Washington’s Trail through Post Glacial Butler, PA
In 1753, the future first president of the United States, George Washington, was dispatched to Western Pennsylvania to deliver a message to the French soldiers stationed near Presque Isle. Only twenty-one years old, young Washington traveled north from Fort Duquesne through modern day Butler County. Although aware of the critical and dangerous nature of the mission, it is unlikely that that the young explorer was aware that he was traversing a land of physical features shaped by a 100,000 years of geological history (WTA, 2013).
After embarking from present day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Washington first entered Butler County on November 30, 1753. Traveling north on an Indian trail, the first sign of the area’s cataclysmic past would have appeared out of place from the rolling hills typical of the Western Pennsylvanian landscape. Peering down into a valley over 400 feet deep, the mighty gorge was littered with enormous boulders, thus framing the Slippery Rock Creek. These relict boulders of rock types foreign to the area are known as “glacial erratics” and are indicative of the strength of the encroaching glacier. As defined by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, “Glacial erratics are stones and rocks that were transported by a glacier, and then left behind after the glacier melted. Erratics can be carried for hundreds of kilometers, and can range in size from pebbles to large boulders. Scientists sometimes use erratics to help determine ancient glacier movement.” (NSIDC, 2014)
To understand the unique aspects of a gorge created in just a few days, it is necessary to look back to the events which occurred 100,000 years ago. Described by James Lovelock in his book, The Age...
... middle of paper ...
...ail. For the geo-tourist, these two locations share a common geologic foundation and history. Both parks have the same bedrock formations and formed their topography from the same glacial events (Fleeger, et al. 2003).
Works Cited
Department Of Conservation And Natural Resources, PA DCNR Map Viewer, http://www.gis.dcnr.state.pa.us/maps/index.html
Fleeger, Gary M., Bushnell, Kent O., and Watson, Donald W. “Moraine and McConnells Mill State Parks.” Pennsylvania Trail of Geology. 2003. Print. 29 April 2014.
Lovelock, James. “The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth”. New York: Norton, 1995.
National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), “Glacier Landforms: Erratics”, All About Glaciers, 2014.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, The Importance of McConnell's Mill and Moraine State Parks, 2007, www.waterlandlife.org/e-conserve/fall-07/paul.htm
Marshak, S. (2009) Essentials of Geology, 3rd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, ch. 11, p. 298-320.
Illinois State Geological Survey, 2005, Time Talks – The Geology of Starved Rock and Matthiessen State Parks
Located just north of Michigan lies a unique little island that may be small in size but large in history. Glaciers once covered this land and after they began to recede a unique landscape was revealed as was the opening for its place in history. The Mackinac Island’s history has been due in large part to its geographical location and terrain makeup.
Quinn, David B. North America From Earliest Discovery to First Settlements. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.
Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark took the risk of life, limb, and liberty to bring back the precious and valuable information of the Pacific Northwest of the United States territory. Their accomplishments of surviving the trek and delivering the data to the U.S. government, have altered the course of history, but have some Historian’s and author’s stating, “It produced nothing useful.”, and having “added little to the stock of science and wealth. Lewis and Clark’s expedition is one of the most famous and most unknown adventures of America’s frontier.
Scientists believe that the ice in Glacier bay during the first ice age could have been nearly 1000 feet thick! And as the original glacier has diminished in size from that time, it has left 20 separate glaciers, of which two are tidewater glaciers that calve into the bay. And as recently as 200 years ago, in almost all of Glacier Bay, a fjord was covered by the Grand Pacific Glacier; since then the ice has been retreating and Glacier Bay, now 65 miles long, has taken it’s present form. When Captain Lester A. Berdslee of the U.S. Navy was in it in 1980, its beauty took him away. He gave it the name “Glacier Bay” because of it’s striking locality. This was also the same year when it was declared an national park and preserve. Though years earlier it was proclaimed a national monument in 1925. And then in 1992 it was designed a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, the park’s headquarters are at Gustavuas, near the mouth of the bay. The bay, which is studded with many largely treeless islands that are used a rookeries by thousands of seabirds, has fjord like inlets that terminate at ice cliffs or sheer faces of the glaciers. It contains at 16 active glaciers that descend from the St. Elias Mountains to the east and Fair-weather Rage to the west. The park and reserve cover an area of 5,129 square miles and includes Glacier Bay itself, the northern, southern, and western slopes of Mount Fairweather, and the U.S. portion of the Alsek
Cuyahoga Valley National Park was formed the same way that most other valleys were. It is believed that long before the ice age occurred an ancient river carved through this area. This river left behind deposits that after millions of years transformed into the parks sandstone bedrock. As the ice age came into effect, this river froze and became part of a glacier that had an even bigger effect on the landscape of the valley. These glaciers scraped through northeastern Ohio and in the process left behind deposits that now make up the parks fertile soil (“Rock, Ice, and River”).
When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first explored Montana in the early 1800s, they were awestruck by the open plains and delighted by the wide range of animals that roamed the land. After reaching the Great Falls, which is on the Missouri River in what is now Montana (Av2 books). Lewis wrote in his journal that it was “the grandest sight” that he had “ever beheld.” Today much of the landscape the Lewis and Clark crossed remains unchanged. The dense forest, rugged mountains, and rushing rivers are still abundant with fish and other wildlife.
States. National Park Service. (2014, May, 12). National Parks Service. Retreived May 19,2014, from http://www.nps.gov/yose/naturescience/geology.htm
The gorge also has an interesting formation history. It started as the beach of an island hundreds of millions of years ago. The beach turned to sandstone over time. Then the Appalachian
Starr, Chester G., Nowell, Charles E., Lyon Bryce, Stearns, Raymond P., Hamerow Theordore S. A History of the World: Volume II- 1500 to Present. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1960.
Q6-13: What geologic processes could have formed this landscape? What field evidence could you gather to test your hypothesis? (2pts)
Watkins, Jeffery. Regents Prep: Global History: Change & Turning Points:, "Neolithic Revolution." Last modified 2003. Accessed March 23, 2012. http://regentsprep.org/Regents/global/themes/change/neo.cfm
of the book. Eds. James H. Pickering and Jeffery D. Hoeper. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 1027-28. Mullen, Edward J. & Co.
There are many different varieties of landforms in the world, but there are only two regions we are looking at and they are the northeast and the southeast. In both regions there are huge mountain ranges. One is called the Appalachian Mountains. This group of mountains is 250,000,000 years old. The Mississippi River flows through the southeast. In the southeast there is a landform named Mammoth Cave. In 1941 it became a landform. I think it is cool that a simple little ,(well actually huge), cave became a national park! It covers 52,830 acres. (There might be more, all these acres might lead to more) No wonder it is the largest cave system known in the world! Its coordinates are 37°11 North, 86°6 West. I would tell you more, but I must move on. (Seriously it’s almost due)