Since the 1800s, the Cuyahoga Valley has offered people from nearby cities a place to relax in nature, and local efforts to preserve that tradition led to the creation of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in 1974. The park protects open countryside, the Ohio and Erie Canal that helped build the nation, and the river that sparked the Clean Water Act. The Ohio and Erie Canal made Peninsula a busy industrial town and a popular overnight stop for canal travelers, with boatyards, mills, hotels, taverns, and other businesses. Today, visitors can walk through the historic downtown, and the Lock 29 Trailhead connects north along the towpath to the historic village of Boston and south to Deep Lock and trails leading to old stone quarries. In 1925, the Olmsted Brothers proposed a Cuyahoga Valley park, valuing the valleys for their sense of isolation and freedom from the sights and sounds of the modern city.
