Ohio Hanging Rock

High Species Diversity. The young forest is a classic Appalachian assemblage of oaks (chestnut, white, black, red), hickories (pignut and shagbark), and red maple, interspersed with a diverse assortment of trees including blackgum, sourwood, sugar maple, yellow buckeye, and tulip. The fern abundance and diversity in the preserve is splendid. Notable botanicals include butternut trees, northern roseshell azalea, pink lady slipper, and cornel leaved aster. Four state-listed species include feather-bell, Strenantheium gramineum; yellow crown-beard, Verbesina occidentalis; southern red oak, Quercus falcata; and small-flowered alum-root, Heuchera parviflora.

The Great Teays. Prior to the continental glaciations, a majestic river, the precursor of the Mississippi River, wound north through southern Ohio, through present day Minford, and past Ohio Hanging Rock Preserve. When the glaciers to the north blocked the great river, the Teays, from flowing in its traditional channel, a lake formed nearly as large as Lake Erie, existing over 6,000 years. The clay that built up as sediment in the lake’s bottom, known today as Minford clay, is the source of the preserve’s rich deposits. Today the abundant clay that remains in the preserve creates a high water table in the spring and low elevation wetlands. The preserve resounds seasonally with the calls of spring peepers, eastern gray tree frogs, and leopard frogs. The waves of this glacially-derived lake were the force that carved out, isolated, and brought into relief the great rock boulders that line the upper elevations of the preserve. It is remarkable to think that these beautiful high-elevation rock formations were once the wave-kissed shoreline of a mighty sea.The ridgetops of the hills in the greater region would have dotted the sea with thousands of forest capped islands. What a sight that must have been!

Not always wilderness. Until the Civil War, the Hanging Rock region of Ohio was the nation’s leading producer of iron. An average of 400 acres of forest each year produced the necessary charcoal to keep just one furnace operating. When, in 1828, a smelting and iron furnace was built in the nearby village of Scioto Furnace, the 600 acre property would have been completely cleared of its timber, probably more than once. Over sixty furnaces were built in the Ohio Hanging Rock region, and, not surprisingly, forest and iron ore resources both were depleted before the end of the century. At that time in history, the iron industry transitioned from charcoal fuel to coal and moved to other locales. The great stone furnaces of the region flickered out, giving the forests a chance to partially recover, although heavy timbering for lumber continued in the area.

From Iron to Clay. Often clay deposits are associated with iron ore, and the Ohio Hanging Rock region has both. The last quarter of the 19th century, into the early 1900’s, was the peak of clay-derived manufacturing in the Hanging Rock region, producing fire bricks, tile, pavers, and pottery. Ohio Hanging Rock Preserve has had at least two underground clay mines of which we are aware, maybe more. Most of America’s major urban streets were paved with bricks between 1870 and 1900, and the Hanging Rock iron region was a leading manufacturer of those bricks, thanks to the region’s rich clay deposits.