Springfield Bog Metro Park

Springfield Bog Metro Park opened January 5, 2011. Over the last few years, visitors have seen quite a change as more than 40 varieties of prairie plants have transformed the former farmland into a thriving prairie. Creating valuable habitat for grassland bird species.

So why a prairie? The Continental Divide, which runs through part of the park, separates which way water flows: water to the north flows towards Lake Erie, while water to the south flows to the Ohio River. Ohio’s early land surveys showed prairies near bogs along the Continental Divide. Since the park has remnant bogs and the Divide within its boundaries, it made sense to recreate the prairie habitat.

The bog remnants were named for the Young family that settled here in 1877. These wetlands once produced huckleberries that drew enthusiastic pickers all the way from Canton, Akron and points north via the Akron-Canton Interurban Railway. Commercial picking stopped sometime in the 1950s.