Standing Rock in Kent Ohio
Standing Rock is in the Cuyahoga River in Kent behind the Standing Rock Cemetery. When I was a child on Wolcott Avenue in Kent we would go in small groups riding our bikes or walking through the cemetery to see the large rock. We lived only a few blocks from the cemetery so it was a short trip. We never worried about going through the cemetery alone.
A bypass for the Cuyahoga River now flows around the dam on Main Street in Kent to speed up the river to improve the water quality. The level of the river has been cut down drastically because of the bypass. Ripples of water now flow over rocks where the river once was deep. It was deep enough years ago so that you could not see the rocks on the bottom.
Back then the water rose up under the jutting ledge near the top of the large stone. It would sometimes be higher when there was heavy precipitation and flooding. There were sometimes white spray painted graffiti and other marks on the rock. It made me wonder how people got out through the deep water to do that. Perhaps they had a boat or canoe.
This Standing Rock was also known as "Standing Stone" and "Council Rock" because it was said to be a meeting place for some Native tribes who inhabited the Portage County area prior to European settlement in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
I like the way that it looks now.
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