LAKE MILTON, Ohio – In March of 1913, a devastating flood inundated the Mahoning Valley, as the waters of the Mahoning River rose 22 feet above their normal level after four days of continuous rain. Though no fatalities were reported, the disaster caused substantial damage to businesses and residential neighborhoods near the riverbanks.
In the immediate aftermath of the flood, the city of Youngstown expedited work on a new dam along the river in Milton Township that it had planned three years earlier. In 1910, the city purchased 3,416 acres along the east branch of the Mahoning with the intent to create a reservoir that would provide the volume of water needed to cool hot steel produced in the city’s mills. At the same time, the dam would act as a measure for flood control.
Construction on the 2,800-foot dam – located on the northern border of what is today Lake Milton – began several months following the flood. As work progressed, the massive project attracted onlookers from all over who would park their horse-drawn carriages or vehicles and spend hours picnicking or camping for a weekend stay.
Among the best vantage points was the family farm of Ward E. Craig, whose land was nestled just southwest of the new dam. Craig, not much of a farmer, was by trade a schoolteacher who possessed a strong entrepreneurial drive. In 1905, for example, the Milton Township resident pioneered telephone service in the area, establishing the Palmyra Telephone Exchange.
Never one to let an opportunity pass, Craig immediately seized on his good fortune as crowds gathered to watch the work on the dam. Initially, he established a small refreshment, ice cream and hot dog stand to serve patrons.
“It was the biggest project going on in the Mahoning Valley and everybody wanted to know what was going on out there,” says Matthew Wagner, who administers the Lake Milton Historical Society’s Facebook page. Newspaper announcements during this period offered rides to and from the site as its popularity grew. “He [Craig] started selling things – hot dogs and such – and making money out of it. He was in an ideal location, right in the heart of it.”
By all accounts, Craig was also an accomplished musician who often played for the crowds, laying the foundation of what would become a major entertainment destination. He toured regularly with the Dana Institute band, performing in 1905 at the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt, and composed several marches.
By 1916, as the dam neared completion and Lake Milton took shape, Craig had already transformed his land into a small getaway for Mahoning Valley vacationers. Then known as “Craig’s Landing,” the spot provided a swimming area, refreshment and snack stands, music, boat docks and picnic facilities.
The venture expanded even further in 1920, when Craig constructed a large dance hall that would attract some of the best bandleaders in the country as they swept through the Midwest.
“Craig would often sit in with the bands,” Wagner says.
Although Prohibition was in full swing during the decade, Wagner suspects alcohol flowed discreetly within the small community.
Entertainers such as Cab Calloway played the venue, as did many others touring the country.
The most famous of these was a 17-year-old crooner from Steubenville, Dino Crocetti, who in 1934 made his stage debut with the George Williams Orchestra at what was then the Craig Beach Dance Hall. On a dare from friends, Crocetti took the stage and sang a rendition of “Oh Marie.” More than a decade later, Crocetti would enjoy international fame as the singer and actor Dean Martin.
ENJOYING THE RIDE
By 1922, Craig and other investors took their idea to the next level and formed the Craig Beach Co., a venture that oversaw the construction and development of an amusement park on land adjacent to the Craig farm. “It was formed to capitalize on what Ward Craig had already started,” Wagner says.
By the end of the decade, the Craig homestead was completely converted into a lake resort with small cottages, the family home transformed into the park’s offices. By 1929, the Craig Beach Amusement Park boasted a Ferris wheel, boat rides, a midway with arcade and concession stands, a merry-
go-round, pony rides, and a roller coaster.
Other investors followed suit and developed similar dance halls, restaurants and other entertainment venues around the large lake. “There were four tour boats in the early days of Lake Milton,” Wagner says. “Two of them were 60-feet long and held 120 passengers each. They would run from mid-afternoon until a midnight excursion.”
By the early 1930s, the Craig Beach community numbered approximately 10 families that lived there year-round. Each summer, though, thousands would flock to the lake and amusement park, some enjoying extended stays in the approximately 500 rental cottages. By 1931, Craig Beach was officially incorporated.
A year earlier, the community of Lake Milton incorporated as well, electing its first mayor – a 63-year-old grandmother of seven by the name of Pennola Jones. Among her first order of business was to defy the notorious Mahoning County “blue laws” that prohibited dancing on Sundays, allowing ballrooms such as Craig Beach to swing all weekend. Under state law, the county did not have jurisdiction over incorporated communities.
“I’m ready for the deputies,” Jones was quoted per the New York Times in a story published July 20, 1930. “People who come to Lake Milton can dance on Sundays as long as I am the mayor if they behave themselves. Dancing is no worse than playing golf.”
Soon thereafter, the mayor’s son was arrested for selling alcohol out of the back of a dancing establishment along the lake, Wagner says. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
DECLINE AND CLOSURE
The Craig Beach Amusement Park proved a popular destination spot through much of the decade, despite falling into bankruptcy in 1934. It was sold at a sheriff’s sale to new owners.
Then, tragedy befell the park in 1941. For a single day in August each year, Black congregations in northeastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania reserved Craig Beach for their church members. On this occasion, with more than 20,000 people packed into the park, a roller coaster car derailed and was hurled from the track, killing two teenagers and injuring others. The ride was shut down but reopened the following year.
Fuel rationing during World War II inhibited transportation to the amusement park, causing attendance to decline. While it rebounded in the post-war years, other diversions such as television and improved highway access expanded entertainment options over the next two decades.
Now, Craig Beach had to compete with sleeker, more modern amusement parks such as Cedar Point. “It closed in 1966,” Wagner says. “It probably could have thrived but what killed them was that they were landlocked with eight acres. Other amusement parks were expanding and coming up with new things.”
Today, Craig Beach Village consists of approximately 1,000 residents, and most of the houses there were built
during the 1950s and 1960s, Wagner says.
A condominium development today stands on the old amusement park grounds, near an Ohio Historical Society marker acknowledging Dean Martin’s first performance – a final reminder of the dance hall that was razed in the 1970s.
In 1986, upkeep on the dam proved too much for the city of Youngstown and the state of Ohio took control of Lake Milton. After draining the reservoir to address structural problems with the dam, the state declared Lake Milton as Ohio’s 72nd state park in 1988. Today, multimillion dollar homes encircle the lake.
WHAT BECAME OF WARD CRAIG?
Craig was born in Milton Township in 1872, the grandson of Robert Craig, who along with Ephraim Quimby helped settle the Warren area. Aside from his business interests, he began his teaching career at Pricetown School at age 16, served as president of the Pricetown school board, was instrumental in important infrastructure paving projects, and served as a Mahoning County commissioner.
Craig, the founder and namesake of the small community and park, had sold off his interest in the Craig Beach Co. in the late 1920s and moved to Warren, years before the park began experiencing financial difficulties. He then turned his focus to the transportation industry, perhaps inspired by the bus and coach lines that brought patrons to his park.
Ever the entrepreneur, Craig purchased and operated the Warren-Sharon Coach Co. and then the Warren-Ashtabula Coach line, merging the two businesses into Sterling Stages Inc., according to Craig’s obituary. In 1955, the businessman sold the bus company to Stanley Anderson of the Anderson Bus Co. and retired in 1958.
Craig died on March 18, 1962, at age 90.
Pictured at top: This postcard from the 1930s shows the beach, tour boat and the amusement park.
All photographs courtesy of the Lake Milton Historical Society.