Laurel Hollow Park was created in 1907 for the residents of the newly formed town of Newell, West Virginia, and George Washington Clarke, the Homer Laughlin China Company's leading salesman in the early 1900s, spent much of his own money developing it. The park lasted only about six years; after Clarke died on March 3, 1913, in Los Angeles, California, and was buried in Denver, Colorado, nobody maintained it and it fell into ruins and was overtaken by wild growth. In vintage postcards and literature it was called Newell Park, Laurel Park, Laurel Hollow Park, and Newell Zoo, and it once contained a lake, outdoor theater, walking paths, gardens, a large fountain, and a zoo with polar bears, monkeys, seals, trained raccoons, deer, and more. Since 2008, the Newell Community Improvement Coalition has worked to restore and maintain the park, including transforming the former bear enclosure into the Bears Den Amphitheater in 2010 and completing an information center at the park entrance in 2011 with donations and volunteer labor. Laurel Hollow Park stands on property owned by the Homer Laughlin China Co. and the Wells family, leased by the Hancock County Commission, and developed by the Newell Community Improvement Coalition and its volunteers.