Wooden Shoe Gardens

I'm thankful for a lot of things. I'm thankful for good friendships. I'm thankful for fun outings. I'm thankful for unexpected surprises. How amazing is it that I got to experience all three in one day!

A few years back I came across a book called "Wooden Shoe Hollow" in the Museum Center's gift shop. The area that the novel takes place is a real area of Cincinnati close to the Spring Grove Cemetery. I purchased the book for my grandpa as a Christmas gift knowing that he'd love the history in the book as well as the area--he was born in that section of town. My grandpa read the book, shared it with his friend who is particularly interested in German-American culture, and then passed the book on to me.

                            
I loved it, not so much for the story that it told, but for the insight into what Cincinnati used to be like at the turn of the 20th century. It fascinates me and when I like something I tend to ramble on and on about it, so when Amanda came across a sign that said "Wooden Shoe Gardens" on a road she often takes she knew just who to share that information with.

 And then, she saw that it had fallen on the ground. As though no one cared about it. Like it was forgotten and needed to be salvaged. We were the gals to do it. We set a date and went out to "save" this piece of history. Well, it turned out to be quite a bit bigger than actually thought. And it was in pretty bad shape, which is probably why it had fallen down to begin with.

Although bummed, we soon realized that there was land to be explored. Maybe not on that particular day when the temperature was below freezing, but someday soon. We left and I decided that I was going to do some research. What is/was this place? Is it open to the public? Could we hike through when it gets warmer? I'm excited to see where this leads.