Major quarry operators within Deep Lock Quarry Park. (2008; Base map data from Summit County Geographic Information Services)

Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park is a 73-acre park located in northern Summit County, just south of the Village of Peninsula, within the boundaries of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Cuyahoga River and a section of the Ohio & Erie Canalway Towpath Trail border it to the east.  The western boundary is Riverview Road. The park is also within the Ohio & Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor.

In addition to the natural beauty of the woods and ravines, Deep Lock Park is an on-the-ground economic and social history of the region as seen through the lens of three Berea Sandstone quarries. A visitor can find remnants of quarrying operations around every corner, from large millstones that were cast-offs, to stacks of flagging stones and the State quarry wall.  These quarries are part of a regional geological Berea Sandstone band of rock, named for the town of Berea where other large quarries are located. The park reminds us of the early commercial history of Peninsula, the canal, of boatbuilding and the importance of quarried stone.

From Quarry to Metro Park

From 1918, when quarry operations stopped, to about 1930, nature began to reclaim the old quarries. However, advocates for creating a quarry park were working behind the scenes and the process began in 1931 with the first acreage acquired by the Akron Metropolitan Park District (AMPD).  Although the process to create the park was long and required considerable diplomacy on the part of Director-Secretary Harold Wagner, by 1937 the quarries and the stacks of remnant sandstone were part of the park system.