Hocking Hills State Park — Public Lands Institute

Geology

~330 million years ago (sandstone); caves and gorges carved ~14,000-18,000 years ago.

Epoch

Mississippian period (Osagean-Meramecian); Black Hand sandstone deposited in deltaic system; recess caves and gorges formed by Pleistocene periglacial weathering and glacial meltwater during Wisconsin glaciation.

Native lands

Shawnee (Shawanwaki) · Delaware (Lenape) · Wyandot (Wendat) · Adena (700 BCE-100 CE) · Hopewell (100 BCE-500 CE); 'Hockhocking' a Shawnee/Delaware place name; all tribes removed from Ohio by 1843.

Displacement & Tenure

Cession 11: Treaty of Greene Ville (1795); the Hocking Valley underwent intensive coal extraction and old-growth clear-cutting during the 1870s; Ohio's Division of Forestry purchased the first 146 acres including Old Man's Cave in 1924 to restore fire- and farm-damaged land; CCC labor constructed trails, bridges, and stone steps through the 1930s.

Shadow History

Two racially segregated CCC companies built the park's infrastructure in the 1930s: Company 505 (white enrollees) was based at Camp Hocking near Conkle's Hollow, while Company 526 (Black enrollees) was based at Camp Logan from approximately 1934 to 1937, improving over 2,000 acres including Cantwell Cliffs, Rock House, and Rockbridge; by July 1935 all CCC camps nationally were formally segregated under an order from CCC director Robert Fechner; acid mine drainage from abandoned coal operations in the broader Hocking watershed is well-documented, with Monday Creek and its tributaries largely devoid of fish due to sulfuric acid and settled iron and aluminum particles.

Ecology

Hemlock-dominated gorge; Canadian hemlock at southern range limit; rock shelter communities; old-growth hemlock remnants; high biodiversity microclimate.

Hydrology

Old Man's Creek; Queer Creek; Cedar Fork; multiple seasonal waterfalls; cave seeps maintaining year-round moisture; Cedar Falls (50 ft wide).

Acreage

2,356 acres (park); adjacent 9,267-acre Hocking State Forest

GPS

39.4354° N, 82.5408° W