Up close with Pat Quackenbush; Hocking Hills Naturalist / ghost hunter

Hocking Hills is full of wonderful creatures...

Pat's dance moves

Not the least of which is its Naturalist Supervisor, Pat Quakenbush, who was recently honored by the Hocking Hills Tourism Association with the Keith Fox Award, which was established in 2014 to recognize extraordinary tourism leadership.

I had the chance to sit down with Pat last spring and chat about deep gorges, horned devils, vampires, prohibition, baseball bats, epic pirate battles, and since Pat moonlights as a professional ghost-hunter, we even delved into the truly unnatural.     
 

The old man in the cave at Hocking Hills

 Richard Rowe and the Old Man's Cave

 Old Man’s Cave is a well-known name in the Hocking Hills of southeastern Ohio. A favorite hiking destination, Old Man’s Cave Ohio is arguably the most popular of the six areas at Hocking Hills State Park. A mile-long gorge at Old Man’s Cave displays a variety of geologic features, including waterfalls, sandstone cliffs and rock formations with names like the Devil’s Bathtub, Sphinx Head, Eagle Rock and Whale in the Wall.  Old Man’s Cave is also home to the 149-foot-tall hemlock that’s said to be the tallest tree in Ohio.

The name Old Man’s Cave refers to the rock shelter that was once the home of Richard Rowe, a 19th-century hermit who is said to be buried beneath a cave ledge on the premises.

The Rowe family lived in the Cumberland Mountains in eastern Tennessee, before beginning their journey to the Hocking Hills State Park area.   

Throwback 200 years to 1816, part two

The year 2016 is both a birthday for the town of Logan, Ohio, which turns 200, and a birthday for Fox’s Hocking Hills Canoe Livery, which turns 20.  Our Throwback series takes a peek back to those times.

 

 The year without a summer

200 years ago the Town of Logan, Ohio was formed.  That summer was unlike any other.  A super-colossal volcanic explosion in Indonesia caused one of the greatest magic tricks in history, it made summer disappear!  There are only 4 volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years ranked as high on the Volcanic Explosivity Scale,as this particular one on  Mount Tambora, ejected so much ash and debris into the atmosphere that it caused world wide short term climate change and led to one of the greatest subsistence crisis known to man, and changed humanity.
 

Throwback 200 years to 1816, part one

The year 2016 is both a birthday for the town of Logan, Ohio, which turns 200, and a birthday for Fox’s Hocking Hills Canoe Livery, which turns 20.  Our Throwback series takes a peek back to those times.

 

 It was 200 hundred years ago...

...when the town of Logan, Ohio was established.  It was born from the mill on the Hocking River, grew up on coal, iron ore, and clay, and continues a fruitful life with the addition of the tourism industry that has accompanied the admiration and appreciation for the scenic beauty of the region.

Certainly the founding of the town could be considered an important event that happened that year, but there are other notable happenings back in 1816.

To put it into perspective for you:

 

Throwback 20 years to 1996

The year 2016 is both a birthday for the town of Logan, Ohio, which turns 200, and a birthday for Fox’s Hocking Hills Canoe Livery, which turns 20.  Our Throwback series takes a peek back to those times.

 

It was twenty years ago... 

...when Aaron and Valerie Fox started Hocking Hills Canoe Livery off the porch of the Logan Antique Mall.  With one van and 40 boats they put out their first customers, slogging up and down the muddy banks of the Hocking River while simultaneously erecting the main livery building in the woods behind the Olde Dutch restaurant in Logan, Ohio. 

To most of us this is the most important thing that happened that year, but there are a few other notable events that took place in 1996, such as:

 

 

Canoe or Kayak?

Ah choices!  Shall I take a canoe or a kayak on my paddling trip?  Well that depends on if you like Coke or Pepsi, drive a car or a truck, listen to pop or classics…  well you get the idea.  It mostly comes down to personal preference, but knowing the differences can help you have a more enjoyable time out on the river.

The oldest boat known to still be in existence is a canoe from about 10,000 years ago.  Kayaks didn’t come along for at least another several thousand years.  So if “experience” is an important qualification to you, well then stop reading and pick the canoe!

Living on the edge: A geological primer of Hocking Hills

Rock Bridge, Hocking Hills

The Hocking Hills region is a stunning anomaly.  Chockablock full of magnificent gorges and waterfalls, outlandish cliff sides, rock formations, and rare plants and animals that would require a hundred miles of travel just to find another one like it.  You see, the Hocking Hills region is unique because it always seems to find itself perched right on the edge.


The actual rock itself, is a type of sandstone, made up of different particles that were once floating along in rivers and streams.  As those rivers and streams entered a shallow sea, they slowed down, and the particles began to settle to the bottom.   Back then the Hocking Hills area had more of a coastal feel to it, right on the edge of a large body of water.  To be fair, this was a while back.  In fact we’re talking before dinosaurs!  Over time, that sediment compressed and developed in layers of rock several hundred feet thick.