This Earth Cache is located in a 1,603-acre state reforestation area consisting mostly of a granite plateau ranging in character from bare rock outcrops to relatively fertile valleys. A sheer stone cliff over 100 feet high rises from Payne Lake to overlook the Payne Lake Public Fishing Access Site to the east. This state forest was named for a unique nearby rock formation that once served as an outdoor podium from which traveling clergy preached to the local pioneers. Pulpit Rock State Forest is located in Antwerp NY just outside of Oxbow NY. The Earth Cache is more of a historic place, and not a park. That means that there are no tables, benches, restrooms, or any other amenities. It can be viewed from your car and has a sign by the side of the road letting you know you have found it. The sign states that Oliver Leavitt preached to the early pioneers in the eighteen hundreds.
Since that time other Pastors have also used this unique natural formation to preach. As stated in the Gouverneur Tribune Press 4/20/2006, “Ron Sinclair of the Oxbow Presbyterian Church presented his fifth annual Easter Sunday Sunrise Service at the Pulpit Rock in Oxbow on April 16th. He tends to hold at least one sermon a year at the rock either in the spring or fall.” Link to that article: https://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=gtp20060420-01.1.7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN----------
Have you ever seen or heard of a glacial pothole? These unique formations – also called giant’s kettles – are the result of powerful works of nature. They form when the bedrock is covered by a warming glacier. As the glacier melts, swirls of water drill down into the bedrock. The debris they carry creates the holes we call glacial potholes. What is unique about this one is that one side is completely open, creating natural acoustic area which is why Preachers and Pastors chose this spot for their sermans. The huge volume of glacial meltwater created swirling, rushing, powerful rivers that carried sand, pebbles, and sometimes even large boulders. When those meltwater rivers were focused along a narrow channel, over a very short period of time, the rivers and their suspended pebbles were capable of drilling into the floor made of Amabel Formation dolomite rock.
The above image illustrates the geological process that created the potholes. A swirling water current carrying small pebbles and sediment wore away and "drilled" into the rock on the river bed. Image from: http://www.geo.mtu.edu/KeweenawGeoheritage/The_Fault/Potholes.html
The potholes started to form when one of more hard pebbles, carried by the meltwater rivers, became stuck into cracks or cavities in the dolomite rock river bed. The incredible force of the rushing meltwater river caused the rock pebble to swirl around and around within the rock crack and to "drill" into the rock along the bottom of the main river channel or in plunge pools below cataracts or water falls.
To get credit for this Earth Cache please message or email the answers to these following questions. As a bonus please send a photo of the sign here or the pothole. "photo requirement"
- What color are the rocks inside the pothole, what type of rock do you believe them to be?
- How do you believe this pothole was formed?
- What is the other common name for a pothole?
- Why do you believe that preachers use this natural formation to preach from?
- Is the inside of the formation one smooth rock surface or is it broken up in segments?
References
Kor, P.S.G., and Cowell, D.W., 1998. Evidence for catastrophic subglacial meltwater sheetflood events on the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 35, 1180.1202.
Kor, P.S.G., Shaw, J., and Sharpe, D.R., 1991. Erosion of bedrock by subglacial meltwater, Georgian Bay, Ontario: a regional view. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 28, 623.642.
Kunert, M. and Coniglio, M. 2002. Origin of vertical shafts in bedrock along the Eramosa River valley near Guelph, southern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 39, p. 43.52.
McKellar, P., 1890. On pot.holes north of Lake Superior unconnected with existing streams. Bulletin Geological Society of America 1, 568.570.
McKenzie, D.I., 1994. Quaternary geology of the Waterloo area, Ontario. Geological Association of Canada Field Trip A6 Guidebook, 46p.
Panton, J.H., 1888. The caves and potholes at Rockwood, Ontario. Proceedings of the Canadian Institute, 3rd series, 6, 244.253.
Stanley, G.M., 1934. Pleistocene potholes in the Cloche Mountains of Ontario. Papers, Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters 19, 401.416.