First Cedar Point Road, a history of the Cedar Point Chaussee

Regular visitors to Ohio's Cedar Point like to take "the back way" into, or out of, the amusement park, and the hosts during our recent visit to Cedar Point took this way out of the park at the end of a busy day.

The road passed through a lightly wooded area and a nice residential area along the Lake Erie shoreline, but I found out later that much of the route traces its days back to the 1910s and the swift rise of the automobile as a preferred mode of travel for families visiting the park.

In 1911, George A. Boeckling, who managed Cedar Point through one of its greatest periods of growth from 1897 to 1931, announced plans to build a new road to the park to connect it to the main roads coming into nearby Sandusky.

Up until that time, travelers could only get to Cedar Point via steamship, but Boeckling proved to be a visionary when it came to finding a way best take advantage of the automobile's new popularity and weather the subsequent decline of using steam ships as the major means of travel into the area.

Work started on the new road to Cedar Point in 1913. The project was costly and difficult because it entailed construction through bog and marshland, but Boeckling knew that building the road would be an important factor in ensuring Cedar Point's future growth and success.

The new road was one of the first concrete roads in Ohio, and people saw it as a great achievement in engineering. The two-lane highway ran one mile north to Lake Erie, then turned westward for another six miles along the length of the peninsula heading into the park.

The finished route opened to the public on July 19, 1914, with more than 500 cars traveling the route right after it opened to traffic

The spiffy new road called for a spiffy new entrance marked by a wrought iron gate between brick pillars.

The road with the majestic entrance called for a distinctively classy name as well, and what better name than a moniker using the French word (chaussée) for "highway" or "paved road"?

And so the Cedar Point Chaussee came into being.

The excitement over the road's opening was short-lived as a series of storms between 1917 and 1919 caused washouts that destroyed much of the eastern end of the road.

The popularity of the old road and the automobile fueled the need to reconstruct the road by abandoning the old brick-and-iron entrance and locating the entrance to the route two miles to the west at Cleveland Road in 1920, thus shortening the entire route out to Cedar Point. 

In 1957, Cedar Point constructed a new road into the park to alleviate the ever-increasing traffic and traffic jams going into the park via the Chaussee. The new Cedar Park Causeway became the major route into the park, although some travelers still prefer to take the more scenic Chaussee. 

So, what happened to the original start of the road and its classy gate?

You'll find the gate re-installed with an historical marker and explanatory plaque just off of U.S. 6 and at the entrance to the Sheldon Marsh State Nature Preserve. The original 1914 roadbed serves as the main one-mile-long paved walking trail through the preserve.

Want to learn more? Check out Cedar Point (Images of America) by David W. Francis and Diane Demalie Francis.

Be sure to also check out my story about the amusement park's long history at the Ohio Tourism Division's Discovering Ohio blog, History among the thrills at Cedar Point.

Thanks to the Lake Erie Shores & Islands Visitors Bureau for sponsoring my visit to the Lake Erie Shores and Islands area, providing lodging, meals, and  help arranging visits to area attractions for my review, with no further compensation. I was free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are mine.

© Dominique King 2014 All rights reserved

Comments

[CP Food Blog]

As usual, great write-up on the history of the Chaussee. It's often difficult finding details on some of these historically relevant topics, so nice job bringing it all together!

[Dominique King]

Justin-
I do enjoy researching stories like this! The more obscure the topic, the better the story often turns out!