CVNRA #295, from the Federal Lands series

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In preparation for accepting the commission from the Akron Art Museum to document CVNRA, Ketchum toured the length and breadth of the area. One of his conditions for the commission was that he would have the freedom to approach the shoot as he did a previous Hudson River project: photographing everything including farms, buildings, industrial sites, and toxic cleanups, because all of those things were happening within the park’s perimeter. Here he captures Wilson Feed Mill, an animal feed supplier for the valley’s local farms. This mill was built in 1855 as a grist mill for grinding flour, at a time when the region was a major producer of wheat, because the canal allowed farmers to ship flour across the Great Lakes.