In the 18th century, the Native American Tribes of Delaware, Wyandot, and Shawnee travelled through and lived in the area.
The Adena culture is believed to be one of the first inhabitants of the area of Hocking Hills. That is the same "Black Hand Sandstone" that is seen in six areas of the Hocking Hills State Park. In just a few centuries, the rushing waters of the glacier carved the soft middle layer of sandstone into the myriad dimples and wrinkles that decorate the cliffs and grottos today.Įarly settlers in Muskingum County found an ancient black human handprint on a cliff that is part of this same sandstone formation. The "slump rocks" in the gorges today are what's left of the hard top layer. Eventually, the weight of the tops caused them to come crashing down. This left long tunnels where the gorges are today. When the glacial torrents found cracks in the hard capstone, the water poured through to flush out the soft middle layer. The ancient Teays River was buried under tons of glacial silt, and the direction of the Hocking River was reversed. The glacier stopped in northern Hocking County, so the area suffered indescribable flooding. When the Wisconsin Glacier began melting back to the north about 10,000 years ago, the landscape would undergo dramatic changes. Any changes were minuscule, and were slow to develop. The landscape remained fairly static for millions of years. Hocking Hills State Park was hemmed in by the ancient north-flowing Teays River to the west, and the then north-flowing Hocking to the east. When the Appalachian Mountains arose, form and feature were cast upon the area and created Hocking Hills State Park. It formed like a sandwich, with a hard top and bottom and a soft middle layer. After millions of years, the ocean receded, and the sandy layers bonded with silica to form the Black Hand Sandstone that underlies the area. For millions of years, the ocean's currents deposited immense amounts of sand and gravel. More than 330 million years ago, the Hocking Hills State Park area was relatively level and was covered by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
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