THE HISTORY of PUNDERSON LAKE and VICINITY Louis Horvath
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THE HISTORY OF PUNDERSON LAKE AND VICINITY SUMMER OF 1982 Louis Horvath 1 1. THE BEGINNING The chronological history of NEWBURY TOWNSHIP and the settler occupation of the PUNDERSON area is relatively recent-hardly several hundred years. Much went on in this locality before 1800. When we think of the “early days”, our thoughts go back to the days of the first decades of the nineteenth century. Then we can't help but go on to the eighteenth century and think of the first Europeans who came through this area. We are interested not only in the farmers who came here to clear the land and establish roads and settlements but also in the earlier inhabitants, the frontiersmen, the traders, the soldiers, the missionaries and, of course, the Indians. Finally, we are also interested in the land, the site on which this lake and park stand. The decision had to be made as to just how much earlier in time I should go. As I reflected upon this, it became increasingly clear to me that the founding of the township and its development was, in part, due to the geological and geographical features which were determined by natural forces many hundreds of thousands of years ago. So, I went back in time. Way back. Millions of years in the past. Back to the formation of Lake Erie and beyond. For without Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga River we would, in all probability, not have a lake such as Punderson in this area. My quest led me back through time to the GREAT ICE AGES. For it was during these times that the stage was set for the formation of the GREAT LAKES and the Great Lakes Drainage Basin. Prior to this, the area was a much different place. You might ask what all this has to do with the History of Punderson Lake. It was all significant because these are the things that caused this territory to have the attributes which the first settlers found to be attractive enough for settlement and later to become a recreational center. It was the geological features that attracted these early settlers. Who knows what we would have had without Lake Erie. But let us go back still further in time, to the periods when the important rock formations, salt beds, coal deposits and oil and gas were given to us. For these are some of the valuable natural resources which helped make this territory what it is today. 2 The various geological Eras (when all this happened) are as follows. The period limits are not specific but follow a gradual merging or overlap which took hundreds and sometimes thousands of years. CENOZOIC ERA Start of Epoch Approximate date Epoch 1,000 Years Recent 11 Pleistocene 1,000 Pliocene - Miocene - Oligocene - Paleocene 70,000 MESOZOIC ERA Cretaceous 130,000 Jurassic 160,000 Triassic 200,000 PALEOZOIC ERA Permian 255,000 Carboniferous 285,000 Devonian 320,000 Silurian 350,000 Ordovician 400,000 Cambrian 500,000 PRE-CAMBRIAN TIME 3.5 to 4 billion years ago 3 The rock or stone formations and the natural resources were laid down in these periods over many millions of years. For simplicity, we will skip the details (these can be acquired from any good geology textbook) and run over the Eras starting with the oldest to illustrate the contribution of each. These are the geological times during which the sedimentary rocks and stones were deposited. Most of the other rocks came from pre-Cambrian times. Most of the Geological formations that interest us for this history were deposited from the beginning of the PALEOZOIC ERA. Starting with the CAMRIAN EPOCH, we have six EOCHS in this ERA. The CAMBRIAN EPOCH lasted about 80 million years beginning about 500 million years ago. During this Era, there were considerable chances in the earth's crust. A lot of uplift, warping and sinking caused drastic changes which had a great deal to do with how our natural resources were deposited. Much of the land surface that we know today was covered with water. For example, this territory was covered by a shallow sea. While the Appalachian Mountain range was formed in pre- Cambrian times, a great deal of changes (volcanic and due to the elements) altered it constantly. From this Era, we got some of our oldest sandstone, limestone and clays. The ORDOVICIAN EPOCH lasted about 75 million years, ending about 400 million years ago. The fish and other sea life were becoming more plentiful now and these are found in the sandstone and limestone as fossils. The earth crust continued to move up and down and this caused important chances to happen in the location and nature of the seas and lakes. In many cases the seas or lakes became landlocked with no inlet or outlet. Like the Dead Sea or the Great Salt Lake, some of these eventually evaporated leaving vast beds of salt and other minerals. This is how we got the large salt beds which are found underneath this area. The SILURIAN EPOCH took 30 million years and ended about 320 million years ago. The sea life was more plentiful and this shows up in the fossils of this period more frequently. The changes continued in the earth crust and more isolated salt water lakes resulted giving us more salt beds. In addition, we have iron ore, various minerals, some early oil and gas and still more limestone and dolomite were laid. The area now occupied by Garfield Heights was covered by the shallow seas and much of the time by a large land locked salt lake which evaporated. It was in this Epoch that plants and animals started to appear on land. 4 The DEVONIAN EPOCH lasted for about 35 million years and ended about 295 million years ago. In this Period, the seas were extremely abundant with life. Amphibians appeared. The climate was generally mild with no marked zones latitudinal. Therefore, the North and South Pole areas were rather warm places without ice or snow. Mountain building continued with radical changes in the Appalachian range. Northeastern Ohio was again covered with sea water for long periods of time. The Epoch gave us more limestone and sandstone. The CARBONIFEROUS EPOCH, which gave us most of our coal, gas and oil deposits lasted about 10 million years and began about 285 million years ago. The climate was warm, humid and very supportive of lash plant life. The Garfield Heights area was covered with thick and probably impenetrable forests of trees and giant ferns. Besides the coal, oil and gas, this period gave us more limestone deposits. The PERMIAN EPOCH took place about 235 million years ago and lasted some 35 million years. The uppermost systems of rocks were formed at this time-the final Epoch of the PALEOZOIC ERA. Much of the land which had been covered with shallow seas emerged from under the water through the action of the earth crust. There were extensive mountain range changes and the climate turned harsher-something like today. More rock salt deposits were established at this time. Also, potash bearing rocks, marine sandstone, shale and bedded limestone were formed. The MESOZOIC ERA was a rather warm, humid and ideal period for the growth and development of plant and life forms. It began about 200 million years ago and lasted about 130 million years. During much of this Era, the site of Garfield Heights was on dry land and the home of the wild life of the time including the dinosaurs. This Era had three recognizable Epochs. The first Epoch (Triassic) lasted about 40 Billion years and was the Period in which the dinosaurs appeared on earth. At first, these were of modest size-one foot to eight feet in length. But, when the Epoch ended, they reached lengths of 30 feet. In addition to the dinosaurs, a large variety of animal life evolved and while some competed with the dinosaurs for food, some became part of their food chain. Much of the rock salt, potash rock, marine sandstone and limestone deposits were formed during these Epochs. The JURASSIC EPOCH occurred in the middle of the MESOZOIC ERA- about 160 million years ago. It lasted for about 30 million years. The Epoch was noted for increasingly warm, humid and uniform climate all over the earth. There was little or no ice or snow even in the Polar Regions and not much difference in temperature and climatic conditions throughout the latitudes. Animal and plant life continued to flourish. Large reptiles such as the dinosaurs 5 grew even larger. This was one of the most stable and quieter climatic periods in the earth's history. But, volcanic action and changes in the earth's crust continued causing topographical changes in mountains as well as bodies of water. The final Epoch of the MESOZOIC ERA was the CRETACEOUS EPOCH. This period started about 130 million years ago and lasted about 75 million years. This was the time when many of the rooks or stone, such as are used in building products now, were deposited. This was also the final period for the giant reptiles such as the dinosaurs and many other animals and plants which now became extinct and disappeared from the earth. There was lively volcanic activity as well as continued movement of the earth's crust, especially in the far western part of America where the Rocky Mountain ranges went through dramatic changes. While this Epoch gave us some deposits of coal and oil, it is more distinguished for the deposits of calcites of which CHALK is an important example.