Featuring over 25 structures that follow the history and development of the city of Dayton, it's located in the heart of downtown Dayton between the Little Miami River and a glacial moraine. We found out that a moraine is the hill formed when a glacier stops its movement and melts, the moraine is the pile of earth that was being pushed in front of the glacier. This explains why the northern part of Ohio is so flat until you get past the Dayton area then the hills start up until you hit the Ohio River then the mountains start.
The park which opened in 1950 is focused on the Dayton's transportation and inventive history, there is an original 1905 Wright Bros Flyer III on display, the first electric cash register, (NCR headquarters is right across the street) first motorized wheel chair, the oldest standing building in Dayton, first Soap Box Derby winner and much more.
Notice the outdoor hydraulic lift
at the Sunoco Station.
This is park is set up so that you get a very good history of the Dayton area and find out how many first took place here. A very interesting part of WW II history here is about the WAVES. The WAVES lived in Sugar Camp (over 600 of them) which was the part of NCR where their trainees lived while being trained, their work here was Top Secret, they had very little idea of what they were building and were not allowed to discuss it among them selfs. While everybody thought that they were building accounting machines they were really assembling electronic computer for breaking the German's encrypted codes, by the end of the war they has built over 120.
Another interesting thing was the "BUG" it was the first pilot less aircraft / buzz bomb / guided missile, it was developed by Charles Kettering for use by the Army Signal Corps in 1917, thirty years before the Germans V-1 was used, WW I ended before the Bug was put into use.
