Celebrate Mill Creek Park’s grand past, present, future

1891: Oh, what a very good year it was! Republican President Benjamin Harrison led an expanding nation of 44 states into the rollicking Gay ’90s. James Naismith invented a game called basketball that would soon roll into one of America’s most-beloved sports. George Hormel and his meat company introduced the enduringly popular sandwich spread Spam.

Nationwide, it marked the dawn of the Progressive Era, a three-decade run during which a group of talented and public-spirited visionaries launched a wide swath of positive social, political, economic and environmental reforms.

Prime among those visionaries was one Youngstown attorney named Volney Rogers. He led the movement to transform a hollow in a wooded area of Youngstown into the state of Ohio’s first public park district. One hundred and twenty-five years later, Rogers’ vision of providing city dwellers an oasis from the soot and dirt of industrialization and urban growth has been preserved and expanded.

During this year, the quasquicentennial of the founding of the park district, Mill Creek MetroParks has planned a variety of commemorative events and activities. This milestone year serves as an opportune time for all Mahoning Valley residents to reflect on the glorious past, robust present and promising future of one of Northeast Ohio’s most breathtaking natural assets.

PARK’S ORIGINS

The roots of the park, of course, lie in the deeply held convictions of Rogers that city residents deserved a safe haven away from the growing timber industry that was ripping apart the heart of the natural landscape of the city, which then boasted a population of about 33,000.

As longtime park naturalist Ray Novotny explained in a Page 1 story in Sunday’s Vindicator, “The only reason we have Mill Creek Park is because of Volney Rogers. He took that core of the gorge, and grew it into the park we know today, adding so many facilities, roads, trails, lakes, etc.”

Over the decades, those who shared Rogers’ vision protected and expanded the park district to the natural gem that it shines as today. In sheer size, it occupies four times more space than New York City’s acclaimed Central Park. In its variety of attributes, it offers something to please virtually anyone’s interests.

Over the decades, the park expanded, stretching into Boardman and to the city’s West Side. In 1989, it became Mill Creek MetroParks after voters approved the conversion to a countywide park system.

Today, the park district stretches across 12 municipalities, and encompasses 20 miles of roads, 21 acres of parking, 45 miles of hiking trails and 225,677 square feet of building structures. Its sites include a golf course, public garden, mill, recreation area, performing-arts pavilion, lily pond, nature center, lakes, bikeway, farm, wildlife preserve and more.

And thanks to the ongoing stalwart leadership of Mill Creek trustees and park officials, such as Executive Director Aaron Young and naturalist Novotny, the future of the countywide park system looks brighter than ever.

Park leaders have an impressive list of improvement projects on the drawing boards, including those for Ford Nature Center, the Lily Pond, the MetroParks Bikeway, the Wick Recreation Area, Fellows Riverside Gardens, Mill Creek Golf Course and Pioneer Pavilion.

Most Mahoning County residents recognize the jewel they have in their backyards. The proof is in the support the park district received two months ago when voters decisively approved a 15-year tax levy to provide $7.9 million for park maintenance, improvements and growth.

EXPECT MORE CHALLENGES

To be sure, however, the future of the park’s glory as the “Green Cathedral” of our region will not play out without its challenges. Prime among them will be lessening pollution caused by the city’s aging sewer network that fouled Lake Newport and resulted in the closing of all park lakes last summer. We hope park officials will work closely with city and other officials to expedite the long-term project to minimize and end ongoing public health threats in the park system. Already, some progress has been achieved with the lakes expected to reopen this year.

But ever since Volney Rogers first fought city bureaucrats to stake out the park district, challenge after challenge has been met and overcome. Over those 125 years, Mill Creek MetroParks has carved out a legacy as an enjoyable sanctuary of natural splendor to the hundreds of thousands of people who visit it annually. That is a legacy that all Valley residents should commit to preserve.