State uses Portage County park to promote Ohio tourism
The video features a family throwing a dart at a map, deciding to go on vacation wherever the dart lands. When it lands on Ohio, the family visits Headlands Beach State Park in Mentor, Put-In-Bay, Mill Creek Park in Youngstown, Brass Eye in Columbus, Aullwood Audubon in Dayton, the Christmas Story house in Cleveland and the End of Appalachia Preserve in West Union, in addition to Nelson Ledges.
While the park is located in Nelson, it is depicted in the video as Garrettsville, which is its mailing address.
Nelson Trustee Anna Mae VanDerHoeven said the state of Ohio is making a big effort to promote tourism in its state park.
Trustees, she said, were among the first to visit a glass walkway that opened over Memorial Day weekend after two years of construction.
The 137-foot walkway goes over Sylvan Creek Gorge in the park, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources states on its website. Those walking over the bridge can see the water 50 feet below. The walkway ends in a platform overlooking Minnehaha Falls.
ODNR recently told WEWS Channel 5 in Cleveland that the bridge was one of the most unusual structures ever constructed in a state park.
VanDerHoeven recalls having some sticker shock over the $1.68 million cost when she visited.
"You could feed a lot of people or serve a lot of veterans with that money," she said.
She said the overlook is "just gorgeous."
Since the bridge was dedicated, a school bus of students from James A. Garfield Local Schools visited the trail, and one man told her he visited from Wisconsin. The privately owned Nelson Ledges Quarry Park has put up a sign to let visitors know that it's not the state park, VanDerHoeven said.
The state, she said, also featured the park in a state magazine to promote tourism.
"It has attracted so many people," she said.
But those people, VanDerHoeven added, must travel to Garrettsville or Middlefield in Geauga County to grab a bite to eat or visit any businesses.
"It brings people to the township, but we don't get anything out of it," she said. "We just get the traffic."
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: State uses Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park to promote Ohio tourism
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