The success that is today's Lorain County Metropolitan Park District belies a 50-year history of events, people, and benchmarks that are, all at once, surprising, amazing, strange, and inspiring. Everything from the Paper Park District beginnings to the award-winning computerized reservation system, from early picnic tables made out of recycled utility cable spools to the multigenerational, year-round recreation of SplashZone, from the "out of this world" playground called Astro City to one of the country's longest foot trail bridges that crosses the Black River twice within its 1,000-foot span, from Otto Schoepfle's "garden that grew" to the cutting-edge program technology of Interactive Video Distance Learning, and from the 1969 flood and the 1992 tornado to the majestic return of the bald eagle to Lorain County is all captured here in the pictures and captions of Lorain County Metro Parks: The First 50 Years.
Author and naturalist Gary S. Gerrone joined the Lorain County Metro Parks' staff in 1980 with little knowledge of the park district, or of being a naturalist. Over 25 years later, he is still learning about nature, people, and the wonderful history and legacy that is the Lorain County Metro Parks.