THE PRIMARY FORESTS OF VINTON AND JACKSON COUNTIES, OHIO Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Janice Carson Beatley, B. A*, M. Sc* The Ohio State University 1953 ... • • • • ■ • * • • • •» _ • •; * 'Approved by: CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER I. LOCATION OF THE AREA U CHAPTER II. CULTURAL HISTORX 8 CHAPTER III. THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT 19 Physiographic History 19 Bedrock Geology and Physiography 27 Soils 50 Climate 65 CHAPTER IV. HISTORY OB1 THE VEGETATI.'N 89 CHAPTER V. SOURCES OP DATA AND MANNER OF UTILIZATION 109 CHAPTER VI. THE PRIMARY FORESTS 122 Area I* Marietta River Area 129 Qak-Hickory association 132 Gak-Sugar Maple and Qak-Sugar Maple-Tuliptree associations 139 Oak—Hiekory-Tuliptree and Oak-Chestnut- Tuliptree associations lUli Beech comnunities 156 Pine-Oak comnunities 160 White Oak communities of the lacustrine terraces 163 Swamp Forests 170 Area Hi Raccoon Creek Area 180 Oak communities 183 Oak-Chestnut association 186 Oak-Hickory and Mixed Oak associations 188 Oak—Pine communities I9I4. Mesic communities of residual soils 195 Oak-Tuliptree communities 202 White Oak-Beech-Sugar Maple association 20U White Oak-Beech association 205 Beech-Sugar Maple-Tuliptree association 21U Mixed Mesophytic comnunities 215 Comnunities of the Swamp Forest succession 219 Beech-Sugar Maple association 22h 1 K 1 6 8 9 1 Area III* Salt Croak Area 235 Oak comnunities 238 Oak-Chestnut association 21*0 Oak-Pina association 21*1* Oak-Hickory association 252 Mesic comnunities of residual soils 253 Mixed Mesophytic association 251* Qak-Chestnut-Tuliptree association 263 Communities of the Swamp Forest succession 265 SUMMARY 271* SCIENTIFIC Na m e s o f tree and s h r u b SPECIES 286 LITERATURE CITED 288 P U T iiS I. Valleys of the major preglacial streams and their watersheds, and the Illinoian and Wisconsin glacial boundaries. II. Bedrock map of Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio. III. Present-day stream system and drainage divides lying within Vinton and Jackson Counties and adjacent areas. IV. Generalized soils map of Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio. V. Location of vegetation areas in Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio. VI. Location of citations of Beech and Sugar Maple in Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio, by all surveyors, 1798-1805. VII. Location of citations of Pine in Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio, by all surveyors, 1798-1805. VIII. Distribution of Hemlock in Vinton and Jackson Counties, Ohio. INTRODUCTION The area within the boundaries of Jackson and Vinton Counties con­ stitutes a major segment of southern Ohio in which the original vegeta­ tion has not previously been described» All other central southern Ohio counties, except Pike, Gallia, and Lawrence, have been studied in whole or in part as contributions to the program of describing and mapping the original vegetation of Ohio, inaugurated over thirty-five years ago in the Department of Botany, Ohio State University* The undertaking of a similar study in Jackson and Vinton Counties was in part prompted by a need for filling in this major gap in our knowledge of the vegetation of this part of the State* It was also actuated by the recognition of this area as one of unusual botanical interest, largely the result of intensive floristic studies conducted by Floyd Bartley and the late Leslie Pontius over a period of twenty years or so in Liberty Township, Jackson County* This township is known to Ohio botanists as one of the richest, if not the very richest, flor­ istic areas in the State, for within its 1*2 square miles, over 1,100 species of plants have been collected, a number of itoich are unrecorded elsewhere in Ohio* Outside of this small area, however, the flora of these two counties is probably not of any more special interest than is that of other Plateau counties in southeastern Ohio* The objectives of this study have been: (1) To describe the major primary forest types, i*e*, the forest types which occurred in the area 1 Mediately prior to luropean settlement, and (2) to account for the pattern of these comuni tie a so far as possible* In pursuance of the first objective, about ll»0 days^ during the past three years have been spent in the field, during which nearly 20,000 milas have baen driven to, from, and within the area, and all passable roads in each county traversed one or more times. Field studies have been primarily con­ cerned with the deduction of the original associations, in the abstract, from the concrete communities of the secondary forests. This has neces­ sarily involved an attempt to evaluate the degree to which the environ­ mental factors of the sites of each of these communities are ’unchanged from those of the original forests, or have been modified through the activities of man. Field studies have not been directed toward a flor- istic survey. Whatever there is to be known of the geographic elements in the flora of this area is probably already available in the extensive Bartley and Pontius collections. In addition to field studies, the diaries of the surveyors of the original land survey in this area, which were copied in their entirety and analyzed during the course of this study, have been an invaluable aid in recognition and description of the primary forest types. For the second objective, it has been necessary to delve more or less deeply into the fields of geology, physiography, pedology, and climatology, with the opportunity at the same time to make a few con­ tributions concerning this area to the present body of knowledge in some of these fields. Each of these disciplines has been consulted and employed in this study only to the extent to w hich it bears relation­ ship to one or more of the facts or inferences upon which the primary vegetation is here described or explained. This has usually necessi­ tated a sifting out of the pertinent information from a mass of data recorded from a wholly different point of view, or its procurement from sources other than the literature dealing with this area. The author is deeply indebted to many persons who have made con­ tributions of one kind or another to this study, but especially to the following: Dr. John N. Wolfe, Department of Botany, Ohio State Univer- sith, under whom the work was conducted, and without whose encouragement and help in many ways, this study would not have been brought to comple­ tion; to Dr. H. C. Sampson, Botany Department, Chio State University, who read the manuscript and whose interest and suggestions have never failed to be of both material and inspirational value; to Dr. Nicholas Holowaychuk, Department of Agronomy, Ohio State University, who has given freely of his time to problems related to the soils of the area; and to personnel of the Ohio Geological Survey, Columbus Weather Bureau, and the office of the Auditor of State, all of whom have graciously supplied access to certain data and facilities for its recording. To Dr. E. N. Transeau, Department of Botany, Ohio State University, whose criticisms of the manuscript were helpful, and all others whose contri­ butions appear somewhere in these pages, the author expresses sincere appreciation. Also, the Grant-in-Aid from the Research Fund Committee of the Ohio Academy of Science toward ths very great cost of the field work, is here gratefully acknowledged. k CHAPTER I. LOCATION OP THE AREA Vinton and Jackson Counties lie in the central southern portion of Ohio (Fig* 1) in the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau of Fenneman (13), and within the Low Hills Belt and Cliff Section of Braun (5)• The area is bounded by parallels 3 8*5 1 ' and 39*23' north, and meridians 82*15 • and 83•1*9* west* The counties are included within all or parts of nine U. S. Q. S. topographic quadrangles: Chillicothe, Waverly, Sciotoville, Laurelrille, Jackson, Oak Hill, Zaleski, Wilkesville, and Bidwell. It is bounded on the north by Hocking County, on the east by Athens, Meigs, and Qallia Counties, on the south by Gallia, Lawrence and Scioto Coun­ ties, and on the west by Scioto, Pike, and Ross Counties. According to the Ohio Cooperative Topographic Survey (1*7), the official area of Jackson County is 1:21*99 square miles, giving it a rank of fifty-fourth in size among Ohio's 88 counties* Vinton County has an area of Ul5*0U square miles, and a rank of sixtieth in the State. According to these figures, there should be 270,073*6 acres in Jackson County, and 265,625*6 acres in Vinton County*^ The counties are composed of twelve townships each (Fig* 2), vary­ ing in &ise from approximately 21* to i*2 square idles* They include all or part of the following townships laid out as a part of the Ohio Com­ pany's Second Purchase and the Congress Lands East of the Scioto River (Chp. V)t 12 Sections of Township 10, Range IV; Townships 8-11 of Range XVI; 6 Sections in Township 6, and Townships 7-12, Range XVII; Townships 5-10, Range IVIII; 21* Sections of Township 5, Townships 6-9, <u*l all bub ^ The 1950 U. S. Census (62) gives 268,800 acres far Jackson County, and 263,0li0 acres for Vinton County, or 3,859 acres less for the two-county area* These figures are apparently based upon 1*20 and Ull square miles, respectively* 6 Section** of Township 10, llange XIX; and 6 Sections each of Townships 5-7, Range XX. Cities of the area are Jackson, the county seat of Jackson County, with a population of 6,50U> and Veilston, also in Jackson County, with a population of 5#6?1 (61)* County seat of Vinton County is McArthur, the population of which is 1,U66 (6l).