During the Ordovician period, 425 million-years ago, an inland sea covered what is now southern Indiana, depositing mud or chemicals and body parts from sea creatures that would one day form thick layers of shale and limestone. Rock features record the geologic history of an area, and help determine the environment.
Local residents,such as John B. Todd, cousin to then president James Buchanan,lived in a home near the mouth of Clifty Creek and was reported to have taken slaves through the gorge to Ryker's Ridge or the Michigan Road (Lemen, "The Todd House and Its Relation to the Underground Railroad," typescript in clipping file "Counties:Jefferson-Madison", Indiana Division, Indiana State Library;Madison's 175th Anniversary Commemorative Book (n.p., 1984,p19.)
According to Diane Coon, the Clifty Falls route was also used by used a group that called themselves the “Knights of the Golden Circle” http://www.northeastjournal.com/LeadingStories/jan07/elutherian.html
The Underground railroad was not the only railroad to entwine it’s fate with that of Clifty Canyon. In 1836, the Indiana’s first railroad, the Indianapolis and Madison, included a 7000 foot ascent up “Madison Hill” rising some 400 feet in elevation. The 5.9% grade was simply too steep to be used by engines of the day and draft horse had to be used to haul freight up the hill. In 1848, John Brough took over the rail line and began construction of a new pathway through Clifty Canyon in 1852. The plan was to run from the river valley to the mouth of Clifty Canyon and north along the east wall of the canyon to Dean Branch of Clifty Creek, connecting to a main rail line. Although the project provided work for 700 local men at its peak, the rail company went bankrupt before construction was completed. Parts of trails 1, 3, 4 and 5 are what is left of “Bough’s Folly” the 1852 effort to improve that line is still visible today as the hiking trails of Clifty Canyon:
Trail 1 begins at the nature center and levels out where Brough’s line began, midway down the hill.
Trail 3 was created of limestone removed from overhead to create the rail pass, and along trail 4 the hikers finds the remains of a wall made to stabilize the hill and massive limestone blocks cut to support a rail trestle. Trail 5 passes both entrances to the 600 foot tunnel remaining from Bough’s project, cut into the relatively soft Osgood Shale.
Tours through the tunnel used to be a popular recreation event in the park. The ledge on trail #5 from the east end of the tunnel (coordinates) to the Tunnel Falls overlook, is an artificial ledge, created when the Osgood and the Laurel limestone above the railway were removed for the railroad right-of-way.
The citizens of Jefferson county recognized the unique features of the area, from the extensive exposures of ancient rocks, to the diversity of plants and animals found in the area. Following World War I, local citizens raised half the purchase price of the land to make the park possible.
During the Depression era, the park provided employment for many of the locals when President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps were used to build the splendid stone and timbergate houses, the stone entrance walls, and the present interpretive center itself, originally a saddle barn. The CCC also built a wooden bridge on the hill to trail 5 (replaced by the current concrete structure after World War II) as well as the stone arches over Dean's Branch and Little Clifty Creek. Currently the park includes an Inn overlooking winding bends in the Ohio River Valley, and the Historic District of nearby Madison is a national Historic Landmark.
The landscape creates a unique set of environmental conditions. Hiking trails range from moderate to rugged. Clifty Canyon Nature Preserve boasts diverse features from mesic forests on the lower slopes and ravine bottoms, and dry oak-hickory forests on the upper slopes and ridge tops. Throughout the canyon common and rare plants and animals are observed, including several rare lizards. Limestone outcropped as steep ravines support undisturbed cliff communities of mosses, lichens, and ferns. Fossils are abundant in all exposed layers, particularly the Dillsboro formation. Fossil collecting and plant collecting are not allowed in any area of the park, but an interpretive center is available. http://www.in.gov/dnr/naturepr/npdirectory/preserves/clifty.html http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/properties/park_cliftyfalls.html Park map-- shaded area shows nature preserve
FORMATION OF THE CANYON
Clifty Canyon plunges downward 80 feet from the upper canyon to the lowest layers, then travels an additional 250 feet to the river, exposing rocks from the Dillsboro and Saluda formations. The Dillsboro formation (270 feet exposed), remain from a time when the inland seas alternately deepened and then retreated leaving behind the mud and the remains of sea organisms that would eventually form the shale-limestone layers. Above, the Saluda formation shows ripple marks and mud cracks that signal a change in conditions.
The Saluda segments form the lowest set of cliffs, and set the stage for formation of four major and numerous smaller waterfalls within the park boundaries. After the deposition of the oldest rocks, the area experienced a period of weathering and erosion. The absence of the Brassfield (limestone) member at the northern end signifies the boundary of the area warped above sea level in the early Silurian period. Above the Brassfield, the easily eroded Osgood member and the more resistant Laurel limestone (Salamonie formation) denote deeper seas during the Silurian. The rocks of the Laurel were once known as “cliff limestone” for their tendency to form these kinds of features.
ICE AGE SCULPTING
- Repeated cycles of warping tilted the rocks slightly west and southwest. Eventually, the great seas retreated and the forces of weathering and erosion began to change the land. The Ohio river did not yet exist; glacial forces would sculpt and carve the canyon during the formation of the Ohio river. A thin layer of glacial deposits form the soils over the Laurel in the area, testifying to two massive local glaciers events. During the last Ice Age (10 thousands years ago+), the advancing glaciers scoured and scraped the; the melt waters from the retreating glacier would form the “new” river. Ice blocked northward flowing streams leading to the ancient Teays river drainage system, creating temporary lakes at the edge of the ice. Melt water, sand, and gravel formed the “new” Ohio river. Erosion from the streams exposed the long-buried limestone and shale. Weathering, erosion, and slumping created Clifty Canyon, a nature preserve that makes up part of the 1416 acres now known as Clifty Falls State Park, near Madison, in southern Indiana. http://igs.indiana.edu/geology/structure/compendium/html/comp9a1w.cfm rock compendium