Deep Lock & Quarry

[Lock 28]

5779 Riverview Rd., Peninsula

Hours
6 a.m. - 11 p.m. (strictly adhered)

Within Deep Lock Quarry lies Lock 28, which at 17 feet was the deepest lock on the Ohio & Erie Canal, and an old quarry from which blocks of Berea sandstone were cut for the canal locks and other local structures.
The spillway for Lock 28 passed on the western side of the canal while the towpath crossed on the east after having crossed over the canal at Lock 29 in Peninsula.

 

Near the lock was the quarry where many of the sandstones used in the construction of the locks on the northern section of the Ohio & Erie Canal were cut from. The quarry became known as Deep Lock Quarry and a Summit County Metropark highlights the area now, accessible from the Towpath Trail.

 

Before the parking lot was put in place, there were artifacts found leading to the belief there was a mound and earthworks located here.

 

 

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Buildings Survey or Historic American Engineering Record, Reproduction Number HAER OHIO,77-PEN.V,6-, Jet Lowe, Photographer, May 1985

1. LOCK CHAMBER, LOOKING NORTH. WITH A DEPTH OF 16 FEET, LOCK #28 WAS THE DEEPEST LOCK IN THAT PORTION OF THE OHIO AND ERIE CANAL BETWEEN AKRON AND CLEVELAND, HENCE ITS POPULAR NAME,'DEEP LOCK'.
2. LOCK APPROACH, LOOKING SOUTHWEST.
3. LOCK CHAMBER, SHOWING DETAIL OF WEST LOCK WALL, LOOKING SOUTHWEST. WHEN THE CANAL WAS RECONSTRUCTED IN 1905-06, CONCRETE WAS USED TO REPAIR LOCK WALLS ORIGINALLY BUILT OF STONE.

 

Stone quarries operated in Peninsula from 1856 to 1917 and employed up to 200 workers in periods of peak activity. Products included building stone, flagging, curbing, grindstones, hullers, pearlers, and stones for sharpening scythes and mower knives. The men shown in this 1910 photo are at the West Quarry (on the south side of Rt. 303, west of Riverview Road). After discontinued use, it was used for swimming.

 

 

History

Ferdinand Schumacher, who is credited with introducing oatmeal to America by supplying it to Union troops during the Civil War, purchased a portion of the quarry in 1879. The sandstone found in the quarry was ideal for mill stones, which were used to remove the outer hulls of oats processed at Akron's American Cereal Works (later Quaker Oats). Stone was last taken from the quarry in the 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corps used the sandstone to construct several Metro Parks facilities, including Pioneer Shelter in Goodyear Heights Metro Park. Deep Lock Quarry became a Metro Park in 1934.

Today

Today, the park is home to more Ohio buckeye trees than any other Metro Park in Summit County. The old canal bed is home to frogs, turtles and salamanders. A shallow swamp has developed on the quarry floor, where rose pink (an herb) and the invasive narrow-leaved cattail grow.

Buckeye Trail

- This statewide trail circles from the Ohio River (near Cincinnati) to Lake Erie (near Mentor), west to Toledo and then back to the Ohio River. Here in Summit County, the trail passes through Deep Lock Quarry, O'Neil Woods, Sand Run and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. "Follow the blue blazes" for the Buckeye Trail.

Cuyahoga Trail

13.1 miles - Metro Parks and the Boy Scouts of America, Order of the Arrow, created this rustic trail that loops through the Cuyahoga Valley. From Deep Lock Quarry, the Cuyahoga Trail follows the towpath south to Everett before heading east along Bolanz Road. On Akron-Peninsula Road, the trail heads north to the Virginia Kendall Area of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, winds through Boy Scout camps Manatoc and Butler, travels to the Village of Peninsula, and then returns to Deep Lock Quarry.

Quarry Trail

1.2 miles - Discarded mill stones are scattered along Quarry Trail, which takes visitors through the forest to the old quarry.

 

Workmen in this undated photo are hauling huge blocks of sandstone from the Peninsula quarry to a nearby plant for cutting and polishing. Many of the stones were used in the building of canal locks during the 1820s and 1830s. Others were shipped to Akron and Cleveland and used in the construction of public buildings.

 

Peninsula 1850

1916 Canal Map