Category: Cuyahoga Falls

Old Maids Kitchen, Gorge, Cuyahoga Falls/Akron, Ohio

Gorge – Old Maids Kitchen

Once known as Old Maid’s Kitchen, the site can be found in the Gorge Metro Park. Today, the cave is named for Mary Campbell, a white settler from Pennsylvania taken captive by the Leni Lenape Indians and brought to the Cuyahoga Valley and possibly the Gorge.

View of the Gorge Viaduct, Akron, Ohio

View of the Gorge Viaduct

The Gorge formed about 12,000 years ago as the Cuyahoga River carried water to Lake Erie. Most of the 100 mile river is shallow and slow-moving — but in the gorge, water descends 200 feet within a short two-mile section of the gorge.

trolley crossing the gorge

Bridge at the Gorge

The Northern Ohio Power and Light Company built a power plant at the southeast corner of the High Street car bridge over the Cuyahoga River in 1912.  This project included the construction of a dam that would cover the famed Big Falls and forever change the natural beauty of the Gorge.