Mohican's Covered Bridge is an icon of the natural areas in my parts. And as many times I have been there in the last 6 years, it always offers something new.
But the real story of Mohican revolves around the water. Water that trickles through the sandstone and forms rivulets coursing down to the river. Water that nourishes spring wild flowers and fruit along the riverine corridor.
Flowering Raspberries grow near the covered bridge, enlarged, soft purple flowers that far surpass the beauty of most members of the Rubus family.
The water flows cold and free.
The fish are (almost) fearless.
And hemlock line the trails, giving shade to the hikers and creating habitat for Winter Wrens.
So what is the rest of the history of Mohican John? I'm Mohican descent from New York State and interested in my relations' fates.
ReplyDeleteI see you have a Karner Blue butterfly as part of your masthead. There is a local preserve for them in my area.
So the story- although the Mohican tribes were not known from this area, when the orginal surveyors came up the Clear Fork plotting the maps (or maybe some tributary of it)they met a single native. An Indian- named John, who was indeed Mohican. I wonder it he was also involed in nearby Johnsville?
ReplyDeleteYEs, the KArner is a favored butterfly which I have seen numerous times in the Oak Opening of Toledo. It is a wonderful representative of how habitat (and lupines) are linked with the survival of a species.