There’s a spot in the Oxbow Meadows area of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park where three of the park’s biggest attributes are on display: the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, the Towpath Trail and the Cuyahoga River.
Greg Peckham, president and CEO of the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, described this view as the park’s nexus. From here, it’s easy to understand how these three components shape the park.
“We want this to be a really special place where you can see that story without having to be told it, because it’s literally all right there right in front of your eyes,” Peckham said during a tour of Oxbow Meadows.
He continued, “You can really tell that story of industry here with the railroad. You can tell the story of the reclamation of the river.”
From 1962 until 2018, this view was only visible to visitors at Brandywine Golf Course. Today, thanks to a partnership between the National Park Service and the conservancy, that view is accessible to a lot more people.
In 2021, the conservancy acquired all 213 acres of the former golf course. The nonprofit kept 15 acres and transferred the other 198 to the national park. Brandywine existed years before CVNP became a national park in 2000.
As another site of recreation — and because of its size and location — the golf course played a significant role in the park.
“It had always been an important piece of property within the park’s view of parkland. It was special,” said Stacey Rusher, the conservancy’s parks projects director.
The last time the national park acquired a land parcel of significant size was in the ’90s with the acquisition of the former site of the Richfield Coliseum.
When Brandywine went up for sale during the pandemic, NPS and the Trust for Public Land approached the owners about buying the golf course. The conservancy got involved because as a nonprofit, it can secure funding faster than a government agency can.
With “the support of donors large and small,” Rusher said the conservancy was able to purchase the land and transfer the majority of it to NPS.
In 2019, the conservancy signed the purchase agreement. Two years later, the former Brandywine Golf Course was officially parkland.
Future plans for Oxbow Meadows include a river center and kayak landing
On a sunny day in late August, Peckham, along with his black labrador, Norman, and several colleagues from the conservancy and the national park, led Signal Akron on a tour of Oxbow Meadows. Last summer, the two organizations began hosting guided hikes in the area. Oxbow Meadows officially opened to the public in early July 2026.
As the group meandered through the area, we passed people walking, running and fishing.
Oxbow Meadows is just a small part of the former golf course. The entire 213 acres is known as the Sycamore Bend area of the park. The 45 acres that make up Oxbow Meadows sit between the Cuyahoga River to the west and Akron-Peninsula Road to the east.
Oxbow Meadows includes all of the acres of land that the conservancy owns. Future plans for the area include a kayak landing, outdoor seating, accessible trails, overlooks and cabins for rent. The most prominent feature of Oxbow Meadows will be the river center. It’s meant to serve as a community hub and will feature a restaurant, retail, conference rooms and lounge seating — as well as some stunning views.
“Imagine that we basically just sliced open that hillside, snuck a building in there, and the entire front of it is glass,” Peckham said. “So the building is this really cool exclamation point that cuts across the landscape.”
All of these future amenities support the larger mission of Oxbow Meadows: to get people closer to the water.
Once the conservancy acquired the land, the organization asked the community what they’d like to see at Oxbow Meadows. From surveys and listening sessions to public open houses, the answer was clear.
“Our listening sessions told us, we have a park named after a river,” Rusher said, “and not very many spots where you can get to that river.”
Oxbow Meadows transformed from greens and fairways to lush meadows
Oxbow Meadows has lived many lives. For generations, indigenous people lived along the river. The early 19th century brought with it European settlers who farmed the land and the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the area was home to The Cabin Club (also known as Drift Inn) which catered to Black travelers in the era of segregation.
In later years, the Cuyahoga River became internationally infamous for being heavily polluted and for catching fire multiple times. That led to a years-long effort to rehabilitate the river. Today, people swim, boat and fish in its waters. River otters pop up along the banks. Once threatened species are being reintroduced.
Before Oxbow Meadows could become a gateway to the Cuyahoga River though, the land needed some help.
Due to years of herbicide and fungicide treatments on the golf course, the soil underneath was contaminated with mercury and had to be remediated. The contaminated soil was removed, and the grounds were reseeded.
The remediation was deemed successful in September 2024. Two years later, the area looks completely different than it did when Brandywine closed.
Greens and fairways are gone and in their place are lush meadows and soft, mowed paths. Adirondack chairs sit where golf carts used to roam, strategically placed to provide the best view. The river — once blocked from sight due to overgrowth — now comes into view as you crest a hill and come to what’s known as the Perch, the highest point at Oxbow Meadows.
“The path that we’re walking now, the idea is it reveals the river [at] a very intentional pace,” Peckham said, as the group reached the Perch. “This is the place where you first really will see it and hear it.”
He continued, “We refer to this as the Perch because in the fall and in the winter in particular, you can see the entire 213 acres and more from this spot. It’s just this breathtaking, jaw-droppingly beautiful view.”
Conservancy hopes to break ground on some amenities next year
Oxbow Meadows gets its name from the U-shaped bend in a river, a common occurrence along the Cuyahoga, whose name comes from the Mohawk word for “crooked river.”
The curvy, meandering nature of the river is one reason there are few access points to it in the park, said CVNP River Ranger Ryan Ainger.
“You also have a lot of parallel corridors along [the river], so roads and the railroad, and then the Towpath,” Ainger said. “It kind of just hems the river in a little bit.”
In the last decade or so, Ainger said the park became more focused on the river as a recreation spot. Before that, the water was still too dirty for recreation, he said.
“It was really not encouraged to be on the water at all,” Ainger said. “As the river got more clean and as recreation became a more viable option, then you started seeing paddlers utilize the river.”
He continued, “In 2019, we caught up to the use by getting the river designated as a state water trail. So it’s a 100-mile-long state water trail. Twenty-six miles of it flow through the national park.”
After that, the park began formalizing river access points.
“With the five or so access points that we did have, they were all very kind of singular use,” Ainger said, explaining that they were mainly used for kayaking and fishing. “We don’t really have anywhere in the park that invites everybody and anybody to come down to recreate along or on the river.”
Oxbow Meadows will change that.
“Because it’s so meandering, there’s not a lot of places where it’s easy to see the river for more than 100 or 200 yards at a time,” Ainger said. “So this spot allows people to really slow down and see the river and follow its meanders and not just get a glimpse of it.”
Currently, Oxbow Meadows is in the schematic design phase. Studio Zewde, a landscape design firm based in New York City, is overseeing the process.
By this time next year, Rusher said she hopes they’ll be ready to break ground on the parking, trails and overlooks. After that would come the river center. It’s all dependent on fundraising. Once financing is confirmed, a clearer timeline will be set, Rusher said.
Even without all the amenities, Oxbow Meadows is succeeding at its mission of getting people closer to the Cuyahoga River.
“Protection of our river, that’s a high priority for us,” Rusher said. “That is the lifeblood for us and everyone, and it has been for thousands of years.”
