The industrial midwest is US hotspot for the great outdoors
At a mall in Beavercreek, a suburb of Dayton, workers are unpacking camping equipment, bikes and kayaks ahead of the grand opening of Ohio’s fifth REI co-op.
In a region that relied on manufacturing and an air force base as its lifeblood for decades, Beavercreek might not conjure up images of outdoor bliss. Industry insiders see it differently: REI is a recreational equipment firm run as a cooperative and its Ohio membership has grown from around 80,000 in 2015 to 400,000 today.
“There’s a campground right down the street, there’s a state park locally that has bolted top rope routes for climbing, there’s a mountain bikeonly park,” said Sam Metcalf, the store manager. “You don’t have all that in most cities.”
Communities in the post-industrial midwest figure that their rivers, trails and parks offer a way to boost their economies. This year REI is also to open stores in Albany and Ithaca in upstate New York. Research from the Outdoor Industry Association found that outdoor recreation participation rates in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois, grew by 6% between 2019 and 2023 – faster than traditional hotspots such as California, Colorado and Montana.
A five-minute drive from Beavercreek lies a trailhead connected to the Great American Rail-Trail, a project to link Washington DC with the Pacific Ocean. During the second world war, nearly 1,000 people worked in the Ithaca Gun Factory. By 1962, more than one in three workers in Ithaca’s Tompkins county were employed in manufacturing. Now visitors spend about $225m (£180m) in Tompkins county every year.
“Outdoor recreation really took off after the pandemic,” said Jennifer Wells, who runs a watercraft rental company on Cayuga Lake. “The summer of 2020 and 2021 we saw about a 45% growth rate.”
The move away from the industrial past hasn’t always been straightforward. Lead contamination from the gun factory, close to the 150ft-high Ithaca Falls, cost millions to clean up.
Still, the upswing looks as if it will continue. “People are seeking outdoor recreation,” said Wells. “And Ithaca is a lovely place to be.”