Our Ice Age Souvenir: Boyer Nature Preserve

Our Annual Meeting is coming right up (Sunday, November 17 at 2 PM), and our program is on the Ice Age. It occurred to me, what with the balmy weather lately, that Westerville doesn’t show many signs of freezing cold weather anytime soon. Is there any sign or mark of the ice age left to see? And is it “history?”

Unlike the dinosaurs, which lived millions of years before any human, a few of our caveman ancestors drew pictures of their icy world. Although woolly mammoths, arguably the most distinctive megafauna of the period, appear in a few cave paintings, does that qualify as history, the written record of humanity? Debatable, but if you want to see an Ice Age relic you need look no further than 452 East Park Street and the Boyer Nature Preserve. There, in the heart of uptown Westerville, is a glacial ‘kettle’ surrounded by modern birds and flowers. Westerville’s tangential, but actual,connection to the Ice Age may be prehistoric, but how it got preserved is definitely historic.

In geology, a kettle is a pond or bog created by a retreating glacier. A retreating glacier deposits sand and gravel in a low place. When the glacial ice breaks, it fills the depression with water. Some kettle holes are huge, with lakes of 400 acres or more, But they are generally two kilometers in diameter, and less than ten meters deep. Many kettle ponds have no source of freshwater other than rain. Dry weather can change a kettle pond into a kettle bog.

The Preserve had for many years served as an “education laboratory” for local schools. But in 1975, the city of Westerville declared its intention to build a sewer line through the preserve.  The kettle would be destroyed. Teachers and students at nearby Whittier Elementary, led by principal Tom Dickinson, took a stand against the idea by organizing a “Save Boyer Park” project. With this show of ecological activism, the city agreed to relocate the sewer. The elementary school activists caught the attention of the press. Community groups, such as Camp Fire Girls rallied, as did Westerville Parks and Recreation. Whittier students and their friends held a bike-a-thon, a rock concert, and a film festival.

Finally, the students and their backers were able to achieve their dream. The land was fenced and a small parking lot was built. On May 20, 1975, the city accepted the parkland. The story of the Westerville students and their accomplishment led to appearances in textbooks and coverage in magazines such as “Ranger Rick,”brought a bit of fame to the youngsters and attention to the rare examples of plant and animal life.

This brief account of how young Westerville citizens saved a glacial relic shows how citizen action can save natural history. In this time of developing every bit of land, and building cookie-cutter buildings smashed densely together, our need for parkland is desperate. The kettle pond in Westerville was an exceptional save. Will future generations act with such foresight? 

[Sources include https://www.seeohiofirst.org/sites/90; and Marie Louise Dagnall, “Suburban Wilderness,” undated typescript held in the Westerville Public Library Local History center.]

Photo by John Weinhardt