Gneiss Place for a Wigwam EarthCache
Gneiss Place for a Wigwam
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Waypoint 2 of 10 on Going Coastal’s NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Eco-Discovery Trail in Inwood Hill Park. Caches developed by Going Coastal, Inc. (www.goingcoastal.org) in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation as a special project in affiliation with Groundspeak and support from the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program and the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission.
The NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Earthcache Discovery Trail is meant to help visitors develop a better understanding of the Estuary, make connections between earth and environmental science, and foster stewardship.
The waypoint is on the NW side of the Nature Center building, at the Native American wigwam.
Look across Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the 100 foot rock face painted with the 60 foot x 60 foot Columbia University "C". (visit link)
It is one of the oldest rock formations in the world made of Fordham Gneiss, a metamorphic rock formed a billion years ago. It was once part of a high mountain range created when continents collided and tectonic plates shifted during the Grenville Orogreny (a mountain-building period). Tectonic processes such as orogenies caused land to be elevated, and erosion and weathering caused land to be worn away to lower elevations.
Fordham gneiss is 'basement rock" usually lying under younger rock formations. Geological events caused this vein of Fordham gneiss to crop up in the North Bronx as the Riverdale Ridge reaching the edge of the creek before plunging steeply underground.
Native Americans built camps of wigwams in the shadow of the protective ridge of Gneiss. They settled on the shore where Spuyten Duyvil Creek, the Hudson River and Harlem River meet in a village they named Shorakapok. The inhabitants of this village were Lenape (len-AH-pay), also known as the Delaware Tribe. The villagers spoke a language called Munsee, a dialect of the Eastern Algonquian Delaware language. The wigwam was a family's house. (visit link)
The Lenape built wigwams by first putting long poles into the ground, then bending the poles to make a domed frame. The frame was covered with sheets of bark. The opening in the roof was to let smoke out from the fire. The land was good for farming, and the Lenape grew maize, beans and squash. They also fished and gathered oysters in the nearby water, and hunted deer, bear, beaver, and many other animals. (visit link)
Archeologists have dug up many artifacts around Inwood Hill including pottery, arrowheads, bones, and ornaments of carved stone. The Lenape used dugout canoes made of hollowed out trees to travel the waterways of the Harbor Estuary. (visit link)
A sacred Lenape story tells how the earth was created. First everything was water. Then a giant turtle came to the surface. The turtle's shell is the land we are standing on. Soon trees and other plants began to grow on top of the turtle's shell.
Spuyten Duyvil Creek was very different when the Lenape lived here. Originally, the creek made a sharp bend at the base of Inwood Hill. Today, it forms a continuous waterway created from the widening of the Harlem Ship Canal linking the Hudson River with the Harlem River. The channel was straightened, the river dredged, cut through solid rock in Manhattan, filled in Spuyten Duyvil Creek and added the tract where you are standing to Manhattan.
LoggingTask:
1. Look at the banks of the Harlem River and the cliffs across the river, list one way that humans have modified the landscape.
2. What is the spit of land where you are standing made out of (rock, dirt, sand?)
3. The Lenape did not use nails or screws to build their wigwams. What did the Lenape use instead of nails and screws to keep their wigwams together?
4. (Optional) Why does the wigwam have a rounded shape?
5. (Optional) Please post photos of your visit in front of the wigwam with your log if you can.
To log a find on this earthcache, email the cache owner (DO NOT POST IN YOUR LOG). Use your GPS device to locate the next cache - GC2RQ80. (visit link)
Remember, to upload a photo and let us know in your log ways we can improve the trail.
Data Sources:
Going Coastal (visit link)
Harbor Estuary Program (visit link)
Lenape Lifeways Lenape history and culture: (visit link)
NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (visit link)
Data Collected: September 2010 to April 15, 2011
Name and Type of Land:
Inwood Hill Park
W 218 Street & Seaman Avenue, Manhattan
Phone: (212) 304-2365
www.nycgovparks.org
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)