Aurora
Discover Aurora
A concise introduction to Aurora, its geography, history and culture.
Introduction
Aurora is a small town in Portage County, half an hour south-east of Cleveland, and for most of the nineteenth century its business was cheese — enough of it that the place was known as Cheese City and shipped by rail to New York. The farms went, the Cleveland commuters arrived, and what is left is a quiet, green township of big lots and old houses along a main road that was once a stagecoach route.
For four decades Aurora was better known for something else. Geauga Lake, just north of the centre, was one of the oldest amusement parks in the United States, opened in 1887, and for a period in the 1970s and 1980s the only place in the world with a SeaWorld directly across the water from a roller-coaster park. It closed in 2007 and the land has since been cleared, which ended the town’s run as a day-trip destination.
What remains is low-key: the outlet shopping at Aurora Farms, the trails and boardwalk at Sunny Lake and the Aurora Sanctuary, and a farmpark with heritage breeds. Sea World’s old lagoon is now part of a resort. Most visitors here are passing between Cleveland and the Cuyahoga Valley, and the town is a pleasant enough place to break the drive.