By Charla Wurm-Adams
cwurm@wbcowqel.com
Crawford Park District naturalist Chris Rothhaar led a hike on Saturday to a place so unique there may not be another like it in Crawford County.
Rothhaar led a group to see and study the sandstone formations along the Sandusky River in Lowe-Volk Park. As Rothhaar explains, the sandstone tells its own story of nature at work.
“The major premise of the hike is the sandstone out cropping down along the Sandusky River here, and we are going to observe nature forces in breaking it down through freezing and thawing,” Rothhaar said. “Lichens growing on the rocks that release an acid that helps break it down. Trees starting to grow on the rock themselves and their roots go into the cracks and then when the roots get bigger, they break the rock down and you can actually see this from this wall, the sandstone it’s down there.”
The sandstone walls and outcroppings makes for some extraordinary scenery with unique rock formations complete with foliage like moss, ferns and even trees hanging on the walls overlooking that section of the Sandusky River.
At one time there was a quarry in that area which employed over 100 men and much of the stone was used as foundations and even sidewalks in Crawford County in the early 1900s.