 Rock Run at Sandy Springs
Rock Run, 1838
John Locke was on business near the Ohio River
area just west of Portsmouth, gathering information for an endeavor that would
have dramatic impact on
Terra incognita
for the next sixty years. He was measuring
various layers of sandstone in what is known as the Buena Vista member of Ohio’s
Mississippian bedrocks. His purpose was to archive the state’s geologic
resources for the purpose of quarrying sandstone to build the rapidly growing
cities and towns of the East. John Locke was particularly interested in the
height and thickness of a strata of an even-textured blue-gray sandstone called
City Ledge
that
Like most of the hills in western Scioto and eastern Adams Counties, the steep
slopes of Rock Run had an exposed layer of
City Ledge
sandstone half way up its flanks. And, just like
elsewhere in the region, 19th C. stonecutters drove their horse and oxen up the
creek and cut roads up the nearly vertical slopes to get to the stone. They cut
the City Ledge
into the hill as far as they could
before the overburden of the higher bedrocks impeded further progress, then
By
1907 the stone business along the lower Scioto came to an end, replaced by the
cement and brick industries, the latter needing steady supplies of clay. By 1920
the shale beds which formed the base of Rock Run, as well as a considerable
fraction of the valley’s exposed bedrock, became a potentially lucrative source
of clay, and the rights to the shale were sold to a private company. This time,
the mining never happened. The trees, however, were cut several times again over
the 20th century, most recently in the late 1990’s; passing ownership several
times. In 2001 a massive ice storm pummeled Scioto and
Perhaps
by now the reader presumes that this, like a classic Greek tragedy, is the end of the story
of
Terra incognita,
but it is not. Rock Run continued to cultivate its secrets, waiting for someone to
notice its special beauty. And beautiful it is. Mining, timbering, and ice
damage not withstanding, Rock Run remained a mysteriously wild valley, its essence
defying past efforts of human dominion. From the vantage of the shale bottomed
creek, the
steep-walled valley feels isolated and otherworldly.
The stream
bottom is a chaotic tumble of huge sandstone rocks, many retaining the ripple
pattern of the ancient sandbars that deposited them millions of years ago.
Between the sandstone slabs are occasional deep pockets of crystal clear water,
dancing with schools of flashing fish, just like John Whatever dramatic damage was once inflicted on this fragile valley by the quarries, time has softened and the resourceful forces of nature have mitigated. Today the old excavated sandstone ledges create hanging terraces, holding so much water they qualify as small wetlands. Here Rock Run claims the presence of the rare four-toed salamander and the state-threatened mud salamander, as well as eleven other amphibians and reptiles.
A
land revealed.
Terra
incognita waited. In 2003 a person entered Rock Run who could
truly see
it — not through the eyes of utility, not through the eyes of profit — but with
eyes exquisitely trained to discern botanical detail and diversity. Six hours
later, Botanist Rick Gardner walked back out of Rock Run with
a heart commitment to save it. It didn’t seem like an impossibility — the land
was listed for sale at the very reasonable price of $750 dollars/acre for 184
acres. He thought it a bargain. He pursued saving Rock Run for an
entire year, but without success. In the summer of 2004, Rick invited the Highlands Nature
Sanctuary to walk Rock Run, which just so happened to lie exactly Arc staff walked into the wild valley with Rick right after an immense rain, one of dozens that would drench the Ohio valley with record rainfalls that summer. That day the water in Rock Run ran white around the rocks, still crystal clear, splashing around our feet. After six hours of climbing the steep valley slopes, wading the edge of wetlands, and circumventing shale slides, we were exhausted, but still we were reluctant to leave terra incognita. Two months later the land was put into contract. In October of 2004 it was purchased by The Arc. The story of Rock Run’s preservation is a classic story of the unique challenges facing preservation work in the East — with the property’s long history of resource extraction. After two hundred years of disturbance, Rock Run can finally rest, and because the entire upper watershed of Rock Run lies within the immense 60,000 acre Shawnee State Forest, the water pouring down the rock-lined streambed is guaranteed to remain crystal clear far into the future. Rock Run II, 2005. In 2005 the Arc expands Rock Run Preserve up to 262 acres, adding important buffer land. Nearby limestone cliffs recorded such rarities as green salamanders, cave salamanders, and even the elusive and highly threatened timber rattlesnake. Rock Run III, 2009 The latest expansion to Rock Run in 2009 brought Rock Run up to 355 acres in size, and contributed two new, and very rare ecosystems to the Arc’s preserve system, growing in the sandy shoals deposited by the Ohio River in earlier geologic times: Black Oak Sand Barrens and Meadow-Beauty-Beaksedge-Hillside-Seeps. The nearby village is widely known as a botanical and zoological hotspot. Where natural springs emerge from the base of the cliffs, they work their way through the sand, forming quicksand, inspiring the village name Sandy Springs. The region boasts prickly pear cactus, spadefoot toads, and a rare lichen that has evolved the capacity to survive underwater during floods. Within the Arc’s new acquisition are acres of natural prickly pear cactus gardens, and in mid-summer, the rare Virginia Meadow-beauties burst into vibrant bloom around the sandy seeps. Today the preserve stands at 355 acres in size.
Rock Run, 2010. Our eye is now on a new property tcurrently for sale,
Photos: timber rattler and spotted mandarin by John Howard; all others by Larry Henry
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had begun to be mined in the area as early
as 1814. The sandstone bed was usually under 16 inches in height, and lay
between thin beds of shale. It was easily split and wedged off in large regular
blocks, and then loaded on Ohio River barges and shipped downstream to
Cincinnati, the city referred to in 
Rock Run, 2003. The wildness of the Rock
Run region of southern Ohio is legendary, even in modern times. The 300-foot depth of Rock Run’s
valley is one of the deepest in the county, and contributes habitat to bobcat,
timber rattlesnakes, and Allegheny wood rats. Rock Run’s watershed contains a
rare forest-association of black birch, hemlock, and sweetgum that is restricted
in the state to the Ohio River Valley. Not surprisingly, Rock Run’s botanicals
on the forest floor are spectacular. The site reports as impressive 24 species
of ferns. The lower slopes are covered with mats wild ginger, dwarf crested
iris, with occasional specimens of the very rare nodding mandarin. In the
deepest coves, colonies of robust Trillium erectum, the red wake-robin,
grow. A small but interesting mint provides a woodland carpet in many areas,
Meehania cordata, or Meehan’s mint. It is the only species in its genera in
the entire U.S., but it has at least one counterpart in the Asian temperate
forest—Meehania 
dragged the quarried stone down the dirt roadway, over the streambed, and
eventually to barges waiting on the Ohio River. These were the rocks that built
the cities of our rapidly growing nation, in Cincinnati, and Louisville. The forests, of course, were
timbered. 
Locke observed them over 160
years ago. On the
peaty steep slopes, amidst the tangle of fallen branches, are frequent colonies
of wild ginger, crested iris, and partridge berry; and occasionally, a patch of
the fairy-like flowers of spotted mandarin — a state-threatened member of the
lily family. 
on the
southern tip of the newly conceived Arc of Appalachia Preserve Region. 