Hickory Hollows
Hickory Hollows is an 85-acre property in Highland County, lying adjacent to the existing 3000-acre Highlands Nature Sanctuary and only a stone’s throw from the Sanctuary’s Otter Banks tract. It shelters one of the largest, oldest forests that we have ever found in the larger Sanctuary region. Hickory Hollows is a rare whisper of the original hickory forests that once dominated the woodlands on the western half of the Sanctuary. Ancient pignuts, shagbarks, and bitternuts abound, alongside towering white and red oaks. Roughly 55 acres of the property are pristine enough that one can walk beneath the canopy without the usual proliferation of bush honeysuckle that has marred, if not ruined, nearly all of western Ohio’s forests. Along the long eastern boundary of the property is the shoreline of a large quiet privately-owned lake. It is a deeply pleasurable experience to walk beneath towering oaks and hickories on the property’s steep hillsides while seeing - far below - the lake sparkling in the sunlight.
Trail under development:
The Arc’s land stewardship team is currently working on developing a public hiking trail at Hickory Hollows that will be opening in 2025. Please check back for updates!
Classic karst country bouquets of Fase Rue Anomone
Wild ginger clinging to karst outcrops. Photo by Tim Pohlar
The floral wand of black cohosh, plants that are especially abundant in Hickory Hollows. Photo by Jim McCormac.
Hickory Hollows overlooks a privately owned large, secluded lake. Photo by Tim Pohlar
Dolomite cliffs at Hickory Hollows tower above the lake, photo by Tim Pohlar.
Map above shows the location of Hickory Hollow in context of the Highlands Nature Sanctuary, the Arc’s largest and oldest preserve and also the Arc’s headquarters.
Saving a remnant Hickory-rich forest. Hickory Hollows is a 85-acre property composed of eight small parcels that lay in a contiguous tract on the lower slopes of Spargur Hill and bordered a private lake. The property stretches between two roads: Spargur Lane to its northern boundary and Cynthiana Road to its south. The dominant tree species here are large and healthy pignut, shagbark, and bitternut hickories. For years we’ve longed to save a remnant of the hickory-rich forests that once thrived in the western half of the Sanctuary. But few of them have survived to modern times, and none have come up for sale.
Protecting an unusually dense karst-country wildflower display. Hickory Hollows supports an unusual abundance of wildflowers on its east-facing slopes and in its sheltered ravines. Species include: showy orchis (Galearis spectablilis), twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), wild geranium (Geranium maculatum), eastern green violet (Hybanthus concolor), red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis), Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum), large white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), Canadian wild ginger (Asarum canadense), Jacob’s ladder (Polemonium reptans), Canada violet (Viola canadensis), blue phlox (Phlox divaricata), drooping trillium (Trillium flexipes), harbinger of spring (Erigenia bulbosa), sharp-lobed hepatica (Hepatica acutiloba), Wild Comfrey (Andersonglossum virginianum), purple cress (Caradmine douglassii), yellow corydalis (Corydalis flavula), large-leaf waterleaf (Hydrophyllum macrophyllum), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), and mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum).
Fingers of dolomite brace the hillsides, offering shelter for ferns, moss, and more wildflowers. Tributary streams dissected the hills as they meandered down from Spargur Hill, contributing their own water-borne life force to that of the lakes. These streams were punctuated by small waterfalls, limestone cliffs and slump blocks - gifts provided by incomprehensible eras of geologic time that precede us.
Visitor Services Development. The Arc is currently fundraising to install a public hiking trail that is planned for Hickory Hollows. It will originate from a trailhead that will be installed on the south side of Spargur Lane. The total length of the loop trail at Hickory Hollows will be 1.1 miles.