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.