Property history.

A storied piece of Ohio.

Little Mountain Animal Sanctuary sits on the site of what used to be a famous resort on Little Mountain. This "mountain" is actually a hill with an elevation of 1,220 feet, located in the northeastern region of Ohio and situated along the northern ridge of an extension of the Allegheny Plateau, a dissected plateau area of the Appalachian Mountains. The summit of Little Mountain is just to the east of the barns that are on the Sanctuary property.

The Little Mountain Resort

The first permanent settlers arrived at Little Mountain Town in 1815. About 16 years later, the first structure of Little Mountain Resort was constructed. From 1831 to 1925, about 52 buildings were part of this luxurious and relaxing summer resort, including:

• Hotels and cottages
• A stable
• General stores
• A post office
• A church

Among the resort's frequent visitors were President James A. Garfield and John D. Rockefeller. A nearby settlement called Joice's Corners existed briefly during the time of the resort.

Dramatic geology

The Sanctuary sits on the 190-acre tract that makes up Little Mountain, and features dramatic rock outcroppings, ledges, sheer rock walls, and unworldly crevices that suddenly open and stretch hundreds of feet. You can walk through some dark, cave-like crevices and look down more than 25 feet in others.

The dominant rock on Little Mountain is an over 300-million-year-old sandstone conglomerate, ironically called a Sharon Conglomerate. It's a clastic sedimentary rock composed of a substantial fraction of rounded to subangular gravel-sized clasts, typically containing a matrix of finer-grained sediments like sand, silt, or clay. It can be up to 100 feet thick atop Little Mountain.

The pebble-filled rock is hard enough to form cliffs and crevices, yet it is porous, acting like a sponge. It soaks up water that percolates through the rock until it hits the impermeable shale below, which results in numerous springs at the base of Little Mountain. It was scoured by glaciers, and the glaciers helped widen many of the crevices on Little Mountain as well as leaving giant boulders throughout the property.

One specific area on the Mountain is named Devil's Kitchen , a narrow, rocky chamber that is dark and spooky, filled with names etched into the rock from when Little Mountain was a vacation spot for the well-to-do.

Bordering Holden Arboretum

Little Mountain Animal Sanctuary borders nearby Holden Arboretum, one of the largest arboreta and botanical gardens in the United States. Holden Arboretum encompasses more than 3,600 acres. Six hundred acres are devoted to various gardens and collections, while diverse natural areas and ecologically sensitive habitats make up the rest of the acreage. Holden Arboretum provides tours of Little Mountain, whose access is otherwise restricted.

Our hope for the animals we bring to live here is to find the same sanctuary, privacy, and peace just as those who stayed at Little Mountain Resort did years ago.