Rock House #19

by Brian Stevens

Title

Rock House #19

Artist

Brian Stevens

Medium

Photograph

Description

The trail to the Rock House is a bit more challenging than most of the other trails in Hocking Hills State Park, but the rewards are well worth the added efforts. The very trail that the hiker follows was the scene of intense and violent drama more than a century ago.

William Reynolds was a herdsman. The land on his farm was rocky and hilly, and was unsuited for tilling. His farm included the Rock House, which he used as a barn, sheltering his livestock and storing their feed.

On March 8, 1863, Reynolds was going down the trail to the barn to do his evening chores. On the trail, he met up with a bear, which launched an attack. Although he was severely mauled, Reynolds somehow managed to get back to his house. His wounds became infected, and he died one week later of what was referred to back then as "blood poisoning." He was laid to rest in the cemetery in Gibisonville, just a short distance down the road from the Rock House. To this day, that remains the only recorded death by bear attack in Hocking County.

His widow could not support herself and the children on this poor, rocky ground. She loaded all their worldly possessions onto a covered wagon, and headed north. In southern Marion County, she found land that was suitable for farming, which she claimed by "squatters� rights." Her descendants still live in that area.

Inside the Rock House are two "turpentine stills," left over from the Indian days. The stills are small recesses, or depressions, hand carved on the top surfaces of two sandstone shelves, each with a small channel leading over to the lip of the shelf.

Turpentine was a vital commodity for the Indians. It was used as medicine, both internally and externally, for a wide variety of illnesses and injuries. The Indians would place bits of pitch pine wood in one of the depressions. A layer of flat sandstone would be placed over the wood, and a fire would be built on top. The heat would drive the sap out of the wood, which would then flow through the channel and pour into a waiting vessel.

In the late 1700�s, the Indians were driven out of the area. The pioneers who moved in and occupied the land had more need for turpentine than did the Indians. They brought farm animals, as well as people, and used the Indian stills, but with a slight change in technology. The pioneers would invert their black, iron kettles over the pine bits, and build the fire on top.

The use of turpentine as medicine for man and beast continued for many years. Turpentine was sold, for medicinal purposes, in pharmacies until the mid-1960�s.

Today, it is sold in hardware stores as a paint thinner, with warning labels cautioning against contact with human tissue.

It is worth mentioning that the use of a glue-like derivative of pine sap was used by the Indians and the pioneers alike instead of sutures to hold lacerations and incisions together. A modern variation of this practice has gained favor in hospitals everywhere, much to the relief of children visiting emergency rooms for the treatment of cuts.

Rock House Contact Information
Hocking Hills State Park
19852 State Route 664 S.
Logan, OH 43138
Park Office: (740) 385-6842

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December 17th, 2012

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