Indian Trails Park grew from land first purchased off Main Avenue in the river gulf on November 7, 1908, in a deep gorge along about four miles of the scenic Ashtabula River where former riverside Indian paths followed the natural habitat. In the early 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps maintained a base camp in the Gulf at the site now occupied by Cedarquist Ball Park and built sandstone steps into the Gulf while developing trails along the hillsides and through the park. A first ball field was constructed in 1949, beginning Cedarquist Little League Park, and renewed public interest led to completion of the park master plan in 2003. In 2006, three thousand feet of trail were improved, a parking lot was paved, and a restroom was built with help from the Clean Ohio Trail Fund, while thirty-eight acres were purchased with Fields Brook Natural Resource Damage funds and 2.18 acres were donated by the Neuhof family from the former Carl Latimer farm; additional lands were acquired over the years. In 2008, the Smolen Gulf Bridge was built over Indian Trails Park and the Ashtabula River and dedicated as the longest covered bridge in America. By 2010, the park totaled about 405 acres in Ashtabula, Ashtabula Township, and Plymouth Township. The Ashtabula Township Park Commission, established in 1906 with commissioners appointed by the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas, developed as a separate governmental body serving Ashtabula Township and incorporated areas of Ashtabula City that had once been part of the township, overseeing Indian Trails Park and Lakeshore Park and funding public park access through township levies. Its system also expanded through purchases and development at Walnut Beach and Lakeshore Park, including the 1910 purchase of Harmon Farm for Lakeshore Park, construction of the 1919 lakefront pavilion, later Civilian Conservation Corps improvements, and subsequent recreational facilities. The broader area also includes protected natural lands in Ashtabula County through the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, whose preserves and surveys identified rare plants and animals, while the Ashtabula Gulf Park supports notable amphibian diversity, including the only known population of Jefferson's Salamander on the Ashtabula River.