The Steele Family Adventures: Historical Tour

We had a sunny weekend! Hooray! Cleveland offers free historical tours. They are offered almost every day of the week, each one in a different part of town. I’ve wanted to go for a while but I didn’t dare take Lennon alone because I thought he might be too wild, he loves going for walks but he gets antsy whenever we stop. So, Sunday turned out to be great weather and Kyle was home so we went! I’ll tell you all the neat facts I learned but just a warning, there will be holes in my story. Kyle and I had to take turns listening. Every time we would stop Lennon wanted to get out and run around, swing from the weeping willow, blow bubbles with another little boy on the tour, things like that… He wasn’t at all interested in listening to the guide.

The tour started at Settler’s Landing which, as you might guess, is where the settlers landed! It’s right on the Cuyahoga River (and it’s also where we spent the 4th of July). When the settlers first got there they had an agreement with the Indians, white settlers could have the east side of the river and they wouldn’t be bothered, but the Indians got to keep the west side of the river. A woman dressed in pioneer clothes came and talked to us pretending to be the wife of the first mayor of Cleveland and told us all about settling the town and the struggles they had. We walked around and learned about the Erie Canal and how it was dug by hand mostly by German and Irish immigrants who ended up settling in the area and had a big impact on the way of life in Cleveland. The canal was used to transport freight and people. All of the boats were large and flat bottom, the canal was 14 feet wide but only 4 feet deep. The freight boats were pulled along the canal by mules and the passenger boats were pulled by horse. They walked along the tow path, part of which became a rail line later on. Now the majority of the tow path is a bike/running path, which we walked along at the Cuyahoga National Park. The guide showed us some historic buildings around the area and gave the history. One of the buildings was an old Irish Pub called the Flat Iron, it opened in 1910 and still serves many of the original menu items. When the tour ended they gave us a coupon so of course we had to go. I got a Lake Erie Perch sandwich and it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten. This area is also famous for Pierogies, something I had never even heard of until we moved here. We got an order of those and they were AMAZING. Little bread things filled with mashed potatoes and topped with cheese and onions… So good. It was really the best day we’ve had in a while, we are starting to really like Cleveland, the more we learn about it.