A Forest Hides In Plain Site
By Steve Aust
Too often, Cincinnatians opine what they don’t have rather than appreciating amenities that enrich our quality of life. The Queen City may lack the seemingly infinite cultural offerings of Chicago or New York, but there are abundant amenities that enrich our quality of life which are far too often taken for granted. Locals recite cultural stalwarts such as Cincinnati’s Symphony, Ballet, Zoo, or Findlay Market, but a cursory check reveals they don’t frequent them beyond an annual milestone celebration.
Mt. Airy Forest is a similarly underappreciated local gem. Passing motorists are often unknowing of its splendor with little more than a vague notion that it is nearby.
Maintaining, enhancing, and promoting one of the nation’s largest city parks requires the efforts of a veritable regiment of dedicated staffers, volunteers, and community stakeholders. The park has grown nearly 10-fold from the original land grant that begat Mt. Airy Forest, and the passion and ambition that those involved in the Forest’s betterment has grown similarly.
Mt. Airy Forest was created in 1911 with a 168-acre purchase of land that had previously proven ill-suited to farming. The reforestation process began promptly, and the New Deal’s Civilian Conservation Corps created a camp at Mt. Airy Forest from July 1935 to July 1937, and more than 51,000 man-days of labor building shelters, laying out hiking trails, and constructing other essential park amenities. Through subsequent land acquisitions, the Forest grew to 1,468 acres, and it ranks as one of the 100 largest parks nationwide within urban city limits. Read More
