Pine Hills Nature Preserve — Public Lands Institute

Geology

Mississippian310 Mya

~310 Mya Pennsylvanian sandstone over ~340 Mya Mississippian Borden Group siltstone and limestone; junction of formations produces abundant springs throughout the preserve; marine fossils including crinoids, bryozoans, and brachiopods in Mississippian layer

Epoch

Pennsylvanian (upper); Mississippian (lower)

Native lands

Miami (Myaamiaki) and Wea held the west-central Indiana Sugar Creek corridor; Wea established at Ouiatenon near present Lafayette to the north; Potawatomi (Neshnabe) oral tradition records a battle fought in the Clifty Creek and Indian Creek ravines of Pine Hills in the 1770s, when Potawatomi forces and Miami warriors contested control of the Wabash Valley, with the legend claiming nearly 600 warriors killed on both sides and the account possibly giving rise to the 'Shades of Death' name for the surrounding terrain; Miami and Wea ceded the Sugar Creek territory through Treaty of Grouseland (August 21, 1805) and Treaty with the Miami (October 6, 1818)

Displacement & Tenure

Royce Cession 56: Treaty of Grouseland (August 21, 1805) ceded Miami, Eel River, and Wea southern Indiana lands; Royce Cession 15: Treaty with the Miami (October 6, 1818, St. Mary's) ceded the New Purchase, covering the Sugar Creek corridor; Treaty with the Wea (October 2, 1818) ceded all remaining Wea Indiana claims; Wea final reserve ceded August 11, 1820; property remained in the Hasselman family until 1960; Indiana Academy of Science initiated preservation efforts in 1953; The Nature Conservancy purchased the property from the Hasselman family for $15,000 in 1960 and donated it to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in October 1961; designated Indiana State Nature Preserve No. 1 on October 6, 1969

Shadow History

The Mill Cut Backbone takes its name from an 1868 cut made through a sandstone ridge by the Pine Hill Woolen Mill Company, which dammed Clifty Creek and notched the hillside to channel water to a woolen mill built in 1870; the mill operated approximately three years before being moved, leaving the notch permanently inscribed in the bedrock topography; historic carvings on cliff faces dating to the 1800s, including forms speculated to represent passenger pigeons, are documented on rock surfaces within the preserve

Ecology

Relict stands of northern hemlock, white pine, and Canada yew on canyon walls and ravine floors, representing the northernmost white pine stand in this part of the continent; old-growth oak and hickory uplands; beech-maple and floodplain forest; diverse fern communities and rare wildflowers on shaded cliff faces; five miles of clear streams

Hydrology

Clifty Creek and Indian Creek drain the preserve before joining Sugar Creek within adjacent Shades State Park; Sugar Creek is a 93-mile Wabash River tributary; springs emerge throughout the preserve at the junction of Pennsylvanian and Mississippian bedrock; within the Deer Creek-Sugar Creek sub-watershed of the Upper Wabash River basin

Acreage

480

GPS

39.9423° N, 87.0490° W

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