Akron Falls Park

The Upper and Lower Akron Falls, in Akron Falls County Park, are formed out of irregular, cracked layers of thick limestone. The path to get to the falls was really nice but unfortunately the "falls" were down to just a trickle (wrong time of year), flowing into Murder Creek. Curiosity led me to Google Murder Creek to see where the name came from. Here is what I found.

The Legend of Murder Creek: In the early 1800s, John Dolph and his business partner built a cabin near Murder Creek with hopes of building a sawmill and starting an enterprise in this early settlement. The planning of their mill was abruptly interrupted by the desperate cries of a young native woman outside of their dwelling. They brought her inside and she told them about her family that had just been murdered by a crazy white officer named Sanders. She escaped from him just minutes before coming to the cabin. The men and their families were horror-struck at the event that had just taken place nearby. Sanders was now after the woman, intent on taking her as his bride. Sanders showed up minutes later looking for the woman, who was hiding in a nearby cave. Suspecting that the settlers were covering something, he staked out the cabin and found her when Dolph’s wife brought her food and water. When Dolph and the others were away, Sanders went to retake his prisoner. Gray Wolf, a young native warrior from a nearby camp, and the young woman’s husband-to-be, had come across the carnage at the native family’s home. Hearing the cries of his loved one, he rushed to her aid. With tomahawk in hand he fought a gruesome battle with the sword-wielding Sanders at the edge of the creek gorge. Bloody and battered, Sanders fell dead. Before Gray Wolf could be reunited with the woman, he too succumbed to his wounds. [This legend is told as the source of the name Murder Creek. Many variations of this legend exist. Some say that Gray Wolf lives, some say that the woman dies. In some cases the deaths occur via fall into the creek gorge. We couldn’t verify anything here as fact.]