Geological age ~485-420 million years ago (bedrock).
Epoch Ordovician and Silurian periods; limestone and dolomite deposited in shallow Iapetus Ocean; terrain never covered by Pleistocene glaciation ; landscape continuity extending back millions of years.
Native lands Shawnee (Shawanwaki) · Adena and Hopewell mound-building cultures; unglaciated Adams County at southern edge of Shawnee territory; proximity to Serpent Mound (Adena/Fort Ancient, ~300 BCE-1200 CE).
Displacement & Tenure Cession 11: Treaty of Greene Ville (1795); co-founded by Nancy Stranahan in 1995, beginning with a 47-acre purchase at Rocky Fork Gorge in Highland County; the system has grown to approximately 5,000 acres across five southern Ohio counties through more than 100 individual real estate transactions, funded in part by Ohio's Clean Ohio program; operates independently of The Nature Conservancy, which separately manages the adjacent Edge of Appalachia Preserve System established 1959.
Shadow History Frederic Ward Putnam of the Harvard Peabody Museum excavated Serpent Mound from 1887 to 1889, placing trenches in the effigy and excavating two nearby conical mounds; the excavations yielded pipes, points, earspools, gorgets, and multiple human burials with associated grave goods; Putnam raised funds to have Harvard purchase the site in 1887 -- making it the first privately funded archaeological preserve in the United States -- and the Peabody held the site until 1900; whether Serpent Mound skeletal material and grave goods remain in the Peabody collections or have been subject to NAGPRA repatriation has not been confirmed in publicly available records.
Ecology One of the most biodiverse landscapes in Ohio; 114 rare or endangered species; dry limestone prairie (Lynx Prairie); eastern red cedar savanna; unglaciated forest; relict Appalachian flora.
Hydrology Brush Creek watershed; Rocky Fork Creek; numerous limestone seeps and springs; Serpent Mound crypto-explosion structure (nearby).
Acreage 7,000+ acres across preserve system
GPS 38.8200° N, 83.5400° W
Arc of Appalachia I · 2025-10-27
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Mount Airy Forest →
Public Lands Institute — ongoing project
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