MOUNT VERNON — As the temperatures plummet into winter, ‘tis the season for ice skating.
This excellent vintage photo (at the top of this story) from the Knox Time collection on Facebook shows a couple of lovely ladies skating at Lake Hiawatha Park in Mount Vernon.
Most of that lake was later filled-in to provide the racetrack infield of the Knox County Fairgrounds, though a portion of the original body of water remains.
For more information about Lake Hiawatha, check out the History Knox story about the park which we ran back in 2018 (click here). It features numerous photos from the Knox Time collection, and goes into the history of the park and its connections to the Mount Vernon electric trolley system.
Another column, from last year, considers the lake as a candidate for a historical description of a Knox County health spa (click here).
Less common today, ice skating was once one of the most popular winter activities in rural Ohio, as many farms had ponds that would ice over in the cold.
Another photo, found on Timothy Brian McKee’s excellent blog RichlandCountyHistory.com, shows the intake pond for the Schrack Mill in 1897, with area men gathered to play ice hockey.
That mill was located on the grounds of what is today Malabar Farm State Park, near Lucas. Much of the history of that mill is covered in my book about the Ceely Rose murders (and I would have included this photo if I had found it before the book was printed!).
The pond was a little to the right of the main entrance to Malabar Farm on Pleasant Valley Road. Today, there are houses where this pond used to sit. The mill was torn down and the beams and foundation stones were used in other local structures.
What ice skating locations do readers remember from Knox County’s yesteryears?
