North Park's historic Cottonwoods Council Ring to be explored April 6

Located within the boundaries of North Park are a number of historic structures, but a hiker, runner or biker may pass them by without even knowing.

“Or you might see (an historic structure) and not know the significance of it,” said Sam Shephard, senior park ranger for Allegheny County Parks’ northern region parks. “You might think, ‘There’s a pile of rocks over there,’ but might not realize what it was or that it dates back to the 1930s. If you go hike almost anywhere in North Park, you’ll pass old retaining walls and old structures — and there’s a big story behind what each one of those are.”

The park rangers are now shedding light on the history behind such old structures with a program debuting April 6. Ranger Deaglan McManus has been working to compile the history of such remains throughout the park and will give a presentation April 6 followed by a short hike to one such structure, the Cottonwoods Council Ring. Then, on April 20 as part of Earth Day activities in the park, they will host a cleanup of the Cottonwoods Council Ring.

“(McManus) has spent a lot of time getting more and more information about some of these structures that have kind of fallen victim to the overgrowth of the forest, if you will,” Shephard said. “A lot’s gotten covered up, but he’s spent a lot of time exploring, taking a closer look and doing a lot of research to figure out when they were installed, the stories behind them and their use — and he’s gotten a lot of pictures of these structures from when they were actually in use.”

Many of the structures were used as gathering sites and shelters for picnics and camping. There are the remnants of ovens used for cooking and stone seating arrangements and tables.

Shephard said the walk after the April 6 program will be short and easy so as to welcome people of all ages and ability. On April 20, the rangers will lead a group to help clean up Cottonwoods Council Ring with the hopes that it may once again become a place where nature lovers can sit and ponder the history of the park.

“We’ll be scraping soil away from rocks and removing invasive species and uncovering the shelter,” he said. “Obviously, we’re not going to bring it back to life exactly how it was, but we want to make it more visible so that it’s clearer to people that this was an important structure and not just a pile of rocks back in the woods.”