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Animal puppets, history exhibits at Sippo Lake Park
By Bob Downing
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Aug 02, 2008
PERRY TWP.: A rabbit, an owl, a deer, a butterfly, a duck, a skunk, a raccoon, a fox and a woodchuck make their home at the Stark County Park District's newest facility.
Children are encouraged to manhandle them.
That's not a problem, because these animals are fuzzy puppets in an exhibit at the Congressman Ralph Regula Canalway Center at the north end of Sippo Lake Park.
Youngsters are encouraged to place each animal in the appropriate habitat. Sometimes that happens, but sometimes the puppets just get a dose of play time.
The 4,300-square-foot museum-visitor center, which opened June 22, offers three distinct elements: a look at the Ohio & Erie National Historic Canalway stretching from Cleveland to New Philadelphia, a focus on Stark County history through its industrial innovators and a nature center with exhibits on bugs, wetlands, lakes and water quality.
Bob Fonte, director of the Stark County Park District, said combining the three elements should enable the park system to draw more visitors to the center than would be the case if it were only a small nature center.
The price tag for the exhibits was about $1 million — with federal grants paying that cost, Fonte said.
Though the facility is not huge and the displays not overly elaborate, the use of portable carts could boost the number of exhibits in the future, he said.
The Canalway Center has an introductory video put together by GlenOak High School students and a computer hookup with 11 interactive stations.
Young visitors are encouraged to become Canalway Explorers at three log-in stations and to earn points and membership cards by attending park events and completing tasks, such as reading a nature book, organizing a recycling hike or hanging up a squirrel box.
The Canalway Center is in a $12.6 million building known as the Exploration Gateway. That building is shared by the park district and the Stark County District Library's Perry Branch.
The facility includes a science lab in the basement with lizards, snakes, bullfrogs, toads and tarantulas, and a classroom equipped with television cameras and microphones for long-distance learning.
Available programs cover a day in the life of a canal worker, Ohio animals, wildlife along the canal and changing lifestyles along the canalway.
There are offices for park naturalists, a small store and snack bar.
Ryan and Roberta Scott of Canton visited the center on a recent weekday with their children, Chad, 2, and Madison Heaton, 3, and neighbors McKenzie Welty, 6, and Amanda Welty, 4.
Madison was enamored by the diving beetle in a glass case, and McKenzie used binoculars to spot birds outside the glass-walled nature center.
''They love it,'' Roberta Scott said of the center. ''It's different than a zoo and it's close by.''
In the canalway exhibit area, visitors can try their hand — via computer screen — at steering a canalboat. They'll also learn that Irish laborers digging the canal were paid 30 cents a day and three jiggers of whiskey (about a half cup).
In the Stark County industrial area, there is information about Henry Timken, W.H. Hoover, Charles Diebold and Alfred Nickles.
There are old paving bricks from the Lincoln Highway and corn and flour from the Magnolia Flouring Mill (now part of the park district). There is even an old toaster used by Ernest Nickles to test the quality of the bread that the family-run company was producing in Navarre.
For Stark County residents, admission to the center is $3 for adults, $1 for students and $12 for families. Children 3 and under get in free.
For others, admission is $5 for adults, $2 for students and $20 for a family.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday.
For information, call 330-477-3552 or check http://www.starkparks.com.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.
PERRY TWP.: A rabbit, an owl, a deer, a butterfly, a duck, a skunk, a raccoon, a fox and a woodchuck make their home at the Stark County Park District's newest facility.
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