Chuckery Race wall looking west with Cuyahoga River on the right in 2009.

The Chuckery Race, one of the mysterious features of Gorge Park, can be seen across the Cuyahoga River from the Glens Trail especially when the trees are bare. By the 1830’s, Eliakim Crosby had demonstrated the commercial advantages of a waterway with his Cascade Mill Race, using water from the Little Cuyahoga River. He decided to build a similar raceway by diverting water from the main Cuyahoga River with a small dam on the Akron side of the river, at what was called Cathedral Rock. The watercourse was to extend about four miles along the bluff and would then drop into the Little Cuyahoga River Valley. He envisioned a town, Summit City, at this point and the water would power its mills and other businesses. The location was plotted at the intersection of modern Tallmadge and East Cuyahoga Falls avenues. In a planned exhibition, Crosby attempted the initial demonstration of the race in front of a large crowd. Unfortunately, the water only managed to flow through the ditch created by the stonewalls until it reached sandy soil near the end, then it disappeared to a trickle. It was never used for water after that initial failure. The remains of the rock wall are visible across the river to the old Ohio Edison Plant site.

View of the Cuyahoga from the Chuckery (2009)

Why was it called the Chuckery? The nickname came when a stranger asked about the population of Summit City and was told “…about 10,000 …one man and nine thousand and ninety-nine woodchucks” (Lane 1892:81).

Cathedral rock passage.