Castalia, Ohio: Blue Hole - The Attraction (Gone)

I remember stopping by the Blue Hole on a winter day with the ground covered with snow and seeing the water flow freely from the warm spring of the Blue Hole down a small creek to a small pond with steam rising from it all other water in the area was frozen and every inch of the pond was covered by waterfowl enjoying a rest on a warm unfrozen body of water. It is sad that our children and grandchildren will never enjoy that sight.

I visited the Blue Hole numerous times as a kid. I understand the tradition went back to my great grandfather.

I enjoyed it so much that I continued the tradition by stopping there on the way home from Cedar Point each summer with my own family. We always packed a picnic lunch to spend the afternoon.

My daughter, born in 1985, loved it as much as my wife and I. Our son, born in 1991, was too young to remember it.

We were deeply saddened when we pulled in the parking lot in June 1992 and found they had closed this fascinating wonder of nature.

As a child, my family stopped often to visit the Blue Hole on our return from Cleveland, Ohio to Detroit, Michigan. This week-end my sisters and I were returning from Cleveland and wanted to visit the Blue Hole just as we did as young kids. We were so looking forward to it. Knowing my dad, it was a way for us to stretch our legs and burn off some energy as children.

We were so excited that we were going to revisit the Blue Hole. When we stopped on the turnpike to pick up a pamphlet of the exact location, we found out that it was closed. What a disappointment for all of us. We lost a part of our past that had so many memories for us.

We thank you Dad for taking us to The Famous Blue Hole. This is for you DAD! We remember The Blue Hole. We will never forget.

How depressing! ...to read people bad-mouth the Blue Hole, as if it was some sort of tourist scam. I mean, just what the hell might one reasonably expect out of a destination in rural Ohio!? When I was a kid growing up in Brady Lake, OH it was quite a nice destination for a Sunday drive...which people used to actually do...and if you had any sort of imagination at all, it was a pretty interesting place. I don't think anyone actually believed the horse and buggy disappearing story, but then nobody actually believes that Sleeping Beauty's Castle is where Sleeping Beauty lives, either. I suppose what is most disturbing is the cynicism of 2007 vs. 1948. The good old days? Probably not, but certainly more gentle and less hard-bitten than the 21st century is turning out to be. Well, at least we still appreciate the tongue-in-cheek-ness of Area 51 in Nevada (Don't we?). All is not lost, apparently.

Castalia State Fish Hatchery is located on 90 acres in western Erie County, just southwest of Sandusky, Ohio. This facility is the newest of the six hatcheries and came on-line in the fall of 1997 after it was purchased from private interests.

The hatchery production facilities consist of eight indoor rearing troughs and three outdoor raceways. Nine of these raceways are supplied with water from one of the area's many blue-hole aquifers (2,500 gallons per minute capacity). Because the water from the blue hole has no oxygen and high levels of nitrogen, it is treated before being used by the hatchery. The remaining two race-ways are supplied with water diverted from Cold Creek (10,000 gallons per minute capacity). This cold water supply allows the hatchery to raise steelhead and rainbow trout. All of the state's steelhead production occurs at this hatchery. Rainbow trout are raised to catchable size before being stocked in Ohio lakes in both the spring and fall.

The facility offers great wildlife viewing opportunities and also offers a limited lottery-style fishing program on the portion of Cold Creek that runs through the hatchery grounds.