Rockefeller-on-Doan explores park landscape in the hand of natural and human forces. Find evidence for the rise of local bedrock, for bulldozing glacial ice and for Doan Brook’s cutting of a beloved ravine.Review the impacts of park development, including the outstanding Cleveland Cultural Gardens. See the recently completed Doan Brook Enhancement Project in terms of stormwater mediation and the restoration of local natural habitats. 

1. Lay down – uplift – sculpt
Looking SE up Doan Brook to the Portage Escarpment
Rockefeller-on-Doan explores park landscape
in the hand of natural and human forces.
Find evidence for the rise of local bedrock, for
bulldozing glacial ice and for Doan Brook’s
cutting of a beloved ravine.
Review the impacts of park development,
including the outstanding Cleveland Cultural
Gardens.
See the recently completed Doan Brook
Enhancement Project in terms of stormwater
mediation and the restoration of local natural
habitats.
Portage Escarpment bedrocks were laid upon the
Late Devonian sea bottom, >350 Ma (million years
ago). Mud built the shales (Chagrin, Cleveland and
Cuyahoga). Silt built the Euclid bluestone. Sand gave
Berea and Sharon sandstones.
Rockefeller-on-DoanRock – Ice –Water
Portage Escarpment Timeline
Tropical sea bottom
Glacial sculpting
June 6, 2015
sandstone terrace
bluestone terrace
Glacial advance
USGS LiDAR; Google Earth aerial viewer
Hiking Rockefeller Park south
© 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
Gesu School
ka
ka
ka
ka
Ma
Ma
Ma
Ma
Lake Erie rises to present level
Niagara River lowers Lake Erie
Final glacial retreat
Final glacial advance
Glacial advances begin
North American uplift
Euclid bluestone deposited
Chagrin Shale deposited
• Reviving the natural regulation of stormwater
at low cost and high community benefit.
• Reconnecting fragmented natural habitat areas
as a means to build local biodiversity.
In learning natural history and the ways in which
natural & human forces interweave, we can better
address two crucial local environmental issues.
Rockefeller Park lies on Doan Brook as it leaves
the Portage Escarpment, Cleveland’s major
terrain feature
As the last glacier retreated northward, rushing
melt water spawned our ‘escarpment run’
streams including Doan and Dugway Brooks.
Bedrock deposition, glacial sculpting and stream
cutting produced the ‘Rockefeller’ landscape.
We have buried our streams and flattened our
features. With development, environment is
degraded and biodiversity is reduced.
Humans
Devonian
earth
LMichiganLMichigan
L Huron
L Huron
About 300 Ma, our area uplifted from the sea. The
Ohio and Saint Lawrence watersheds began to form.
Much later, about 2 Ma, the earth cooled and great
glaciers began mounting in northern North America.
Lake Erie ~570’ above sea level
Uplift
we-are-stuff
4
12.6
16
23
2.5
300
360
370
pro-glacial lakes
Roy Larick, Tori Mills, Graham Welling
Rock – Ice – Water – Humans
Blue Rock
lake plain
Just 23 ka (thousand years ago), the last glacial advance
bulldozed the rock sandwich slope (Portage
Escarpment) to create two terraces: one atop the
Berea Sandstone and one atop the Euclid bluestone.
Sixteen thousand years ago, the last glacier retreated
through our area. The ancestors of Lake Erie began to
emerge. Just 14 ka, Doan and nearby streams cut
through escarpment to create the ravines of today.

2. © 2015
Bluestone Heights
bluestoneheights.org
glacial terrace – fossil beach – stream courses – springs
Rockefeller Park, c. 1900
North
K. Roberts
K. Roberts
USGS LiDAR underlay
Google Earth aerial viewer
Stream culvert data courtesy of NEORSD
R. Larick
Blue Rock spring, c. 1900
Rockefeller Park, 1897
R. Larick
Rockefeller Park Spring, 1911
Rockefeller-on-Doan
Cleveland
Heights
Cleveland
Portage Escarpment, St Clair Terrace & lake plain
Ambler spring, near Fairhill Rd
Wade Park Spring. 1900
CMP
CMP: Cleveland Memory Project
ceveland.about.com
Wade Oval, 1874
Rockefeller Park
Rockefeller Park
CMP
CMP
CMP
CMP
WRHS
East Cleveland
Early settlers valued clear
(Wade, Rockefeller).
Victorian water cure
valued mineral (Ambler,
Blue Rock).
Eddy gristmill, 1809
Cozad gristmill, 1830s
Crawford sawmill, 1830s
Springs
Mills
E105th
Wade Park
Euclid
D.J. Lake
hike pathway