January HHA speaker explores Wood Hollow Metro Park

Megan Shaeffer, Ph.D., supervisor of cultural resources for Summit Metro Parks, will be the guest speaker at the Jan. 9 meeting of Hudson Heritage Association when she discusses the history and archaeology of Wood Hollow Park, located on Barlow Road near Case-Barlow Farm in Hudson.

A generous, yet unexpected, gift of 150 acres to Summit Metro Parks in 2009 was the catalyst behind Wood Hollow Metro Park. That anonymous gift of land, by a man whose family loved the parks and the Fall Hiking Spree, led to the purchase of several adjacent properties that brought the park’s current size to a little more than 300 acres. Today, visitors to the park can see and hear a variety of native amphibians, birds, insects, mammals and reptiles in the park’s forests, wetlands and open areas. The park’s 1.2-mile Downy Trail gets its name from the small woodpeckers that are among the species inhabiting “wood hollows” in the area’s beech-maple woods.

Shaeffer’s presentation will explore the park’s history, from its occupation by Indigenous peoples to its early historic settlement. She will discuss the historical and archaeological research done on site before the area became a park and how Wood Hollow’s past fits into the larger picture of the surrounding area and Ohio in general. Shaeffer taught anthropology and archaeology at the University of Akron, sociology at Kent State University and was an archaeologist for the Ohio Department of Transportation. 

HHA’s January 9 program, to be held at Barlow Community Center, begins at 7 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served following the presentation.For more information, visit hudsonheritage.org or search “Hudson Heritage Association” on Facebook and Instagram.

photo caption: Archaeological work was conducted at Wood Hollow in 2013, prior to the park’s development. Photos courtesy of Dr. Megan Shaeffer.