Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio has long been a place of interest for human cultures. The Blackhand sandstone formed a series of ravines there, and coupled with the abundant water supply allowed for a micro-climate atypical for Ohio. This explains the existence of trees like black birch, Canadian yew, and hemlocks which don’t normally grow in the state. You can see several images of the old-growth hemlocks here.
Shawnee, Delaware, and Wyandot peoples lived in the region in the 1600s and 1700s, and they called the main river the Hockhocking, or “bottleneck” because of its shape. In 1840, the American government created the Hocking Canal, which greatly furthered white expansion in the area. Early eco-tourism drew people to Hocking Hills by the 1860s, and finally in 1924 the State of Ohio bought 146 acres as the start to the state park.
