WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA

HALS OH-8HALS OH-8

THE 7-CAVES(Highland Caves)7629 Cave RoadBainbridgeRoss CountyOhio

HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEYNational Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior1849 C Street NW

Washington, DC 20240-0001

HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY

THE 7-CAVES (HIGHLAND CAVES)

HALS NO. OH-8 Location: 7629 Cave Road,

Highlands Nature Sanctuary Arc of Appalachia Preserve System The Village of Bainbridge postal area Paint Township, Ross County, Ohio Coordinates: latitude 39.223100, longitude -83.357786 (At the main entry to the Appalachian Forest Museum building, Google Earth, Simple Cylindrical Projection, WGS84). From U.S. Route 50 four miles west of Bainbridge turn south onto Cave Road and continue one mile south to the park entrance.

Significance: The significance of this cultural landscape is the high artistic quality of the built

environment and its integration into the highly scenic natural landscape. Buildings, structures and objects of this thirteen acre site are so well integrated into the natural landscape that it is difficult to discern the constructed in places from the natural rock formations and the horticultural or cultivated from the natural flora that colonizes the picturesque geology with astonishing diversity. The site has been a tourist destination for two centuries and its present use continues as a fee-based destination. The succession of owners endeavored to preserve the natural geological, biological and scenic qualities of the site and developed trails and amenities for the access, enjoyment and education of paying visitors. Currently, the landscape is being “re-wilded” or “re-natured” as the term applies to the process of reducing the human impact upon the natural environment by closing the caves to visitation, limiting access to geologic formations in the main and tributary canyons and restoring the diverse flora and fauna, including four species of nesting bats in the caves and a profusion of wildflowers and rare plant species across the landscape, resulting a return of the wild.

Description: The 7-Caves1 park was developed around a geological wonder. The enchanting

landscape lies in the rolling hills of eastern Highland County, Ohio. The system of gorges, caves and rolling forested hills offer spectacular scenery where the Rocky Fork Creek flows through the Rocky Fork Narrows between vertical cliffs

1 The common use of the park name is the numeral “7” hyphenated with Caves, as in “The 7-Caves." The name is often seen spelled out as “seven,” as in The Seven Caves. The 7-Caves was the traditional use by the proprietors of the park in signage at the entry station, in marketing brochures, bumper stickers and roadside advertising.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 2 that rise ninety feet high. The width between opposite cliffs is two hundred feet.2 Described by the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, “this is an outstanding example of a gorge and cave system with rare flora and possesses exceptional value in illustrating the natural heritage of Ohio.”3 The hanging caves are in the Cedarville Dolomite of Silurian age and all at the same general elevation of fifty feet above the streambed of Rocky Fork Creek. The Wet Cave is the largest of the group. Its entrance is 30 feet wide and 15 feet high. The cave is about 315 feet long leading to an underground room 18 feet wide and 15 feet high. A small passage continues 200 feet where it pinches shut. The Rocky Fork Gorge is about 25,000 years old and a relic of Ohio’s glacial heritage, created on the leading edge of the Wisconsin glacier where erosional forces of flowing water cut through the dolomite limestone rock. Large slump blocks in the stream bed are believed to have once belonged to a cave ceiling.4 There are many caves, but only the largest seven were made accessible by footpaths. Imaginative marketing referenced the site’s rich history and legends of Indians, outlaws, early settlers and wildlife. Three well-marked trails lead through the rock formations and to the seven illuminated themed caves named “Witches Cave,” “Phantom Cave,” “Bear Cave,” “McKimie’s Cave,” “Marble Cave,” “Dancing Cave,” and “Cave of the Springs.” The footpaths also led to similarly themed geologic features such as “Sweetheart Falls,” “Sleepy Hollow,” “Devil's Ice Box,” “Phantom Chimney” and “Fairies Grotto.” Today the park is operated as a nature preserve. Since the summer of 2005 the caves are being actively restored by taking out the tourist lights, removing sidewalks, and minimizing visitor impact to restore the natural habitat for native bat nesting. The site remains open to hiking for a fee. The cultural landscape includes both the natural landscape and built environment of public roads, private trails and related structures, public buildings, private residences, and objects in an astonishing assembly of early- to mid-nineteenth century builders’ art and folk engineering artistically integrated with nature.

History: The 7-Caves park is on one of the most geologically diverse areas in Ohio,

where the convergence of geographic provinces contribute to the complex geology and a scenic landscape5 of exposed bedrock, high cliffs and very steep slopes. The calcareous rock is dotted with solution depressions and sinkholes.6 Cool wet gorges protect relic plants.7

2 Klise and Hough. 33 https://www.facebook.com/ohiodnap?ref=bf 4 Brucker: 151. 5 Rosengreen. 6 Durrell and Durrell: 52.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 3 The 7-Caves park lies at the transition between the glaciated and unglaciated provinces of the Appalachian plateau. The unglaciated landscape to the east is heavily forested with deeply incised valleys, steep hills and isolated knobs overlain with erosion-resistant sandstone cap rock. In places glaciers pushed over the range of hills and scraped off the cap rock, leaving the underlying shale and a more subdued landscape. The Rocky Fork Gorge was created along the margin of these provinces as glacial water overflowed saddles in the hills and cut a flow channel through bedrock. This process occurred over a long span of time. Water seeped from the glacial lake into the ground through seams in the bedrock, eroding underground streams forming caves. Erosion undermined caves to the point that some collapsed under the weight of the overburden, creating the Rocky Fork Gorge, which eroded deeper leaving hanging tributary valleys and caves above the streambed. The forested hills occupy a transition zone between two forest provinces, the mixed deciduous mixed mesophytic forest8 and the beech forest. Oak is predominant on the ridge tops. Lower slopes support several varieties of Hickory, Ash, Beech, Cedar, Cherry, Chestnut, Cottonwood, Dogwood, Elm, Hickory, Maple, Poplar and Walnut. Pioneer backwoodsmen attacked this forest and in less than half a century “established a record of destruction of flora and fauna that perhaps stands unequalled.”9 The ice age altered the biological community as plants perished in the climate change brought about by the glaciers. The long duration of the glaciers enabled plants that were accustomed to a cool climate to become established on the front of the ice sheet. As the ice receded certain plants survived in cool microclimates of the Rocky Fork gorge and are extant today. Eastern Hemlock and American White Cedar in the park are relics of the Wisconsin glacial epoch. The small creeping Canby’s Mountain Lover survives in the park outside its natural range on the piedmont of North Carolina. Viola walteri, Walter’s Violet, is another relic species. Sullivantia sullivantii grows profusely on the dolomite cliffs at the 7-Caves, and is found only rarely outside the park. Rocky Fork is considered its natural habitat. Abundant water running in clear streams, springs and seeps supports a rich variety of plants and animal species in the park. The tons of decomposed leaves are an important food source for insects, crawfish, mollusks and other aquatic animals. Old growth trees left to natural processes fall to the forest floor and decompose into the colluvium layer of rich forest soil, where woodland flowers

7 Good: 83. 8 Lucy Braun, 1950. 9 Hutchins: 8.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 4 put on breathtaking display in April and May.10 The earliest inhabitants are believed to be ancient Adena and Hopewell people. Their occupation of the nearby ancient Serpent Mound, Seip Earthworks and Fort Hill sites is documented. The caves provided shelter. Cool fresh water bubbled from springs on the hillsides and flowed out from the wet caves. The forest provided game and the stream abundant fish and mollusks. Early settlers farmed the level terraces above the gorge and harnessed the water power flowing through Rocky Fork Creek to turn mills to grind corn into flour and saw trees into lumber. They tapped the fresh water to distill corn into spirits. They occupied the caves for picnics and square dancing. The sounds of violins echoed through the hills. One large cave, the Dancing Cave, is named for these jovial forays. John Rose acquired the gorge property through a land grant signed by President John Adams on May 5, 1797 as payment for his father’s (Dr. Robert Rose) service to Virginia fighting the Revolutionary War against England. Rose sold this parcel in the Virginia Military Land Grant having never seen it. Over the next one hundred years the property was owned by various others. In 1895 five men purchased the property intending to build a resort hotel on the cliffs to host visitors to the caves from the surrounding towns. Admission was charged to visit the caves and the property was managed in this manner until it sold again in 1928. Charlie Ellison is believed to have been the earliest proprietor of fee-based tourism to the caves. He reportedly charged fifteen cents admission and used the profits to construct a trail to the “Wet Cave,” where he conducted his business. The entrance to the Wet Cave is on the side of a scenic tributary gorge through which a small perennial stream flows down to the Rocky Fork Creek over a high waterfall. Inside the cave about 700 feet from the entrance a great spring of fine, clear water discharges from the rock and runs through a narrow channel to the mouth of the cave where it sinks underground and out into the gorge. This water was later conducted by pipe from the mouth of the cave to the wishing well at the visitor center. The Wet Cave is said to extend underground fifteen hundred feet. Prior to the 2005 “re-naturing” the caves received thousands of visitors in the summers. The smaller “Marble Cave” and “Dancing Cave” are nearby, along with others too small to be entered.11 Summer homes were built along Rocky Fork Creek from the caves to the confluence of Rocky Fork and Paint Creeks where families from the cities would

10 Stansbery and Lafferty: 116. 11 Pummell: 10.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 5 vacation. Cave Road came to be known as Bungalow Row. Alongside the summer cottages there were working farms, gristmills, and a distillery. Bungalow Row passes through the striking and beautiful scenery. At one point the road is shadowed by an overhanging cliff with vines and ferns and wild flowers. At another point the alternating cascades and placid pools of Rocky Fork Creek come into view. At another point the soaring cliffs rear up one hundred feet high, and enormous slump blocks of rocks that have separated from the cliffs lay in the creek bottom.12 In 1928 Clyde Galen Chaney acquired what was then known as the “Highland Park along the Rocky Fork Narrows.” Chaney improved the park for fee-based tourism. He removed clay from the interiors of the largest caves to enlarge them, constructed and improved trails leading to the caves, and stepped up marketing of the natural attraction as a tourist destination. Visitation increased as a result of his creative marketing and highway signs along U.S. Route 50, which invited people traveling cross country in automobiles to stop in and enjoy the attraction. As the automobile increased visitation to national, state and privately owned attractions, Chaney benefited too. Chaney combined nature, caves and popular culture to attract as many visitors as possible. He recognized the promotional value of a good fable and so created stories of enchantment with fairytale based themes which delighted children and adults alike. Most memorable were the “Cave of the Bottomless Pool,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Cave,” “Witches Cave” and “Dungeon Cave.” When Cheney died in 1951 the park was acquired by Adina Head Judkins. Along with her two sons William and Robert, their genius for merging constructed features into nature transformed the park into a Rustic Style landscape garden. They opened beautiful views and scenic vistas, highlighted select specimen plants and geological features, thinned the forest understory and planted a wild garden. Aided by Floyd Stanley, they developed a circuit of three scenic trails that linked all the major caves, geological features and views. Stanley was employed at the 7-Caves from age 12 until his death. He dedicated his lifetime to creating stone retaining walls, stone stairways, stone paving and the wild garden. The folk engineering and artistic acumen of Floyd Stanley is the principal contributing element of the historic landscape. Stanley constructed flights of stairways on the cliff faces and arched bridges over streams. His constructions are spectacular. He constructed four thousand feet of steps and retaining walls using the local limestone with workmanship that blends so closely with the native rock in places that his masonry work is undetectable from the natural rock. It is pleasant to walk on his trails and over elements of the cultural landscape that Stanley spent his lifetime creating.

12 Ibid, 14.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 6 Stanley upgraded the low voltage lighting originally installed in the caves by Clyde Chaney. He also added new signage identifying and describing natural and cultural history, while retaining Chaney’s enchanting fables. Chet and Cherry Miller acquired the 7-Caves in 1981 and operated the business to 2005, by which time visitation had dropped extensively. To keep the business going they sold 47 acres surrounding the core of the park to Highland Nature Sanctuary in 1995. Operated under the not-for-profit Arc of Appalachia Preserve System conservation organization, the going out-of-business park was saved from being subdivided into residential house lots. Highland Nature Sanctuary acquired the thirteen acre core of the park in 2005 and merged the land into its 2,200 acre nature preserve. Under the direction of Larry Henry with the goal of ecological restoration, nature conservation and education the park was renamed the 7-Caves Nature Preserve. Restoration goals include restoring natural water flow from the wet caves, regeneration of natural flora and modifications of landscape management strategies to improve natural habitat to regenerate indigenous fauna. The restoration removed elements of the historic landscape as was deemed necessary for an ecological advantage, particularly for preserving the native bay populations. Cave exploration by tourists was discontinued. The visitor center was repurposed as an art museum of Ohio forests and a conference space. Trails around the visitor center are open to the public. The Rocky Folk Gorge and its systems of caves have attracted humans from time immemorial to the present. The 200 years of use during the historic era damaged the geologic formations in the caves, resulting in breaking every stalactite and stalagmite. These cave features are growing back, ever so slowly. Site Manager Larry Henry graciously granted the HALS team access to the park for this historic landscape recording project as the park was undergoing the initial phase of re-naturing. The HALS team occupied the historic Beech House Lodge within the nature preserve from July 18 through 20, 2006, and conducted field and archival research. David Driapsa served as Project Manager, working in conjunction with ASLA Ohio Chapter HALS members, Lydia Sowles, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Cincinnati, Ohio; Mary Paolano Hoerner, Historian, Cleveland, Ohio; and Debra Walker, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Columbus, Ohio.

Sources: Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, The Rocky Fork Gorge,

http://www.arcofappalachia.org/visit/rocky-fork-gorge.html Ayers, Elsie Johnson. Hills of Highland. (Springfield, Ohio: H.K. Skinner & Sons, 1971.)

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 7 Braun, E. Lucy. Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America. Blakiston Press 1964 Reprint. (New York: Hafner Publication Company, 1950.) Brizius, Janice J. History of the Seven Caves. Undated by Marti Hines. (Maineville, Ohio: Landen Desktop Publishing Center, Inc., n.d.) Driapsa, David, “The Seven Caves: A Photographic Essay,” Student research paper, Department of Landscape Architecture, The Ohio State University, 1986. Durrell, Lucy M. and Richard Durrell, “Today’s Landscape,” in Michael B. Lafferty, Editor-In-Chief. Ohio’s Natural Heritage. (Columbus: Ohio Academy of Science, 1979). Greg, June, Oral History, July 19, 2006. Hamblin, W.K. and J.D. Howard. Geology Laboratory Manual. (Minneapolis, MN: Burgess Publishing Co., 1971) Henry, Larry, Oral History, July 20, 2006. Ingle, Stephen, Guided tour of 7-Caves Trails, with Oral History, July 19, 2006. Klise, J. W. and A. E, Hough, Editor. County of Highland: A History of Highland County, Ohio, from the Earliest Days, with Special Chapters on the Bench and Bar, Medical Profession, Educational Development, Industry and Agriculture and Biographical Sketches. (Madison, Wisconsin: Northwestern Historical Association, 1902.) https://archive.org/stream/countyhighlanda00houggoog/countyhighlanda00houggoog_djvu.txt Lafferty, Michael. (ed.). Ohio’s Natural Heritage. (Columbus: Ohio Academy of Science, 1979.) Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Natural Landmark Registry, Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. Olson, Chuck. The Seven Caves. Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. Columbus, Ohio, 1981. Pummell, A.J., A History of Highland County’s Cave Road. www.highland-ohio.com/cave_road_history.htm. Roadside America. Bainbridge, Ohio: The 7-Caves (Gone). http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3136

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 8 Virtual Tourist, Unique Places in Ohio, http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/North_America/United_States_of_America/Ohio/Off_the_Beaten_Path-Ohio-MISC-BR-1.html Waddell Family Scrapbooks, Beechcliff Lodge, Highlands Nature Sanctuary.

Historian: David Driapsa, ASLA, Historical Landscape Architect.

Affiliation: The American Society of Landscape Architects, Historic Preservation Professional Practice Network, Historic American Landscapes Survey. Project team: Mary Paolano Hoerner, Historian, Cleveland, Ohio Lydia Sowles, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Cincinnati, Ohio Debra Walker, ASLA, Landscape Architect, Columbus, Ohio Affiliation: Ohio Chapter, The American Society of Landscape Architects, Historic American Landscapes Survey. Competition Date: December 6, 2014.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 9

7-Caves Park, Location Map

Illustrator, Lydia Sowles, 2006.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 10

7-Caves Park, Site Plan Sketch

Illustrator: Lydia Sowles, 2006.

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 11

7-Caves Park, Structures: Retaining Walls, Near Entry Station (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Trails (Photographer: David Driapsa, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 12

7-Caves Park, Structures: Trail Stairway with Pipe Handrail (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Structures: Trail Bridge with Pipe Handrails (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 13

7-Caves Park, Structure: Picnic Drinking Water Fountain (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Structure, Cave Trail (Photographer: David Driapsa, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 14

7-Caves Park, Building, Manager’s Residence (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Object, Way Finding Monument (Photographer: Lydia Sowles, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 15

7-Caves Park, Structure, Arch, view from Upper Parking Area (Photographer: Lydia Sowles, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Structure, Arched Bridge (Photographer: Lydia Sowles, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 16

7-Caves Park, Building, Entry Station (Photographer: Debra Walker, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Landscape, Dolomite Limestone Rock Outcropping (Photographer: David Driapsa, 2006).

THE 7-CAVES HALS NO. OH-8

PAGE 17

7-Caves Park, Structure, Circular Stairway on Path (Photographer: David Driapsa, 2006).

7-Caves Park, Cultural Landscape (Photographer: David Driapsa, 2006).