3 Ideas for Summer Fun in Ohio’s Grand Lake Region

Birding at Grand Lake St. Marys
Hand dug from 1837 to 1845 as a reservoir to feed the Miami & Erie Canal, Grand Lake St. Marys was once the world’s largest manmade lake. Today, the giant body of water in Auglaize and Mercer counties is a playground for boaters and outdoor enthusiasts, in addition to being one of Ohio’s top birding spots. 

Marshes and wildlife areas around the lake offer great looks at a variety of species. There are more than 10 bald eagle nests near the lake. At least six of them, including one at the state park’s dog park and one at the Little Chickasaw Boat Ramp, are easily visible. 

“Any given day, pretty much, if you spend a couple hours around the lake and you pay attention, guaranteed you’re going to see an adult or an immature eagle flying around,” says Dave Faler, manager at Grand Lake St. Marys State Park. 

American white pelicans, once a rarity in the area, started showing up in small numbers about six years ago and have since returned in huge numbers, Faler says. He estimates there are close to 2,000 of them.

“That’s really impressive to see that,” adds Neil Baker, wildlife research technician for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ District 5. “White pelicans aren’t really historically native to here. Over time, their range has moved eastward.”

Great places to see the birds include the St. Marys Fish Hatchery and Windy Point, a long outlet where one can walk out and sometimes see pelicans flying, Baker says. Shorebirds also love the fish hatchery, and black-necked stilts are among some of the rare ones spotted in the area. 

During spring migration, neotropical warblers in their vibrant breeding plumage, such as yellow, prairie and black-throated blue warblers, migrate through the area. Resident woodpeckers, kingfishers, bluebirds and other species also live in the woodlots and prairies around the lake, according to Baker. Pairs of sandhill cranes nest around the lake as well. 

During late winter, early spring and fall duck migrations, a variety of ducks ranging from common mergansers to mallards to blue-winged teal stop by. Common loons, as well as some rarer ocean birds like eiders and scoters also move through in spring and fall. 

“You could do a whole birding loop through all these parks [around the lake],” Baker says. 

Explore the Armstrong Air & Space Museum
When Ohioan Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon July 20, 1969, it was a defining moment in human history. That feat sealed the United States’ role as the leader in space exploration and showed how far determination and teamwork could take humanity. 

The Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Armstrong’s hometown of Wapakoneta celebrates that extraordinary achievement by taking visitors inside the story of how it happened and offering inspiration for future space explorers and engineers.  

“I think there’s a relatability to Armstrong,” says Logan Rex, museum curator and communications director at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum. “He was just this really ordinary kid from northwest Ohio.  ... It’s a very aspirational story. He wasn’t a superhuman person. ... He was just a kid who liked flying and he followed his passion.”

Through artifacts, photos, interactive kiosks, lunar and shuttle-landing simulators and the museum building itself (built to look like a moon base), visitors learn Armstrong’s story. They can see a rock Armstrong’s crew collected from the moon, artifacts related to the moon landing and four crafts that Armstrong flew during his career: the Aeronca Champion, Gemini VIII capsule, F5D Skylancer and Learjet 28 Longhorn. 

The Explore! series takes place the first Saturday of each month and focuses on different parts of science, technology, engineering and math with hands-on experiences. Activities include building a model rocket and a balsa-wood flyer. 

“We’re trying to get kids involved and show them contributions that America has made to sciences,” Rex says.

The museum is participating in the statewide America 250-Ohio’s Ohio Goes to the Movies program and showing a documentary on Armstrong’s Apollo 11 moon landing May 30 on the museum lawn. This fall, the museum will debut an exhibit of restored photos of the Apollo 11 mission remastered by Andy Saunders, a British author, science writer and one of the world’s foremost experts on NASA digital restoration. 

“There are some [images] of Armstrong that are more iconic and some that people may not have seen before,” Rex says. “We’re trying to show Armstrong through the photos of NASA that are remastered.”

After touring the museum, be sure to head to downtown Wapakoneta and snap a photograph with the giant astronaut helmet.

Celebrate Northwest Ohio’s Contributions to the Nation 
Step back into the days when a canalboat ride was a modern way of traveling at Grand Lake St. Marys State Park and the Belle of St. Marys canalboat replica at Memorial Park in St. Marys. Both locations are stops on the America 250-Ohio Lake Erie to Ohio River Trail, which highlights places along Lake Erie and our state’s waterways that helped turn the Ohio wilderness into a corridor of commerce and connection.  

When Grand Lake St. Marys was created, it played an important role in the region by linking the Great Lakes to the Ohio River. The original hand-laid stone guard lock still stands on the east side of the lake at the state park, and visitors can see water running through it to feed the canal, Faler says. The park also offers camping, boating, fishing and picnicking opportunities. In Memorial Park in nearby St. Marys, the Belle of St. Marys offers a stationary canalboat replica that invites travelers to step aboard. 

The Grand Lake Region also has several works of art featured as part of America 250-Ohio’s Murals Across Ohio program. In Fort Recovery “The Harvest Jubilee” celebrates a local multiday event that has taken place since 1905. The mural and its use of muted colors depicts the event as it was in its early years. 

Wapakoneta continues its celebration of Neil Armstrong with its “First on the Moon” free-standing cutout mural, which shows Armstrong in his spacesuit on the moon. The “Beauty of Diversity” mural features brightly colored koi fish swimming in a pond. It’s located in the Artist Avenue stretch of downtown Wapakoneta that showcases rotating works by locals. 

In St. Marys, the “Memory Garden” mural offers a nod to a local couple’s creative outlets and depicts them in a beautiful garden, with the woman painting on an easel and the man watering flowers.

When You Go 
For more information about these and other destinations in the Grand Lake Region, visit seemore.org.

Grand Lake St. Marys State Park
ohiodnr.gov

Armstrong Air and Space Museum
armstrongmuseum.org

America 250-Ohio’s Lake Erie to Ohio River Trail
america250-ohio.org/lake-erie-to-ohio-river

America 250-Ohio’s Murals Across Ohio
america250-ohio.org/murals-across-ohio

St. Marys Memorial Park
cityofstmarys.net