Oglebay Park is a self-supporting public

municipal park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

, the only one of its kind, located on the outskirts of

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in the U.S. state of West Virginia. Located almost entirely in Ohio County, of which it is the county seat, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and also contains a tiny portion extending ...

, on . In 1926, Earl W. Oglebay (of Oglebay, Norton, and Company) deeded his estate, Waddington Farms, to the city of Wheeling for the express purpose of public recreation. The park has been open to the public since 1928 when its governing body, the Wheeling Park Commission, began operations. Several Waddington Farms buildings, including the Mansion Museum and the greenhouse, remain in use today. Others, such as the Carriage House, have been rebuilt in the style of the original structures. Placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979, the Oglebay Mansion is operated as a museum by the Oglebay Institute. The park currently incorporates two championship

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...

s, two standard courses (9-hole and 18-hole), one par three course, eleven

tennis court A tennis court is the venue where the sport of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the centre. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles matches. A variety of surfaces can be u ...

s, a large outdoor

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

, extensive walking trails, the Good Zoo, the Mansion Museum (operated by the

Oglebay Institute Oglebay Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, the Anne Kuchinka Amphitheater, the Wilson Lodge (containing over 271 rooms), 54

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...

s, The Schrader Center (a nature center operated by the Oglebay Institute), a

planetarium A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetarium ...

(located within the Good Zoo), a

ski slope A ski is a narrow strip of semi-rigid material worn underfoot to glide over snow. Substantially longer than wide and characteristically employed in pairs, skis are attached to ski boots with ski bindings, with either a free, lockable, or parti ...

, Camp Russel, and Schenk Lake, which is used for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

, pedal boating,

Segway The Segway is a two-wheeled, self-balancing personal transporter invented by Dean Kamen and brought to market in 2001 as the Segway HT, subsequently as the Segway PT, and manufactured by Segway Inc. ''HT'' is an initialism for "human transp ...

tours, and several nightly fountain shows in season. Annual events at the park include, but are not limited to: The Winter Festival of Lights, Oglebayfest, the Ohio County Fair, the West Virginia Open (tennis), Springfest, and Fort Henry Days (a living history weekend).

Oglebay Mansion and Waddington Farm

The Oglebay Mansion was built in 1846 by Paul Matvey as an eight-room farmhouse. Earl W. Oglebay, co-founder of the Oglebay-Norton Company, purchased the mansion and its adjoining areas in 1900, renamed it Waddington Farm, and used it as his summer estate and model farm. He was the ninth owner of the home and its adjoining land, and expanded the farmhouse into a mansion by adding additional wings and architectural features like the front portico. He gradually expanded the estate by purchasing adjacent farms until Waddington Farm had grown from to at the time of his death in 1926. The mansion became a museum in 1930. The museum, which includes restored rooms, local history exhibits, and exhibits on Earl W. Oglebay and his former estate, is operated by the

Oglebay Institute Oglebay Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. It reduces reliance on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, and the probability of developing resistant ...

, soil improvement, and cost-cutting methods. Waddington Farm once incorporated a

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that ...

, a poultry farm, a pig farm, and a

sheep farm Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin an ...

as well as stables,

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

s, a

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, a

rose garden A rose garden or rosarium is a garden or park, often open to the public, used to present and grow various types of garden roses, and sometimes rose species. Most often it is a section of a larger garden. Designs vary tremendously and roses m ...

, groves of

fruit tree A fruit tree is a tree which bears fruit that is consumed or used by animals and humans — all trees that are flowering plants produce fruit, which are the ripened ovaries of flowers containing one or more seeds. In horticultural usage, ...

s, vegetable gardens for the consumption of those living within the estate, and the areas used to research agricultural techniques. Oglebay's unconventional farming methods resulted in criticism by the agricultural community. To them, he was "a man from the city trying outlandish things", but after they saw the results of his experiments, they thought differently.

Winter Festival of Lights

This 1985 holiday tradition began at Oglebay Park, but soon spread throughout the city of Wheeling. The first year, displays and landscape lighting covered over a three-mile (5 km) drive throughout the resort. The show now covers more than over a six-mile (10 km) drive throughout the park. Landscape lighting expert Dick Bosch and the late Robert J. Otten, Wheeling Park Commission's long-time creative director, were the creative talents behind Oglebay's party. Bosch's lighting expertise was needed to produce the lighting for trees and buildings, and Bob Otten designed the first five displays for the 1985 opening and created nearly 50 additional displays until his death in 2005. Every year, several new displays are added. Notable displays from past years include the ''Snowflake Tunnel'', a display that allows visitors to drive through a lighted tunnel portraying thousands of twinkling snowflakes, the massive ''Polyhedron Star'', which includes over 2,000 lights, and the ''Poinsettia Wreath and Candle'', which is the festival's tallest. Other displays include the ''Candy Cane Wreath'', ''The Twelve Days of Christmas'', or ''Willard the Snowman'', named for the television personality

Willard Scott Willard Herman Scott Jr. (March 7, 1934 – September 4, 2021) was an American weather presenter, radio and television personality, actor, narrator, clown, comedian, and author, whose broadcast career spanned 68 years, 65 years with the NBC bro ...

, who switched on the lights for ''Light-Up Night'' in 1986. Every year, local students in Ohio County Schools submit new display ideas. Most displays are fabricated at

Wheeling Park High School Wheeling Park High School is a public high school in Wheeling, West Virginia, United States. It is the only public high school in the Ohio County School District. Athletic teams compete as the Wheeling Park Patriots in the WVSSAC Class AAA, as we ...

, where welding technology students build the frames for the displays. The school's electronics technology program has designed, built, and programmed the controls for every animated display at the Festival. The high school's radio station WPHP 91.9 also broadcasts seasonal music along with information about the resort and overall light show every evening from 5 - 11 pm. Two of the park's light displays are synchronized to music. "Gardens of Light" and the Good Zoo's "Lighting and Music Extravaganza" were designed by

Carson Williams Carson Williams may refer to: * Carson Williams (electrical engineer), American noted for his light shows using Christmas lights * Carson Williams (baseball), American baseball player {{hndis, Williams, Carson ...

, who created the original

Wizards in Winter "Wizards in Winter" is an instrumental track by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, released on the 2004 album ''The Lost Christmas Eve''. A clip of the band playing the first few seconds of the piece was used in a commercial for its most recent concert to ...

light display at his home in

Mason, Ohio Mason is a city in southwestern Warren County, Ohio, United States, approximately north of downtown Cincinnati. As of the 2020 census, Mason's population was 34,792. Mason is home to Kings Island amusement park and one of the largest tennis stad ...

. The Good Zoo's light party, added in 2006, utilizes upwards of 35,500

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...

bulbs and is controlled by a computer. This technology allows the lights to be synchronized with music. The "Gardens of Light" display, which was added in 2007, is very similar to the Good Zoo's light party, but on a much larger scale. In this display, park visitors walk through the gardens, which incorporate hanging flower baskets with lights and lighted flowers in the flowerbeds. The "Gardens of Light" display is an attempt to recreate the look of Oglebay Park's flower gardens during the spring and summer months. In 2008, Oglebay announced that all new displays will use

lights, rather than the

incandescent light An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxidat ...

s that were used before. In addition, the park will gradually convert the existing displays to use LED lights. The new lights will use 85% less energy and last five times longer, according to Oglebay's website.

Good Zoo

The Good Zoo is a facility that houses over 80 species of animals. The zoo was dedicated in memory of a seven-year-old boy, Philip Mayer Good, who loved nature. He was the son of Barbara and Larry Good of Wheeling. As of 2019, the Good Zoo's collection includes

cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: the Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. zeb ...

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...

wallaby A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized Macropodidae, macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same Taxonomy (biology), taxon ...

tamarin The tamarins are squirrel-sized New World monkeys from the family Callitrichidae in the genus ''Saguinus''. They are the first offshoot in the Callitrichidae tree, and therefore are the sister group of a clade formed by the lion tamarins, Goel ...

lemur Lemurs ( ) (from Latin ''lemures'' – ghosts or spirits) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea (), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 exist ...

ostrich Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There are ...

es,

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a List of meat animals, meat and pack animal by Inca empire, Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with othe ...

goat The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...

barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

red panda The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle ...

goral The gorals are four species in the genus ''Naemorhedus''. They are small ungulates with a goat-like or antelope-like appearance. Until recently, this genus also contained the serow species (now in genus '' Capricornis''). Etymology The original ...

peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

white-naped crane The white-naped crane (''Antigone vipio'') is a bird of the crane family. It is a large bird, long, about tall, and weighing about , with pinkish legs, a grey-and-white-striped neck, and a red face patch. Distribution The white-naped crane br ...

s, a small gang of

meerkat MeerKAT, originally the Karoo Array Telescope, is a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa. In 2003, South Africa submitted an expression of interest to host the Square Kilom ...

s and many other animals from all over the globe. There is a discovery lab, with an indoor South American

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

exhibit, and more. The Good Zoo is the only

AZA Aza or AZA may refer to: Places *Aza, Azerbaijan, a village and municipality *Azadkənd, Nakhchivan or Lower Aza, Azerbaijan *Aza, medieval name of Haza, Province of Burgos, Spain *Aźa, a Tibetan name for the Tuyuhun kingdom *Aza, a Hebrew roman ...

accredited zoo in West Virginia. The Good Zoo is also home to a

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

hospital where visitors can view operations and routine checkups. The hospital is used as a treatment area for zoo animals, a breeding center for certain species, a quarantine area for incoming animals, and a rehabilitation center for wild raptors. The zoo's raptor rehabilitation program has successfully treated many raptors and other native birds since its establishment. The zoo's

turkey vulture The turkey vulture (''Cathartes aura'') is the most widespread of the New World vultures. One of three species in the genus ''Cathartes'' of the family Cathartidae, the turkey vulture ranges from southern Canada to the southernmost tip of South ...

s are two of the animals on exhibit. The Good Zoo has many SSP programs. The

Species Survival Plan The American Species Survival Plan or SSP program was developed in 1981 by the (American) Association of Zoos and Aquariums to help ensure the survival of selected species in zoos and aquariums, most of which are threatened or endangered in the wi ...

(SSP) is a cooperative breeding and conservation program instituted by the

Association of Zoos and Aquariums The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), originally the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1924 and dedicated to the advancement of zoos and public aquariums in ...

(AZA). The goal of SSP programs is to help as many species as possible through captive breeding, education, research, and habitat preservation. Annual events at the Good Zoo include "Boo at the Zoo" (in October), and "The Good Zoo Lights Up For You" (during the Festival of Lights) an annual car show at nearby Camp Russel, and an

Easter egg hunt An egg hunt is an Eastertide game during which decorated eggs or Easter eggs are hidden for children to find. Real hard-boiled eggs, which are typically dyed or painted, artificial eggs made of plastic filled with chocolate or candies, or foil-w ...

References

External links

Oglebay Resort & Conference Center

* ttp://www.oglebay-resort.com/goodzoo/ The Good Zoo Web site {{Authority control Houses in Wheeling, West Virginia Golf clubs and courses in West Virginia Greek Revival houses in West Virginia Houses completed in 1846 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Municipal parks in West Virginia Museums in Ohio County, West Virginia Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Protected areas of Ohio County, West Virginia Tourist attractions in Ohio County, West Virginia Geography of Wheeling, West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Wheeling, West Virginia 1928 establishments in West Virginia