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Geology researcher rocks down Ohio roads for travel book |
| By
Vicki L. Kroll |
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Jan 12, 2007 |
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| Dr. Mark Camp |
Dr. Mark Camp has logged hundreds of miles behind the wheel traveling Ohio highways. The UT associate professor of geology has written a new travel book that highlights geological sites in the Buckeye State.
Roadside Geology of Ohio is part of the Roadside Geology series issued by Mountain Press Publishing Co., Missoula, Mont. Started in 1972, the series is geared toward travelers who are interested in the landscape along the road. The books use layman’s terms to explain what geological landmarks are composed of and how they formed.
This is Camp’s second book in the series. In 1999, he co-wrote Roadside Geology of Indiana.
“What I enjoyed most about working on these books is seeing more of the states, visiting places, hiking around and talking to a lot of interesting people,” Camp said. “While writing these books, I also was building my courses here at the University by gathering more photographic evidence. I’ve taught courses on the geology of Ohio and on tri-state geology — Ohio, Michigan and Indiana.”
In addition to hours in the car on U.S. highways, interstates and a few state routes, Camp spent a lot of time at libraries along the way, checking out maps and historical documents. “I’ve closed down many a small town library, taking notes and gleaning what I could from old publications and newspapers,” he said.
He started working on the Ohio book in 2000 and five years later finished a roadworthy 410-page guide across the state’s flat till plains of the west, through the hilly eastern Allegheny Plateau and the Ohio River Valley, and along the Lake Erie shoreline.
“The glaciers were responsible for the latest landscape features across a good portion of Ohio. They’re the reason it’s reasonably flat in northwest Ohio,” Camp said. “The glaciers came and went across this area for about two million years. They spread as far south as the present-day Ohio River, never getting into the southeastern counties. If you drive down there, it’s a very hilly region.”
Streams shaped areas untouched by glaciers. They carved rock shelters and cliffs and created waterfalls. Camp pointed to the beauty of Hocking Hills State Park as an example.
Other geological wonders he included on his must-see list are Crystal Cave in Put-in-Bay, Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve in Newark, Glacial Grooves State Memorial on Kelleys Island, and Ohio Caverns in West Liberty.
“One of my favorite trips was to Zane Shawnee Caverns in the Bellefontaine area,” Camp recalled. “It’s a live cave with water still dripping and stalactites forming.
“There’s another place I’ve grown to enjoy down in Green County. I just discovered it by driving by. It’s a county park called Indian Mound Reserve. It’s near Cedarville,” he said. “One of the trails goes through a typical Silurian gorge — the rivers have all carved pretty deep gorges into the Silurian. It’s a lot of nice scenery — some undercut cliffs, waterfalls.”
In addition to Ohio’s picturesque scenery, pieces of the past make quite an impression. “Ohio is actually quite a treasure trove of fossils. It’s one of the most well-known fossil-collecting places in North America,” Camp said.
A hot spot for fossils is just west of Toledo and Sylvania along Centennial Road. “Those quarries expose rocks that are about 375 million years old,” he said. Trilobites, brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and fishplates and teeth are regularly unearthed.
Camp is considering writing another book for the Roadside Geology series, perhaps covering Michigan or Kentucky with the help of a co-author. First, he needs to finish his third in another series, Images of Rail: Railroad Depots of Northeast Ohio, which will be published to coincide with the Railroad Station Historical Society’s annual convention in June. The rail fan will run the convention with Dr. Kevin Capurso, UT visiting assistant professor of pharmacy practice.
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