Old Travel Guides Fit in My Bookcase
For ‘Clean Out Your Bookcase Day’ in February I Recall My Past Journeys
My old guidebooks are pictured on the shelf. I have made use of "Ohio's Lake Erie Public Access Guidebook Coast Edition," which I feature in this post. I also traveled to New York City in 2010 and to New
England in 2022.
Travel guidebooks are like snapshots of places. Even if they are old, they are a record of
how a place was when you visited. I have
a book collection that I neaten occasionally, but I always keep travel
guidebooks. They remind me of where I
have been, the founding of places and their notable residents. Many attractions listed in guidebooks are
still in operation, and if I were to return to a place, I would consult websites
for up-to-date information.
February 20th is Clean Out Your Bookcase Day. I recently learned that such a day exists,
and I think it is one of the most useful and laborious national days I can
think of. For me, I remove books that
have torn, yellow pages; some of them are classics that I know I can replace with
newer paperbacks. Cookbooks, believe it
or not, are another category of books that I am likely to pare down. My cookbooks now have healthier recipes than
ones I inherited from the 1960s. Unless
it is a cookbook that provides historical information about a community or
site, or offers a culinary tour of a region, I am likely to dispose of the old
ones. And finally, I would free myself from
books that I was likely to find elsewhere, like at a library, or could borrow
from a friend.
A guidebook I have is “Ohio’s Lake Erie Public Access
Guidebook Coast Edition.” It is a publication by the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources Office of Coastal Management. The
guidebook lists the places where the public can enjoy Lake Erie. The properties
are either local municipality, county, state or federal. Gorgeous waysides, memorials and monuments,
public cemeteries and public road right-of-way are included. Access areas in Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky,
Erie, Lorain, Cuyahoga, Lake and Ashtabula counties, as well as the Lake Erie
Islands, are covered in the book. The
pictures in the book are nice, too. The
free copy I have was reprinted in 2017. Its
content is current as of March 2014.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources makes the book accessible
online, and you can find it by clicking on the link below:
In 2020, Corey and I visited Lakeshore Reservation of the
Lake Metroparks; the site in Lake County is listed in the guide. We made a day trip out of traveling to North
Perry, to be exact, which now has a nuclear power plant and was named for
Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, who famously protected the territory of the
Great Lakes in the War of 1812. We
avoided travel by highway and took the back roads to our destination. We ate a picnic lunch at the park, and we
walked on the trail by the Lake Erie shore.
We visited the large sundial at the Strock Sculpture Garden, which was created in honor of the wife of the Lake Metroparks’ first naturalist. We enjoyed the
peace. We viewed the lake from a
distance; we were not on a beach but rather on a trail that was elevated from
the shoreline. From that vantage point,
the lake looked very tranquil.
Living in Ohio, I think the state is fortunate to have a
resource like Lake Erie. According to the guidebook, Lake Erie is a major
location for sport-fishing and birdwatching, among other uses. I personally love to look at the water and
walk in view of it. The cooler air
temperatures near the lakeshore in the summer and the warmer air temperatures
near the lake in the winter give me a reprieve from the most extreme
temperatures found inland during each season.
Some restaurants feature Lake Erie perch on their menus, and it is
marvelous to know that a Great Lake state like Ohio has access to fresh, local
seafood.
Like so many places that were named after the area’s early inhabitants,
Lake Erie has its name from the Erie tribe of Native Americans. The guidebook covers the history of Lake Erie
in four pages, including the events of the War of 1812, how the lake was an
obstacle to slaves escaping to Canada on the Underground Railroad and the
lake’s value to the economy.
On Clean Out Your Bookcase Day, I can assure you I will not be discarding old travel guidebooks. I do not know how many other people treat old guidebooks in the same way. I am a very sentimental person who likes to be an at-home archivist, too. No surprise that a day of trimming a book collection would be such rigorous work.
Resources
“History.” North Perry Village, Ohio, 2021, https://northperry.org/community/history/ .
"How to Organize Your Personal Library." Bethlehem Public Library, Retrieved Feb. 19, 2025, https://www.bethlehempubliclibrary.org/how-to-organize-your-personal-library/ .
“Lakeshore Reservation.” Lake Metroparks, Retrieved Feb. 18, 2025, https://www.lakemetroparks.com/parks-trails/lakeshore-reservation/ .
Ohio's Lake Erie Public Access Guidebook Coast Edition. 2014. Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management, Sandusky, Ohio, 2017.
"Ohio Sportfish Consumption Advisory." Ohio Department of Health, Retrieved Feb. 19, 2025, https://odh.ohio.gov/know-our-programs/Ohio-Sport-Fish-Consumption-Advisory .
