Hocking Hill State Park Rock Formations

by Lisa Wooten

Title

Hocking Hill State Park Rock Formations

Artist

Lisa Wooten

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Hocking Hills State Park is a non-contiguous state park in the Hocking Hills region of Hocking County, Ohio, United States; it is contiguous with the Hocking State Forest. Within the park are several spectacular rock formations.
The park contains seven separate sections: Ash Cave, Cantwell Cliffs, Cedar Falls, Conkle's Hollow, Old Man's Cave, Rock House and Whispering Cave. Ash Cave, Old man's Cave and Whispering Cave are each examples of recess caves. Cantwell Cliffs and Conkle's Hollow each feature a narrow, deep gorge; Rock House is a cliffed area with a rock shelter; Cedar Falls is a large waterfall, but each of the park areas except Rock House contain waterfalls.
Hocking County was named after the Hockhocking River. Hockhocking, in the Delaware tongue, signifies a bottle. In Shawnee, Wea-tha-Kagh-Qua-sepe, meant bottle river. The Hockhocking River had a waterfall of nearly 20 feet located about 6 or 7 miles northwest of Lancaster. Above the falls, the creek was very narrow and straight, forming the "bottle" neck.
The Hockhocking enters the county from Good Hope Township in the northwest and then flows southwest, touches Marion Township, continues through Falls and Green Townships, and exits the county through northwestern Starr Township. The river is then in Athens County.[2]
History: The Adena culture is believed to be one of the first inhabitants of the area of Hocking Hills 1700s - Native American Tribes of Delaware, Wyandot, and Shawnee travelled through and lived in the area 1818 - Hocking County created in Ohio 1830s - Powder mill was built 1840 - Hocking Canal was completed allowing for more settlers to travel there 1924 - After local popular hiking areas were threatened by the accessibility of more traffic, the State Forest Law was passed in 1915 allowing the state to purchase the first parcel of land in Hocking Hills around Old Man's Cave.[3][4]
More than 330 million years ago, the Hocking Hills State Park area was relatively level and was covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. For millions of years, the ocean’s currents deposited immense amounts of sand and gravel. After millions of years, the ocean receded, and the sandy layers bonded with silica to form the Black Hand Sandstone that underlies the area. It formed like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. When the Appalachian Mountains arose, form and feature were cast upon the area and created Hocking Hills State Park.
Hocking Hills State Park was hemmed in by the ancient north-flowing Teahs River to the west, and the then north-flowing Hocking to the east. The landscape remained fairly static for millions of years. Any changes were minuscule, and were slow to develop. When the Wisconsin Glacier began melting back to the north about 10,000 years ago, the landscape would undergo dramatic changes. The glacier stopped in northern Hocking County, so the area suffered indescribable flooding. The ancient Teahs River was buried under tons of glacial silt, and the direction of the Hocking River was reversed.
When the glacial torrents found cracks in the hard capstone, the water poured through to flush out the soft middle layer. This left long tunnels where the gorges are today. Eventually, the weight of the tops caused them to come crashing down. The "slump rocks" in the gorges today are what’s left of the hard top layer. In just a few centuries, the rushing waters of the glacier carved the soft middle layer of sandstone into the myriad dimples and wrinkles that decorate the cliffs and grottos today. Early settlers in Muskingum County found an ancient black human handprint on a cliff that is part of this same sandstone formation. That is the same "Black Hand Sandstone" that is seen in six areas of the Hocking Hills State Park. Wikipedia

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October 31st, 2017

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