Bender Mountain Nature Preserve — Public Lands Institute

Ordovician

~450 million years ago (Ordovician bedrock); ridge morphology shaped by the pre-Illinoian glaciation that established the Ohio River here roughly 730,000 to 900,000 years ago.

Epoch

Ordovician period (Cincinnatian); the modern Ohio River was created when pre-Illinoian ice dammed the west-flowing Teays River and formed glacial Lake Tight, whose overflow cut this valley and left oversteepened walls; Pleistocene colluvium mantles bedrock slopes.

Native lands Glossary →

Shawnee (Shawanwaki) · earlier Adena and Hopewell peoples; Ohio River ridge a known travel and hunting corridor; Shawnee ceded Hamilton County lands via Treaty of Greene Ville 1795.

Displacement & Tenure

Cession 11: Treaty of Greene Ville (1795); established in 2003 through Clean Ohio conservation program funds and Great Parks of Hamilton County ForeverGreen funding; in 2023 the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati donated 73 acres to the Western Wildlife Corridor, the largest single gift in that organization's history.

Shadow History

Prior land use included grazing, hog foraging, fruit growing, and selective logging; no quarrying, industrial use, or documented forced removal has been identified for this Ohio River bluff site in accessible records; the Western Wildlife Corridor began managing the site in 2003 and describes it as degraded agricultural and silvicultural land undergoing active restoration.

Ecology

Mixed mesophytic forest; steep south-facing Ohio River bluff; 390+ vascular plant species; described as best site in Hamilton County for native wildflowers; invasive honeysuckle removal ongoing since 2003.

Hydrology

Rapid Run Creek drainage to the north; Ohio River corridor to the south; steep slope hydrology with seasonal seeps.

Acreage

130+ acres

GPS

39.1100° N, 84.6200° W

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 1 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0346.jpg

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 2 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0348.jpg

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 3 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0358.jpg

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 4 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0359.jpg

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 5 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0366.jpg

Bender Mountain Nature Preserve 6 · 2025-09-15 _DSC0368.jpg