Trails will be temporarily closed between Red Lock Trailhead and Brandywine Creek from Monday, March 3, to Friday, May 2, 2025 for installation of a new Brandywine Creek culvert. No detour is available.
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Ranger Lisa Ramsey leads a Junior Ranger program at Beaver Marsh, circa 1994.
NPS Collection
The public roles of women in Cuyahoga Valley reflect their diverse and evolving roles in society at large. In preparation for the national park’s 50th anniversary in 2024-25, park staff are delving deeper into the valley’s past. We are looking to tell a more balanced history, one that reflects the contributions of many. Return here to see what stories we’ve uncovered.
Here is an overview of women’s contributions.
Farmers. Ever since the first Native Americans shifted to an agricultural lifestyle, women have participated in the growing of crops and tending of livestock. Many of the national park’s historic buildings relate to farming in the 1800s and 1900s. Some of these continue as working farms under the park's farming program.
Workers. The valley’s two paper factories employed a large number of women, often new immigrants, in the early 1900s. Women were shopkeepers and postmistresses. As parks, camps, and other recreational facilities developed, women had new job opportunities. At the national park, women have been interpretive rangers, law enforcement rangers, scientists, curators, landscape architects, civil engineers, trail workers, managers, and administrative staff.
Educators. Women have taught in one-room schools in Everett and in Ira. Many women have been involved in the development of the park’s Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center. For decades, female schoolteachers have used the valley as an outdoor classroom.
Advocates. Women have been advocates for valley protection, starting in the national park establishment period and continuing through our various partner organizations. Female community leaders also use the park to improve the lives of the people served by their organizations.
Outdoor enthusiasts. Women created overnight camps here. Two that remain are Camp Mueller (Phillis Wheatley Association) and Camp Ledgewood (Girl Scouts of the Western Reserve). Women have been leaders and participants in nature study and in outdoor recreation of all kinds.
Gayle Hazelwood began her 35-year career with the National Park Service at what was then Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. In a 2022 oral history, she recalls her childhood influences, longtime friendships, and career path to leadership positions. Many places she worked focus on outreach to urban communities and Black history.
The Delgados, a Mexican-American family from Independence, Ohio, lived along the Cuyahoga River from about 1935-1962. Father Erasto worked for the B&O Railroad.
Peg Bobel has advocated for Cuyahoga Valley since the 1970s. As a Sierra Club leader, she was involved in park establishment, cleanup of the Beaver Marsh, and trail planning. As the executive director of Cuyahoga Valley Association, she supported the early cultural arts and Junior Ranger programs as well as the establishment of Cuyahoga Valley Environmental Education Center. As an author and a citizen scientist, Peg has helped people to understand and enjoy Cuyahoga Valley.
Elaine Marsh’s career as an Ohio environmental activist spans a half century, from the 1970s to the 2020s. She is widely regarded as the voice of the Cuyahoga River.
Hunter founded the esteemed Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland in 1911. This began as a “Black YWCA” providing safe housing, job training, and recreation for young Black women arriving from the South. Over her long career, she became a nationally known advocate for civil rights.
At the Harriet Keeler Memorial in Brecksville Reservation, the bronze plaque reads: “Teacher – Author – Citizen: She liveth in the continuing generation of the woods she loved.” Following her death in 1921, mourners worked together to preserve over 300 acres of parkland in her honor. It remains a remarkable testament to a remarkable life. Even today, public monuments to a professional woman are rare. Keeler was a Cleveland educator, botanist, author, suffragist.
Jennifer Daring co-founded Green Recreation Organization (GRO) to give Northeast Ohio women a welcoming community for exploring the outdoors. She shared her personal story in 2022 as part of an oral history project.
The 300 acres that were set aside in the 1920s to honor Harriet Keeler became one of the first parklands preserved in Cuyahoga Valley and remains one of the most biologically diverse.
Sites:Boston National Historical Park, Boston African American National Historic Site, Women's Rights National Historical Park
Steadfast in her belief of self and ability to change the world, Lucy Stone stands as a historical titan, her quote "Unapologetic Life" a model of a revolutionary. A bona fide pioneer of her time, Lucy Stone toiled tirelessly for the abolitionist and women's rights movements throughout the 19th century.
Sojourner Truth was born Isabella Baumfree in 1797 in Ulster County, New York, the daughter of James and Elizabeth Baumfree. Born enslaved, she remained the property of others until she freed herself in 1826. After a religious epiphany in 1843, she changed her name to Sojourner Truth and traveled the country advocating for African American and women's rights.
Meet Veronica Dickerson, Environmental Protection Specialist at Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Watch her bloom with confidence as she takes us through her journey of going back to college to becoming the go-to person for cleaning up contaminated sites in the park service. This video is part of a National Park Foundation funded project called the Dare to Imagine project dedicated to highlighting women in parks who are breaking barriers and showing what a scientist looks like.
