Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve
“88 acres of natures best building!”
A secret tucked away off Lake Erie’s shimmering shores.
The shoreline was originally owned by William G. Gordon, he gifted the land to the City of Cleveland in 1896 for use as a public park. In 1962, two freighters were sunk, creating a break wall to preserve the beach and the shoreline. Between the late 1970s and 1999 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disposed of dredge from the Cuyahoga River creating layers of sand soil and clay. Eventually incorporating Dike 14, nature gradually embraced the land as we now know as The Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve.
The 88 acre property welcomes around 30,000 visitors per year and is flourishing with plants, trees, shrubs.
The CLNP is home to an array of wildlife. The preserve has 3 hiking trails equaling 2.5 miles alongside wetlands, grasslands, mud lands, meadows and mudflats. “The Nature Preserve is a stopover on four different flyway migrations. So there are lots of birds that stop, rest, eat and visit before continuing their journey.” “More than 280 species of birds have been spotted over time out of the 431 recorded in Ohio along with 29 butterflies.”
The Port of Cleveland maintains the Nature Preserve with the assistance of the Cleveland Metroparks. The CLNP is open during daylight hours and is located behind the Cleveland Metroparks Lakefront office.