Plum Creek at Fortier Park. Copyright Charles Mesker.
Used by permission.
Fortier Park is a hidden gem nestled in the heart of
Olmsted Falls where Plum Creek empties into the West Branch of the
Rocky River. Its 5 acres are packed with scenic waterfalls and
bridges, hiking trails, picnic areas, a stone pavilion, an
abandoned quarry and numerous interesting rock formations.
(Click here to see some more breathtaking
photos of the park taken by a local photographer.)
As peaceful as this location is now, at one time it was bustling
with industry. In the 1820s and 1830s, sawmills began to spring up
along the waterfalls on Plum Creek and the Rocky River. These were
followed by grist mills, a chair factory, even a coffin making
shop. At about that time a few miles east of here in Berea, a man
named John Baldwin discovered and began quarrying an extremely
durable rock which would come to be known as Berea Sandstone. Over the next few decades the
quarrying fever would spread, especially as new technology made it
easier for smaller entrepreneurs to get involved. From 1872 to
1875, Luther Barnum, mayor of Olmsted Falls and grandson of one of
the original Olmsted Falls sawmill pioneers, quarried Berea
Sandstone in what is now Fortier Park. Although Barnum's quarry
operation was nowhere near the scale of the massive quarries in
Berea, it nevertheless employed 50 to 85 men and boys at its
peak.
Berea Sandstone, also known as Berea
Grit, is prized for its long grain, which makes it
extremely durable yet easy (relatively speaking) to quarry. It is
also valued for its purity and its even texture and color. Its
fine, angular, hard quartz grain makes it an ideal grinding stone,
with a surface that remains rough and abrasive even as it wears
down. The chemical bond that holds the quartz grains together is
extremely resistant to water, temperature extremes and acidic
chemicals. The purest grades of Berea Sandstone to be extracted
from the quarries were crafted into world-renowned grindstones.
Lower grade stone was used for foundations, sidewalks, driveways,
bridge abutments and buildings.
Quarrying sandstone in the 1870s was a backbreaking, noisy,
dusty and dangerous job. First the top layers of soil and stone had
to be removed by hand. Once the underlying sandstone was exposed,
workers used picks and shovels to dig "trenches" through the
stone. These trenches were up to 5 feet deep and wide enough
for a man to stand in. (When you visit the park, you'll realize
just what a bone-jarring task this must have been.) Once a block of
stone was surrounded on all 4 sides by trenches, it was separated
from the rock below it. For smaller blocks, this was done by hand -
driving iron wedges into the stone at the base of the trench. (This
is where the long grain of the Berea Grit was much appreciated!)
For larger blocks, holes were chipped into the base of the trench,
then black powder or dynamite was inserted in the holes and
ignited. Once a block was freed, hand-cranked derricks were used to
lift it out of the quarry and onto a waiting railcar. A train
hauled the blocks across the Rocky River on a railroad spur built
specifically for this purpose.
The sandstone quarried here is part of a massive Berea Sandstone
formation that lies beneath most of eastern Ohio. (For information
on how this rock formation was formed, see the Berea Falls
Earthcache listing.) It has been most actively quarried in
Northeast Ohio, in a region known as the Berea Headlands. The quarries in the
Berea-Olmsted Falls-Columbia Township area ranged in depth up to 50
feet. As would be expected, however, the sandstone eventually ran
out, and by the early 20th century the last of these quarries were
shut down. (In the Amherst area, about 20 miles west of here, the
Berea Sandstone reaches depths of greater than 200 feet and is
still actively quarried.) Many of the abandoned quarries
have since filled with water, like Coe Lake, Baldwin Lake and
Wallace Lake in Berea and Jaquay Lake in Columbia Township. The
quarry in Fortier Park (figure 1) is among the few that can still be
examined (without snorkeling gear, at least!)
The coordinates listed above are for parking at the Dan Waugh
trailhead in the library parking lot off of Main Street. From
there, be sure to visit each of the additional waypoints listed
below (preferably in order). Feel free to visit and explore other
sections of the park as well, but please stay within the designated
trails and recreation areas and observe all park rules and
signs.
Logging Requirements:
To claim credit for this cache, you must take a walk through the
park and answer any two of the following three
questions:
- There is a rough-cut grindstone at Waypoint 3 (N41°22.655
W081°53.961). It is about 6 feet in diameter. How thick is
it?
- Describe the rock structures you see at Waypoints 4 and 5. A
sentence or two is good enough.
- The Berea Escarpment passes through Olmsted Falls as it extends
westward from Berea towards Erie County. Is this park north or
south of the escarpment, or does it straddle it (i.e. part north,
part south)? Explain your answer (a sentence or two will
suffice).
Anyone who correctly answers all 3 questions will get an
"honorary shout-out" in the logs. Keep your eyes open for clues as
you tour the park, and use all the information from this cache and
the Berea Falls cache in reaching your conclusions. Do not post
the answers in your log; instead geo-mail them to me within 3
days of your visit. (Earthcaching rules require me to delete your
log if I don't receive your answers within a reasonable amount of
time.)
You might also want to check out the last two Earthcaches in
this series that explores the Rocky River: Fort Hill and Call Me Rocky.
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
- The Olmsted Falls Parks and Recreation Board for sharing
this park and permitting this Earthcache.
- The staff of the Olmsted Falls Public Library for their
research assistance.
- Charles Mesker for sharing his spectacular
photos!
FTF - Goldrush
REFERENCES:
- Then There Was None by Mickey Sego. (Published by the
Berea Area Historical Society, this book contains
everything you ever wanted to know about the quarrying of
Berea Sandstone in the Berea area. Available at the Berea Public
Library.)
- Images of America: Olmsted Falls by John D. Cimperman.
(An excellent illustrated history of Olmsted Falls. Available at
the Olmsted Falls Public Library.)
- The Olmsted Story: A History of Olmsted Township and
Villages of Olmsted Falls, Westview and the City of North
Olmsted by Walter F. Holzworth. (A well-researched, hand-typed
history of the area, available only at the Olmsted Falls Public
Library.)
- Cleveland Quarries company website. (An active
quarrier of Berea Sandstone in Amherst and Birmingham, Ohio.)
- Ohio History Central "Berea Sandstone" by the Ohio Historical Society. (A
short but informative article about Berea Sandstone.)
- Olmsted Falls Parks signage (N41°22.646 W081°54.040)