When we were small children, our families spent endless summers camping, hiking, boating, and sharing picnics together in our time honored state parks across the country.  These are moments we have come to treasure and we expect to be able to pass this on to our own children one day.

     The future of our state parks is something we need to think about today.  Waiting until the land has been stripped away of its natural beauty due to the circumstances of weather, time, and human disregard will be too late.  It would be a shame to have so many beautiful state parks erased from existence.  There are so ways that we can help to preserve the beauty and longevity of our treasured state parks.  The care we take of these lands today determines its future.  Protecting these sacred lands and water resources is vital to our history and our lives.  If we all work together and take some pride in our parks we will have them to cherish forever.  The future is now for our state parks.  Let’s not waste our chance for the sake of tomorrow.

It’s a beautiful place nestled in the hills of East Liverpool, Ohio. It was originally a small village called Sprucevale, where many settlers lived and died. There they ran a mill, which provided grain to the locals to feed their families. (Today the mill continues to run, just as it did back then. It produces different kinds of grain for people to buy at the Trading Post.) It is also known that, up past the look out point you can see a historical marker where the notorious Pretty Boy Floyd was captured.

Many people have reported ghost sightings around Beaver Creek. Some are; The Lady with the lantern, Gretchen’s Locke, Jacob’s Locke, and the Old Lady.

The first story is of a little girl named Gretchen. Now, there are many versions of this story, but I will give you the one that truly makes sense. The little girl lived with her father in Sprucevale. Then one day she became horribly ill and passed away. Therefore, her father put her body in a wooden box and buried her on the land. The legend states that she haunts the area down by the Locke (also known as Gretchen’s Locke).

This next one is of a woman who walks the bridge carrying a lantern. No one really knows how this story got started or why she walks the bridge.

Jacob’s Locke is supposed to be about a boy who hung himself in his home, which still stands today. It is located down by the camping area of the park. This story is under questioning since there really is no evidence to backup this story.

The last, is of an old woman who died in her home back in the 1970s. Her home, which is still there today, (located on a small hill by the pond in the park), was given to her on her wedding day by her parents. It is a blue house with a red roof, nestled on a basement with a dirt floor. She lived there well into the 1900s without any in door electricity. By the late 1960s to early 1970s, her children told her it was time to get electricity or she would have to move out. A few years later, she passed on. If you visit Beaver Creek today, you can tour the house to see how she used to live. I have heard that if you move anything in the house she will put it back to how she wants it. Sounds a little creepy, doesn’t it?

If you are ever in Ohio, come to Beaver Creek State Park to see all it has to offer. It has great walking and bike trails, a creek to fish or canoe in. You can also take a step back in time and tour the historic homes, blacksmith shop, school, barn, and the working mill. Depending on the time of year you come to visit, you can take or paint wonderful pictures of the fall foliage or the greenery of the spring and summer. If you like winter scenes the best you can come then too.