Cuyahoga Falls

Cuyahoga Falls is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 49,652. It is the second-largest city in Summit County and part of the Akron Metropolitan Statistical Area and of the Cleveland-Akron-Elyria Combined Statistical Area. The city was founded in 1812 by William Wetmore and was originally named Manchester. Cuyahoga Falls is named after the Cuyahoga River (which flows into Lake Erie) and the series of waterfalls that run along the southern boundary of the city.Cuyahoga Falls is bordered by Akron to the south and the Cuyahoga Valley National Park to the northwest.HistoryCuyahoga Falls was formed in 1812 near the junction of what was then Northampton, Stow, Tallmadge, and Portage townships. The focus was the series of Cuyahoga River waterfalls that provided power for manufacturing.In 1812, Kelsey and Wilcox built a dam on the Cuyahoga River at a place where a railroad bridge crossed it in 1876. They then built a flour mill, an oil mill, and a saw mill. This led to the construction of a number of houses. This area was known as the old village. Development moved downstream, though, when the power was discovered to be better there. The old village was eventually destroyed in 1826, when a dam built by William Wetmore flooded the dam at the old village and its mills were torn down.