National Natural Landmark
The Legend of Hanging RockWy-nu-sa was a beautiful Miami Indian maiden who thought she was in love with two handsome, strong, stalwart Indian braves. Both of the young men were deeply in love with the maiden, too, but she was not able to decide which of them she wished to marry. So the young maiden, Wy-nu-sa, called for a duel to be held at the top of Hanging Rock, where the winner of the fight would have her hand in marriage.
The two young men agreed to the plan. On a moonlit night they climbed to the top of Hanging Rock to fight for the love of the beautiful young maiden, who sat nearby to watch the duel. Wy-nu-sa secretly loved one of the braves more than the other one, but never admitted this to anyone, not even to herself. The battle raged on until finally one brave fell over the edge of the rock to his death below. The victorious brave walked over to claim Wy-nu-sa as his bride, but he was not the one she loved. Distraught, she plunged to her own death, and is believed to be with her true love in the happy hunting grounds.
Fun Facts· Height of Hanging Rock is 65 feet
· Utilized by Native Americans as a lookout point
· Recognized since the early 1900s as a rare exposure
· National Natural Landmark since 1986
· Acquired by ACRES Land Trust in 2008
Hanging Rock displays three different types of rock. Each formed in a different environment in the Silurian seascape:
Hard, Massive Dolomite· Table-like cap rock
· Probably represents a small part of the active reef, but convincing fossils are scarce
· Dolomitization, the process of limestone being converted to dolomite, has chemically altered all of Hanging Rock to some degree
Well-Bedded Fossiliferous Limestone and Dolomite· Make up the large middle section of Hanging Rock
· These flank beds dip steeply away from the core of the reef (now removed by erosion)
· Consists of coral sand and larger reef fragements
Soft, Dolomitic Siltstone· Blacky gray rock at the base of the pinnacle
· Consists of silt and clay particles cemented together by dolomite
· Deposited in quiet water at the bottom of the sea before the reef appeared
420 Million Years of Geologic History
The Upper Wabash Valley displays some of the best examples of ancient reefs in North America
Bedrock was deposited about 420 million years ago, during the Silurian period, when north-central Indiana was geographically located about 15? south of the equator
With the midcontinent covered by a shallow sub-tropical sea, corals, bryozoans, and other hard-shelled organisms flourished and built many small, pinnacle-like reefs that stood just below sea level
Hanging Rock is an erosional remnant of one such reef that formerly stood where the river now flows
Geologic Time Scale· 1859-Lagro founded
· Quaternary Period-Hanging Rock exposed by Maumee Torrent
· Tertiary Period-Weathering and erosion of Indiana landscapes
· Cretaceous Period-The Age of Reptiles: Dinosaurs dominate life on earth
· Permian Period-Vast coal swamps, sandstone, shale and limestone
· Silurian Period-Hanging Rock bedrock deposited in a shallow, tropical sea
· Precambrian Period-Volcanic activity
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