The secret history of my hometown
Avon Lake, Ohio, was once a sailors’ hideout on the Great Lakes.
I grew up in a town on Lake Erie that was once known by its Native American name, Xeuma. It was later known, along with other neighboring towns, as the French Creek District, followed by its present name, Avon Lake. If you grew up in the Cleveland area, you probably know Avon Lake as a “new” suburb. But Avon Lake is not new, and its history is just as rich as Cleveland’s. While the city of Cleveland sits on what was once a no-man’s land, Avon Lake was home to Native American tribes living along the French Creek.
My family moved into a brand-new house in one of the first major sections of a neighborhood called the Westwinds in 1990. I was 4 years old. I quickly noticed a couple things: first, all the streets were named after sailing terms. My street was called Beacon Court, near the meeting point of Bounty Way and Long Point.
All the houses were shiny and new, with brand-new floors and carpeting. The newness was exciting. But it made it all the more alarming when the kids romped around in the basement and found black widow spiders. In fact, I still shudder thinking about it. The adults shrugged and said, “of course there are bugs in the basement, stay out of the crawl spaces,” and called an exterminator.
