Lay down – uplift – sculpt

Looking SE up Doan Brook to the Portage Escarpment

Rockefeller-on-Doan explores park landscape in the hand of natural and human forces.

Find evidence for the rise of local bedrock, for bulldozing glacial ice and for Doan Brook’s cutting of a beloved ravine.

Review the impacts of park development, including the outstanding Cleveland Cultural Gardens.

See the recently completed Doan Brook Enhancement Project in terms of stormwater mediation and the restoration of local natural habitats.

Portage Escarpment bedrocks were laid upon the Late Devonian sea bottom, >350 Ma (million years ago). Mud built the shales (Chagrin, Cleveland and Cuyahoga). Silt built the Euclid bluestone. Sand gave Berea and Sharon sandstones.

Rockefeller-on-DoanRock – Ice –Water

Portage Escarpment Timeline

Tropical sea bottom

Glacial sculpting

June 6, 2015

sandstone terrace

bluestone terrace

Glacial advance

USGS LiDAR; Google Earth aerial viewer

Hiking Rockefeller Park south

© 2015Bluestone Heightsbluestoneheights.org

Gesu School

kakakakaMaMaMaMa

Lake Erie rises to present levelNiagara River lowers Lake ErieFinal glacial retreatFinal glacial advanceGlacial advances beginNorth American upliftEuclid bluestone depositedChagrin Shale deposited

• Reviving the natural regulation of stormwater at low cost and high community benefit.

• Reconnecting fragmented natural habitat areas as a means to build local biodiversity.

In learning natural history and the ways in which natural & human forces interweave, we can better address two crucial local environmental issues.

Rockefeller Park lies on Doan Brook as it leaves the Portage Escarpment, Cleveland’s major terrain feature

As the last glacier retreated northward, rushing melt water spawned our ‘escarpment run’ streams including Doan and Dugway Brooks.

Bedrock deposition, glacial sculpting and stream cutting produced the ‘Rockefeller’ landscape.

We have buried our streams and flattened our features. With development, environment is degraded and biodiversity is reduced.

Humans

Devonian earth

LM

ich

igan

LM

ich

igan

L Huron

L Huron

About 300 Ma, our area uplifted from the sea. The Ohio and Saint Lawrence watersheds began to form. Much later, about 2 Ma, the earth cooled and great glaciers began mounting in northern North America.

Lake Erie ~570’ above sea level

Uplift

we-are-stuff

4

12.6

16

23

2.5

300

360

370

pro-glacial lakes

Roy Larick, Tori Mills, Graham Welling

Rock – Ice – Water – Humans

Blue Rock

lake plain

Just 23 ka (thousand years ago), the last glacial advancebulldozed the rock sandwich slope (Portage Escarpment) to create two terraces: one atop the Berea Sandstone and one atop the Euclid bluestone.

Sixteen thousand years ago, the last glacier retreated through our area. The ancestors of Lake Erie began to emerge. Just 14 ka, Doan and nearby streams cut through escarpment to create the ravines of today.

© 2015Bluestone Heightsbluestoneheights.org

glacial terrace – fossil beach – stream courses – springs

Rockefeller Park, c. 1900

No

rth

K. Roberts

K. Roberts

USGS LiDAR underlayGoogle Earth aerial viewer

Stream culvert data courtesy of NEORSD

R. Larick

Blue Rock spring, c. 1900

Rockefeller Park, 1897

R. Larick

Rockefeller Park Spring, 1911

Rockefeller-on-Doan

Cleveland Heights

Cleveland

Portage Escarpment, St Clair Terrace & lake plain

Ambler spring, near Fairhill Rd

Wade Park Spring. 1900

CMP

CMP: Cleveland Memory Project

ceveland.about.com

Wade Oval, 1874

Rockefeller Park

Rockefeller Park

CMP

CMP

CMP

CMP

WRHS

East Cleveland

Early settlers valued clear (Wade, Rockefeller).Victorian water cure valued mineral (Ambler, Blue Rock).

Eddy gristmill, 1809Cozad gristmill, 1830sCrawford sawmill, 1830s

Springs

Mills

E 1

05

th

Wade Park

Euclid

D.J. Lake

hike pathway