Scene
in Shaker
The
Seasons
of
the
Gorge
BY BETH FRIEDMAN-ROMELL
Photo courtesy of Deborah Edwards
Y.S. led me off trail, resulting in some scrapes and bruises, and the discovery of the
“graffiti rock” and charming waterfall, which is my favorite place to come when I need to
calm my ragged thoughts. When the water is low, you can walk upstream, or climb up and
down the waterfall.
As we followed the brook downstream, many questions arose. Who laid out the nowcrumbling
stone steps and path linings? What formed those mysterious craters? For what
purpose are those cement pilings, with their protruding steel girders? Why are parts of
the banks composed of craggy rocks and others of dirt? Who left that bra in the woods,
those shorts in the stream?
Most of my questions have been answered on a recent series of seasonal hikes,
sponsored by the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership (doanbrookpartnership.org)
and led by Dr. Roy Larick, an expert on the natural and cultural history of Bluestone
Heights, a massive geological formation upon which much of the East Side is built
(bluestoneheights.org/bsh/). On the spring hike, which focused on the natural history of
the gorge, we learned that Doan Brook, formed by a glacier, is a mere 14,000 years old,
but different layers of rock are much older – about 350 million years, a time when Ohio
was under a sea and much farther south.
Our summer hike focused on early human transformations of the terrain. It is likely
that Native Americans used the woods around the brook as transitory campgrounds.
In the early 19th century, the North Union Shakers cleared the forest and dammed the
brook to power several mills. Small segments of the original dam and foundation can still
be seen in an overgrown site adjacent to Coventry Road at the base of Lower Lake.
The lower brook is a wooded haven these days, but in the 19th century, it was a
busy industrial site. Those “craters” were once small quarries, when railroad trestles
spanned the ravine. On our fall hike, we learned about the “suburbanization” of the gorge.
Beginning in the 1880s, wealthy industrialists donated land along the brook to transform
and preserve it as a public park. Stone steps and carriage trails invited thousands of
visitors from the crowded cities. Traces of this infrastructure still remain, poking up
through dirt and tree roots. (Those trees, by the way, took hold in the fill that was dumped
in the gorge when the Baldwin Reservoir was constructed in 1925.)
On this hike, we were treated to a spectacular view of the gorge from the terrace of a
home at Fairhill Village. We also learned that the concrete “trash rack” just east of Martin
Luther King Drive is a 1970s effort at flood control, which is slated for removal. And I finally
found the path to the gorge west of MLK, aka Ambler Park. Beyond the concrete “detention
pond” are more wooded trails, which open onto a grassy area at the bottom of the hill.
Congratulations – you are now standing at the western limit of the Allegheny Mountains!
While humans have been altering the brook for a couple of centuries, Nature can
transform it in an instant. On July 27, 2014, I took my friend Robin on the trail under
a slight drizzle. She was anxious, but I urged her to press on. When the trails became
streams, I figured we should climb out and head home up Fairhill. I left her in the safety of
an apartment vestibule and headed for the car, parked at Lower Lake. Then I heard voices
coming from the waterfall. I ducked back down the trail to discover a roaring torrent. The
brook had become a river, fast exceeding its banks. Three guys cheerfully waved to me from
the rock ledge across the way. Soon after, Coventry and Fairhill were flooded (watch the
video at shakeronline.com/departments/public-works/sewers/storm-videos).
I feel a deep connection to this little urban stream in all its moods. I encourage you to
check out its trails, and support the efforts of all those trying to restore and protect it. SL
Most Shaker residents are
familiar with the lakes and
trails flanking the meandering
course of Doan Brook around
the Shaker Lakes. But fewer of us have
explored the brook west of Coventry Road.
The trails surrounding the Doan Brook
down to University Circle offer tranquility
and ever-changing landscape mere feet
from roaring traffic. This is the gorge.
I first encountered the area a decade
ago, on a hike sponsored by the Nature
Center. Alas, a bee promptly stung Elder
Son, and I failed to return for many years.
Happily, Younger Son likes to climb rocks
and ford streams, so I convinced him that
exploring this trail close to home was
worth a try.
SHAKER LIFE | WINTER 2015 63