HOWARD — An idea conceived 30 years ago came to fruition last week when the Knox County Park District acquired two acres in eastern Knox County. Located at the intersection of Hazel Dell and Austin roads, the land will become the Honey Run Waterfall Park.
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“Back in the mid-1970s, this site was identified as a potential county park site in the original Knox County comprehensive plan,” explained Kim Marshall, director of the park district. “So everyone, including county leadership, were all aware of this site and knew what its value would be.”
The land was bought from Jennie Espenshied, who now resides in Coshocton County. Espenshied’s husband, now deceased, formerly worked for the Millwood Sand Co. When Espenshied decided to sell, it was a relatively quick acquisition by the park district.
“Mrs. Espenshied sold under market value because she wanted it maintained perpetually as a public access site for everybody to enjoy,” said Marshall. “The Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County provided the $36,000 needed to purchase the land. Certainly without their financial assistance we would not have been able to purchase it.”
Marshall said the adjacent landowner, Oglebay Norton, formerly the Millwood Sand Co., had right of first refusal when the land was sold, but it, too, approved of the area being turned into a park. She said the district looks forward to working with Oglebay Norton on possible further acreage acquisition in the future.
The acquisition brings the total acreage owned or leased by the park district to about 500, according to Marshall.
“We are just so excited about this acquisition, which includes a stupendous waterfall,” she said.
Approximately 20 to 25 feet high, the waterfall flows over blackhand sandstone formation, which Marshall said is hundreds of thousands years old.
“What is unique about this site in terms of geology is this is one of the few places in Knox County where we see that blackhand sandstone formation at the surface,” she said, adding that “we have a mini Hocking Hills” in terms of rock formations and plant species. Plant species include hemlock, witch hazel, partridge berry and a wide variety of flowers.
The waterfall is fed by Honey Run, which is a tributary to the Kokosing River.
“If you think about it,” said Marshall, “we’ve got the Kokosing Scenic River, we’ve got the Kokosing water trail, and right up the road on U.S. 62 we have the Kokosing scenic byway ... , so we have some wonderful recreational amenities juxtaposed together, all right here. When you combine that with activities in Danville, the eastern terminus of the Kokosing Gap Trail, and the Wally Road Byway and the Mohican Valley Trail as well, we have a wonderful opportunity to provide excellent recreational activities not only for Knox Countians, but to Ohioans in general, that I think are going to mean a real destination point for travel and tourism to this area of Knox County.
“One of the really important aspects of acquiring this is to make sure that we maintain it to protect all these unique resources that are on the site, as well as protect any visitor who may want to come in and hike or sit down by the waterfall and experience or commune with nature,” she added.
Marshall said the park district has no specific time frame as to when the park will be open to the public. Park officials are in the process of creating a park master plan, which involves creating a safe trail to the waterfall, stabilizing and restoring some of the manmade trails, protecting plant species and creating a parking lot. The area is part of the Army Corps of Engineers flood storage easement, so no structures, such as a park shelter house, will be constructed. Marshall said one possible idea is to offer rock climbing or bouldering, pending evaluation by experts as to whether or not that’s feasible.
