Bog or Fen? EarthCache
Hidden : 11/13/2007
Difficulty:
1 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

The above coordinates should lead you to an Ohio Historical Society marker at the entrance to Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve.

Cedar Bog State Nature Preserve, with its holdover of plants and animals that flourished in Pleistocene time (often called the Ice Age), lies between Urbana and Springfield, Ohio in the Middle of the Mad River outwash plain. Cedar Bog is a misnomer. Bogs are generally ponds that are underlain by acidic organic debris and covered with sphagnum moss. Cedar bog is actually a fen characterized by a continuous source of flowing water supplied by aquifers (ground water) or surface water. Whereas bogs are usually acidic, fens are generally neutral to basic.

Geologists have different views on the fen’s source of water, but all agree that underground springs are the reason it still exists. The local water table is at the level of the Mad River west of the fen, and thus is not high enough to create a wetland. Some geologists believe that cool groundwater seeps into the fen from east of the preserve, originating in the Urbana outwash. Others suggest that it comes from a buried channel of the Mad River near the preserve.

In 1942 Cedar Bog became the first nature preserve in Ohio purchased with state funds. Efforts to set this wetland aside began in the 1920s through the efforts of Florence Murdock and her daughter. Efforts intensified in the mid 1930s with help from Walter Brigham Evens, Jr., and finally came to fruition in 1941 due to the interests of Champaign County Common Pleas Judge Owens, Governor John Bicker, and Dr. Edward S. Thomas of the Ohio Historical Society. This relatively small parcel is an outstanding example of a prairie/fen complex known as Cedar Swamp that once covered 7,000 acres of the Mad River Valley.

Developed by a Platinum Earthcache Master

To log a successful find, you will need to fulfill the following requirement;
#1 Answer the following. What amount of Ohio’s plant species is located in Cedar Bog?
#2 What 2 plant species are mentioned on the OHS marker?
#3 Near the OHS marker is another common Ice Age remnant, an erratic. An erratic is a rounded rock that has been transported by glaciers, which generally differ in type from local bedrock.
What are the dimensions of this erratic?

Special thanks go to the Ohio Historical Society for their help with establishing this earthcache.

Reference: Camp, Mark J. 2006 Roadside Geology of Ohio. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company

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