OLD MAN’S CAVE
In the Hocking Hills State Park--

The bedrock in the area of the Hocking Hills State Park was deposited more than 350 million years ago in the form of a delta of a warm, shallow sea that covered what is now known as Ohio at that time.

Subsequent millions of years of uplift and stream erosion have created the awesome beauty seen today.

Glaciers never reached this park area of Ohio but their influence is still seen there in the form of vegetation growing in the gorges. Towering eastern hemlock, for example, tell of that cool period of more than 10,000 years ago.

Evidence of Ohio’s ancient Adena culture shows man first inhabited the park’s cave-like recesses more than 7,000 years ago.

Indians of the 1700s gave the park its name by their calling the river Hockhocking. White settlers first arrived after the Greenville Treaty of 1795 and Hocking County was organized in 1818.

The scenic geologic features of the area were well known by the 1870s and the first land purchase by the state in 1924 was of 146 acres and included the Old Man’s Cave area. Today the park and nearby state forest total more than 11,500 acres and are regarded as Ohio’s premier natural showcase.

Lady friend and dance partner Sue Brooks (pictured) recently joined me in an exploration of the Old Man’s Cave area of this huge park/forest. Please stop by Saturday for a visual excursion through this enchanting land.