede. The attached article from the C-T of July 7, 1969 tells the tale."

Thanks for sharing your research, Rick! (And thanks for his patience as well; some of this material was sent to me by Rick more than two years ago!)

The Old Fire Truck in Cascade Park – Part 2

I reached out to Rick Kurish for help researching the old fire truck that used to be located in the playground at Cascade Park. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it easier for Rick by accidentally (and feeblemindedly) telling him it was an old train!

Rick responded, “My family frequented Cascade Park at least once or twice a year from the mid 1950s until the early 1960s, and while I and my brothers were all over the playground, I have no recollection of an actual railroad locomotive in the park.”

Once I informed Rick of my mistake, it didn’t take long for him to remember the fire truck.

“Ah, a fire truck, not a train!” he responded. “Yes, I remember the fire truck. It sat near the building that served as a concession stand. I was never too interested in the fire truck, but my younger brothers spent some time playing on it. I was more into the slides and swings --- especially the corkscrew slide.”

It didn’t take long at all for Rick came through as usual.

“Attached is a neat article from the Chronicle-Telegram of June 8,1956 which details the fire truck that the city of Elyria retired and donated to Cascade Park. The city apparently bought the truck new in 1929. Perhaps your correspondent who played on the truck in the 1960s will find the article interesting.”

Here is the article (below). It reveals that the fire truck was a 1929 Ahrens-Fox. The company was based in Ohio.

I sent the article to Fritz, who was happy to get the information about the fire truck that he remembered so well.

“It's hard to believe that it was put out to pasture in the park with only a couple thousand miles on it,” observed Fritz. “I'm sure it was well-loved and played on by all children who visited Cascade Park. I know by the time I first played on it the fire truck had been there at least 10 yrs. from what your article states from 1956. By then it was becoming well-worn when I first remember climbing upon it.

“I always remember it had that huge brass or chrome ball mounted on the front which I presume was part of the pumping unit.”

Here's a photo of Fritz and his siblings playing on the fire truck in the late summer or early fall months between 1966 and 1968.

"Standing on top on the upper left is my brother Adam, and next to him on the right is my sister Keely. I’m seated below them holding onto one of the levers,” noted Fritz.

"The next question for all,” muses Fritz, "is whatever happened to it when it was removed from the park and when?  Let's hope it ended up being preserved and restored somewhere. Being a 1929 Ahrens-Fox model, I would think that by today’s standards, it would be quite a collectible model.  

“Although I did not live in Elyria, we would go there frequently for summer band concerts, and on Sunday drives for picnics in my dad’s Model A Ford. We would also go there in the winter to go sledding down the hill.

“Thank you so much for searching and finding the information from my memories of the fire truck from 50 or so years ago!”

And thanks to Rick, a little bit of Cascade Park history – retrieved from the Chronicle-Telegram – is available online for others who remember the fire truck from their childhood.

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Click here to visit the official Ahrens-Fox website. And to see a restored 1929 Ahrens-Fox fire truck, click here.

The Old Fire Truck in Cascade Park – Part 1

Although I don't mention most of them on the blog, I get emails almost every day from people asking me if I have any information about something they remembered from being a kid.

I received an interesting email like that from Fritz Kuenzel in late February. The name seemed familiar, since I remembered that my brother Ken had played trumpet in a Musicians Union band that included two gentlemen named Hans and Fritz Kuenzel. (It was hard to forget them because the Katzenjammer Kids of comic strip fame have the same first names.)

Fritz’s email revealed the musical connection – and brought up a bit of Cascade Park trivia as well.

Fritz wrote, “I was reading one of your articles on Cascade Park at Elyria, Ohio. As a young boy in the 1960's, my father played in a local musicians union and they would periodically do concerts during the summer months at Cascade Park.

“My parents would take us along and we would play in the park playground during the band concerts. There used to be a very old 1930's era fire truck that sat in the sand in the playground for kids to play on. I have fond memories of climbing and playing on it.

“I was wondering, what ever happened to that old fire truck? What manufacture and year was it? Was it an old retired Elyria fire truck?  A friend of mine who grew up in Elyria also remembers the old fire truck and we talked about it last week on the phone.”

I traded emails with Fritz, who responded with more information about his father. “My Dad, Fritz R. Kuenzel, played tuba in the band,” he explained. ““I was named Fritz N. after him. His twin brother Hans played trombone in Dixieland bands, both are 82 yrs. old. Hans named his son Hans also.” 

A quick online search revealed that the Kuenzel brothers have had a long musical career. An item in the April 23, 1945 Chronicle-Telegram about the Avon Lake High School Spring Music Festival mentions that “Hans and Fritz Kuenzel will play a duet, “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.” Another Avon Lake High School concert mentioned in the November 25, 1947 C-T notes that “Hans and Fritz Kuenzel, members of the band, will play a trombone solo and a tuba solo, respectively.”

But getting back to the fire truck. Researching it was more difficult than I thought, and I only found a photo of the playground (with no truck) and few recent online mentions of the truck in the Chronicle-Telegram. 

Cascade Park playground photo courtesy of
The Great Elyria Time Machine website

An article from the C-T June 13, 2014 included this reminisce. “When I was a kid, my grandparents lived just above Cascade Park on Bath Street, and one of the biggest thrills of my kid life was getting to play in the park. This was before anything in our world was scary or dangerous, so it was ok for parents to let their kids climb all over a rusted out fire truck with jagged chrome edges and steel springs sticking up through the seats.”

Since I had come up short in my research, I decided to ask Rick Kurish for his help. Rick is a great researcher who has helped me many times. 

If anyone could come up with something about the Cascade Park fire truck, he could.

And he did!

March 4, 1955 – Black River Flooding

Sixty years ago today – March 4, 1955 – the Black River overflowed its banks and flooded Cascade Park, as well as many basements and stores in Elyria.

According to the article featured on the front page of the Lorain Journal above, the Black River flooded 17 feet over its banks in Cascade Park. Basements in areas of Elyria where new storm sewers were recently installed were filled with three to four feet of water.

Let's hope history doesn't repeat itself in March 2015.

It can always be worse, I guess. Elsewhere on that same front page, lava fountains were shooting 300 to 400 feet in the air near the village of Kapoho in Hawaii, where the three mile long east rift of Kilauea volcano was "a mass of seething, blood-colored lava." All of the village's 335 residents had to evacuate.

Also on the front page of the Journal: the planned widening of Colorado Avenue; the death of the richest nun in the world; the announcement of the largest single private home building program ever announced for northeastern Ohio; and what to do if your brand new 1955 Ohio license plates were peeling.

Cascade Park in Vintage Postcards

The Ford

Cascade Park in Elyria has been featured on a variety of postcards through the decades, and they are a common find on Ebay. In fact, all of the postcards on this post are on Ebay right now. So if there's one you need for your collection – get your bid in!

I'm admittedly ignorant about Cascade Park. I've pic-a-nic'd there a few times, but it's been years since I walked a trail there to see the Falls. So these postcards are a nice reminder of its many features for me.

The Falls are a perennial favorite to be depicted.

Other park highlights featured on vintage postcards include the Black River and the Basin

This one is postmarked 1954

This one is postmarked 1910

The rock formations have also been the subject of a few cards through the years.

This one is postmarked 1912. Is that Huckleberry Finn?

I'm definitely going to plan a visit to Cascade Park this year to reacquaint myself with its natural beauty. I even know the way there now! (I stopped there last weekend to snap the shot of the sign.)

Cascade Park Article – Feb. 15, 1926

The view of the entrance near Furnace Street this past weekend

It's exciting that the Lorain County Metro Parks took over the management of Cascade Park (which you read about here in The Morning Journal last year), just like it did with Lorain's Lakeview Park. Cascade Park is a real gem that's often overlooked by those of us who live up near the lake.

That tendency to forget about Cascade Park is nothing new. It's even mentioned in this article that ran in the Feb. 15, 1926 edition of The Lorain Journal – 88 years ago this month.

The article provides a nice historical perspective of the park.

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Cascade Park is Famous as Great Natural Wonder
Hundreds Come From Afar to See Beauty Spot That Few Lorain-co. Residents Appreciate

Elyria, Feb. 15 – The former playground of Indians, the rendezvous of lovers, the retreat of the thoughtful and the sad at heart, cool, calm, and quiet: this is Cascade park, the beauty spot of Lorain-co, known to everybody, but appreciated by few.

It is often said that the greater the distance from which a person views a piece of natural beauty, the more he appreciates it. In this case the statement is certainly true.

Elyria appreciates its park. It is known thru out the United States as one of the finest specimens of primitive art in the middle-west. People come from all over Ohio to visit it. Yet how often does the average Lorain-co. resident visit its haunts?

It required millions of years of steady wearing away of stone to produce the maze of caverns that have honey-combed the place. It took ages and ages before that to lay the rocks, inch by inch, from which the caverns and winding river beds were cut.

Found by Indians
Many centuries ago, when the spot was in nearly the form in which it may be found today, the first redskins paused on the banks of the stream running thru it, glanced at their reflection in the water, and were filled with wonder.

Fossil remains of the red race, together with arrow heads, flints, tomahawks, and other implements have been uncovered by scientific experts under the direction of research bureaus of the government and of leading Universities of the country.

After the Indians disappeared before the advance of the white man and civilization, Cascade Park became the rendezvous of lovers. The dense foliage and the one-way footpaths made it an ideal spot for a tryst. Here lovers were unmolested. Surrounded by a mass of awe-inspiring crags, one could find solitude and rest of spirit and body.

Children's Playground
Here children played among the natural caves and caverns. Tiring of this sport they would visit one of the natural sulphur springs that are famous for the purity of their water, and thence journey down the river to the sand bar, the "old swimmin' hole."

Among the beauty spots that now pointed out to the visitor of the park, is the "Petrified Tree," the "Camel's Back," "Robber's Den," the "Devil's Cave," "East and West Falls," the "Oyster Shell Rock," and "Lookout Point."

To save this scenic beauty spot from decay, the city appointed a warden. It selected a man who knew every nook and crevice of the land. Tom Monroe, who spent the greater part of his life among the wonders of the park, was chosen for the post.

Popularity Grows
Today the park is greatly changed. Bird houses have been erected to care for the 104 different kinds of birds that make their home there. Baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and a swimming pool have been erected for the benefit of the public. And swings, slides, sand piles, and merry-go-rounds have been placed there for the amusement of the kiddies. A miniature zoo was also set up.

But Cascade, the home of the rapids and the crags, still remains, and becomes increasingly popular every year.

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I think for the average Lorainite, Cascade Park – as wonderful as it is – has always been a little difficult to get to. It's even hard to remember how to get there sometimes if you haven't been there in a while.

When I was a kid, my parents used to take us there once in a while. We would mainly just drive through it and use the ford crossing between the two parks – which was pretty neat.

It was never quite the same when you couldn't cross the river in your car any more – and it got even worse when the city closed down parts of the park. I think that's when I stopped taking the spouse down there for picnics.

Anyway, my Admiral King High School Class of '77 used Cascade Park as the setting for "Senior Skip Day." Yup, I was there.