Staff photo / J.T. Whitehouse Poland Township Park Director Ken Filicky shows off the next two signs to be placed on the park’s new storybook trail that will be dedicated Aug. 1 as part of the Poland Township Community Picnic and America250 celebration.

POLAND TOWNSHIP — Visitors to Poland Township Park soon will have a trail full of history as the park and the Poland Historical Society come together to create the “Poland Story Walk: A Storybook Trail Through Our History.”

The new trail features historic facts in chronological order for park visitors to enjoy.

“We were the first township in the Western Reserve,” said Ken Filicky, director of Poland Township Park. “We were the first to be surveyed with the first stake driven on State Line Road.”

He said important details like that are among the facts appearing on signage for the park’s new storybook trail. The trail is being laid out and will start in back of the Botanical Gardens and wind its way through the woods. It is estimated to be roughly a quarter mile and will have 12 signs, each highlighting an important part of Poland’s rich history.

“This phase of the project will feature 12 signs taking the history through the 19th century,” said Laurie Fox, Poland Historical Society president. “The historical details were put together with information from our timeline banners.”

The society researched and crafted the banners that will be on display during Celebrate Poland.

“We used AI to do cartoon-style artwork for each sign,” Fox said.

The first sign, for example, came from a photo Fox said she took around 2019 when several local men re-enacted the first surveyors to map out Poland. Fox said she took a photo of four men dressed for the time period. They were Dave Smith, Dick Dale, Chuck Gilbert and the late Ted Heineman. In the AI artwork, the three surveyors were based on Heineman on the left, a combination of Smith and Dale in the center, and Gilbert’s character on the right.

“If you take a good look at the men in the drawing, you can see these four historians,” Fox said.

Each panel on the trail costs approximately $125 to produce, and the historical society is seeking donors to help complete the trail. For more information, contact Fox at 330-717-4705 or by email to lamlfox@zoominternet.net. Information also will be available at the society’s tent at Celebrate Poland.

Fox said the whole project has five key elements involved. It has a visual aspect, a story to tell, each panel has an interactive activity listed, team questions and the bigger journey that is the history of Poland.

At present, six panels are completed and being made and installed. The goal is to have the remaining six funded and finished in time for the Poland Community Picnic. At that time, Filicky said the park would host a ribbon cutting, along with the historical society.

Both entities said Phase One covers the 1700s through 1800s. The hope is to someday extend it, but for 2026, the goal is to get the first dozen signs in place. The trail also will be part of Poland’s America250 celebration.