Finding the Location of Federation Grove

MacKay, Becky; Trimbath, Ryan

Although Ohio had been predominately forested when European settlers first arrived, much of the land in the state had been cleared by the early 1900s for farming, pastures, homesteads, and feeding iron furnaces needed for building cities. By about 1910, forest coverage in Ohio had dropped from an estimated 95% to only 10%. In 1911, Ohio state lawmakers gave counties the authority to establish metropolitan park districts as the nation began to understand the importance of preserving natural resources. In 1921, the Akron Metropolitan Park District (A.M.P.D.), now called Summit Metro Parks, was formed, and Harold Wagner was appointed Director-Secretary of the Park District in 1925. Wagner began coordinating large reforestation projects, and established tree nurseries within the Park District, including one in Everett and another in the Virginia Kendall area. Most of the large-scale tree planting efforts ended after 1936, and during the 1940’s, plants primarily left the Everett Nursery in the form of donations. One of these reforestation efforts, although small in magnitude, had historical interest. It was called Federation Grove. Recent knowledge of the grove had been limited to a drawing found in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Fig. 1). Although this 1955 drawing indicated Federation Grove was within Virginia Kendall Park, its specific whereabouts was unknown. The purpose of this study was to examine historical documents in an effort to piece together its story and relocate the grove. In the process of performing this research, another reforestation effort, called Forum Forest, was uncovered; a smaller effort ensued to find the location of that forest within Cuyahoga Valley National Park.