Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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Lake ErieWest Virginia27 places277 places77 places73 places35 places519 places1913 places1319 places1916 places168 places810 places1010 places109 places98 places820 places204 places43 places3Barkcamp State Park4 places47 places77 places76 places69 places917 places173 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places2Forked Run State Park3 places32 places26 places610 places103 places32 places2

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117 parks in 7 regions

The Free Stamp

Cleveland · Cuyahoga County
Public art

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.
Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Approximate — boundary or exact point not confirmed
Approximate location, use the address
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

A 35-ton steel rubber stamp reading FREE, tipped on its side in a downtown Cleveland park after the company that commissioned it changed its mind.

Artists
Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, husband-and-wife pop-art sculptors
Commissioned
1982, by Standard Oil of Ohio (Sohio), for the plaza of its new headquarters at 200 Public Square
Size
About 49 feet long, 28 feet tall and 26 feet wide, in steel and aluminum, painted maroon and pink
Weight
Roughly 35 tons
Rejected
BP, which took over Sohio's site, declined to install it and crated it in an Illinois warehouse for about five years
Dedicated
November 15, 1991, in Willard Park, laid on its side rather than standing upright as first designed

The story

In 1982 the Standard Oil Company of Ohio commissioned Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen to make a monumental sculpture for the plaza of its planned new headquarters tower at 200 Public Square. Oldenburg, known for blowing up ordinary objects to giant scale, designed a rubber hand stamp reading FREE, meant to stand upright, stamp-face down, in front of the building. It was fabricated around 1985 in steel and aluminum, about 28 feet tall and 35 tons. Before it could go up, BP bought out Sohio's assets and took control of the site, and its leadership decided not to install the sculpture in front of the tower, uneasy, by most accounts, with how the word FREE might read outside a corporate headquarters. Instead of a plaza dedication, the finished sculpture was crated and shipped to a warehouse in Kankakee, Illinois, where it sat in storage for roughly five years.

Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich brought the artists back to the city to find the orphaned sculpture a new home, and BP agreed to donate it to Cleveland and pay for its installation. Oldenburg and van Bruggen reworked the piece for its new site in Willard Park, laying it on its side instead of standing it upright as first planned, angled so the word FREE is legible and, by local telling, points back toward BP's old offices at 200 Public Square. It was dedicated on November 15, 1991, and has since needed repeated upkeep: a restoration in 1998 and a roughly $100,000 repainting funded by BP in 2014. By late 2025 the paint was again fading and chipped and marked with graffiti, and the city was still working out who would pay for the next round of repairs.

Sources give slightly different dimensions and both 'Illinois' and 'Kankakee, Illinois' for the warehouse where it was stored; the more specific location is used here. As of late 2025 the paint was showing wear and a repainting was unfunded.

Visiting

Status
Open; downtown park
Hours
Outdoor public park; no set hours, though downtown visits after dark carry the normal caution of any city park.
Cost
Free.
Phone
See the City of Cleveland's Division of Park Maintenance
Please note
It is a public sculpture in a small downtown park; use the adjacent Willard Park Garage or metered street parking.
Address
Willard Park, E 9th St & Lakeside Ave E, Cleveland, OH 44114
More information →DirectionsShow on the map

The pin on the map is approximate; use the address for directions.

Hours, prices and even the attractions themselves can change. Confirm before a long drive.

Parks nearby

Punderson State Park
About 25 miles · A lake park with a lodge and cabins east of Cleveland.
Open
Headlands Beach State Park
About 27 miles · A Lake Erie beach park near Mentor.
Open

Buckeye Trail

Bedford Section
Near the Buckeye Trail
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.