Ira

[Lock 26, Pancake Lock]

Ira was once a small village that sprung up around the canal as it passed through the Cuyahoga Valley. Ira was a community of farms and residences and had little industry of its own. There was a cheese factory near Lock 26 at one time as well as a dairy farm. The name of the area was derived from the Valley Railway depot in the area which was named Hawkins for Ira Hawkins whose farm the railway bisected, but changed to Ira to avoid confusion with another station on the line called Haskins.

This photo shows the old Ira Train Station at Ira and Riverview Roads in Bath Township. That location is currently a stop for Hale Farm and Village on the Cuyahoga Valley Line, the old steam engine train that now runs between Independence and Akron (Quaker Square).