Malabar Farm State Park is a Unique Ohio Vacation Destination

Louis Bromfield, the Pulitzer Prize winning author, wanted to escape 1930's Europe and its burgeoning smell of fascism and war. What better way than to start a farm near his native Mansfield, Ohio?

Malabar Farm, Bromfield's Pleasant Valley escape, is now an Ohio State Park where one can experience the concepts of self-sustaining agriculture AND see the spot where Humphrey Bogart married Lauren Bacall.

Bromfield created Malabar Farm in 1939 out of a few run-down smaller farms he purchased in Pleasant Valley, near Lucas, Ohio, southeast of Mansfield. He named his new purchase Malabar Farm after the area on the coast of India where he had traveled.

He converted a house on one of the farms into the palatial "Big House" where his family lived and the famous Bogart/Bacall nuptials were held. Currently, this cornucopia of Ohio architecture features a guided tour -- a value at $4 per head.

The Big House tour was fascinating. The packrat in me was impressed with Bromfield's old copies of Life magazine, still carrying the address sticker of Louis Bromfield, RR2, Lucas, Ohio. I'm a geek.

The interesting mixture of Hollywood and New York entertainment elite with middle Ohio real-folk still permeates the Big House. Obviously, I prefer the latter.

Malabar Farm existed in its fully operational form until Bromfield died in 1956. His daughters had to sell the farm soon after that, with the State of Ohio taking control in the early 70s, allowing the conversion into a State Park.

The park has a few hiking trails, but the focus of Malabar is the Big House and the farm activity that still happens in more of an educational mode. There is a small petting zoo that had a few goats and a calf the day we visited.

A visitor center is currently under construction, scheduled to open later this year (2006). Author's note: The new visitors center enhances the Malabar Farm experience. It will focus on Bromfield's passion for sustainable agriculture amongst other farming topics.

The nearby Malabar Inn is a restaurant featuring produce and the like from the farm. We enjoyed our lunch there. Adjacent to the Inn is still the roadside market where one can buy various farmstuffs grown at Malabar.

Definitely try out some of the farm-made fudge at the gift shop attached to the Big House. Note: The gift shop now resides in the new visitors center. The shop also features a good selection of Louis Bromfield's books, including his Pulitzer Prize-winning, "Early Autumn".

Malabar Farm is one of Ohio's forgotten jewels. I had heard of it most of my life, and after becoming aware of Louis Bromfield, his interesting life story, and what he gave back to his home state, I hope most of you consider taking a visit to Ohio's only farm-based state park.