The Nature Conservancy in Indiana - JWN - Pine Hills Nature Preserve

Pine Hills

Location: Montgomery County
Size: 599 acres
Terrain: moderate to rugged
Trails: 2; clear signage posted throughout preserve
Date acquired: 1960
Designated: National Natural Landmark, 1968
Dedicated: State Nature Preserve, 1969
Owned and Managed By: Indiana's Division of State Parks and Reservoirs

Directions to the Preserve

The best way to get to Pine Hills is from Shades State Park. From there, proceed east on C.R. 880 S and turn left on S.R. 234 W. Continue traveling north (the road doglegs to the north) to a marked lot of the left (west) side of the road roughly a half mile past Shades entrance gates.

The Pine Hills Preserve entrance is directly across the street from the parking lot.

For Your Safety...

And for the protection of the nature preserve, please abide by these simple rules.

1. Remain on the trail. Signs are posted to keep visitors away from areas too fragile or dangerous.
2. Please do not disturb any plants and animals.
3. Leave Pine Hills they way you found it or better. Please take your trash or any litter left on the preserve.
4. Rock climbing, rappelling, camping, campfires, picnicking, fishing and hunting are not allowed at this state preserve.
5. Please respect the neighbors and do not trespass onto adjacent lands.

A Special Thanks

The Nature Conservancy would like to thank Richard Scott for sharing his knowledge and research of Pine Hills history for this article.

Richard can be found giving tours at Pine Hills and working with The Friends of Turkey Run and Shades State Parks.

It may very well be Pine Hills Nature Preserve in Montgomery County. The state’s first, and most likely finest, preserve was designated in 1969 after years of untiring efforts to protect this ecological wonder. The preserve also has a rather dark history, one you may or may not want to keep in mind while hiking through its steep hogback ridges and dense woods.

What to Expect on Pine Hill's Trails

The Pine Hills Nature Preserve offers the perfect place for a Halloween hike. Secluded and quiet, the preserve can be a bit spooky during the fall months when the leaves and brush have been cleared. In fact, this time of year is considered the best time to visit as the unusual landscape is more observable.

The preserve was once a pine plantation and was planted with white, scotch and jack pines and Norway spruce. While pines are vigorous, hardy trees, they need a great deal of light to germinate and grow. Deciduous trees, however, develop in shadier areas and tend to grow straight up before spreading their crown of leaves. The shade of these trees deterred the pines from thriving in the area and brought on the succession of pines to the beech, maple, yellow tulip and dogwood trees that can be found now. Stands of northern relict hemlock, Canada yew and pockets of old-growth oak/hickory woods can also be seen past the old pine plantation and into the trail.

The trail through Pine Hills has two parts: the entrance trail and a double loop trail that will bring you right back to the entrance trail in order to exit the preserve. The double loop trail marks several prominent features along the way, beginning at the Turkey Backbone.

Turkey Backbone is just one of the several steeply sloping hogback ridges formed by the outcropping edges of tilted strata. Following the wooden steps, the trail will lead you to another ridge, the Mill Cut Backbone. Ten feet wide and thirty feet, this natural work of art was carved with the help of Clifty Creek, the now gently flowing waterway that winds alongside the trail.

Further down the trail is The Slide and it is exactly what it sounds like. If you look towards the opposite bank, the evidence of what frequent rock slides can do to the land is apparent by the bare, brushless soil. Although steep in its own right, there are even steeper and more dangerous slides found at Pine Hills, but this is the only one you will see close up. Continuing up the trail along and across the creek will take you to the preserve's most popular feature, the Devil's Backbone.

Devil's Backbone is thought to be 125 feet long, 100 feet high and about 7 feet wide at it's narrowest point. There are many inscriptions carved into the cap rock including a much a skewed chiseling of a devil's face, a pair of passenger pigeons, and a post by a Jeremiah Ward who wanted to let everyone know he was there in 1877. Although there are wooden fences posted on the sides of the ridge, it is still quite dangerous. It would be wise to return back towards The Slide instead of climbing down the sharp slope when with young children.

Down on the other side of the hogback ridge is where the Clifty and Indian Creeks join together to eventually flow into Sugar Creek. It is also where you will find Pine Hill's final feature, the Honeycomb Rock. The wall is composed of sandstone dating back over 300 million years ago. Pockets of fossilized sea algae are thought to have been included in the sand and when they eroded - much more quickly than the sand and siltstone - it created the nooks and crannies that make the wall so honeycomb-like.

The trail leaves Honeycomb Rock, crosses Clifty Creek once again and rejoins the trail leading to the entrance. The hike isn’t a strenuous one, but can be quite rugged at times. Although it isn’t very long, the memories of Pine Hills will surely last a lifetime.

Murder and Mad Hermits: Ghastly Legends of Pine Hills

The area now known as Shades State Park and Pine Hills was once designated as "Shades of Death." While the landscape alone suggests the name, there are a few other theories as to how the original name came to be. According to Montgomery County’s Visitor and Convention Bureau, the name was derived from the history of American Indians who first settled along Sugar Creek. It has been said that a large Miami tribe once fought a long, deadly battle resulting with only twenty of the 600 warriors surviving.

Another theory involves a murder that occurred in 1836. According to a Pine Hills historian, a young, poor wife named Mrs. Rush once lived in a log cabin shanty along the hogback ridges of the preserve with her burly lumberjack of a husband. Moses Rush was a quiet, solemn man when sober and obnoxious and horrible when drunk. Unfortunately for the young woman, her husband was rarely without drink. After a particular horrible night, Mrs. Moses had had enough and buried a hatched in her husband’s skull while he slept. The resulting trail was Crawfordsville’s first murder trial with the judge complimenting the jury’s verdict having said: “Yes, indeed, this is a case of self-defense and done, I might add, with commendable promptness.”

The mad hermit tale involves the Hasselman brothers, Frank and Lawrence. The Hasselman’s originally owned Pine Hills, with Frank opening their land to visitors to share the beauty of the area they were so lucky to call home. After Frank, the more sociable brother, died in 1924, Lawrence was left to live alone in the deep, dark woods. Lawrence was a studious and painfully shy man who let it be known that visitors weren’t welcomed. Soon tales of a mad hermit began circulating among the town folks who may not have known how true those words actually rang. Between 1930 and 1934, Lawrence suffered from hallucinations of an old witch who pestered him persistently. Below is a portion of a letter to a friend named Ben that proves Lawrence's increasing instability.

June 28, 1931
“The witch can't get you off her mind. You are entirely wrong about me imagining some person to talk to. You can think whatever you please. She talks to herself as she asks me questions and then answers them herself. Also if I start out to do something she will say don't do it that way do it some other way. She can't get her mind off me and gets to thinking she is doing the various things I am doing. Like most women she nags if you know what I mean. She is probably demented and has admitted she has bad fits. I could tell you many things She has said and done. She has a certain cooing voice she uses on occasion and says she used it to make children come to her with. At night most of her dreams are as a Man. She is doing construction work on a road or railroad. Another thing she uses very bad grammar - about as bad as it could be. Sometimes she dreams about me. I wake up and she is still dreaming.

One doctor suggested I make her commit Suicide and I may make her do that very thing. She deserves it. It seems that not until she has passed out will I be free from her. They used to get rid of witches by burning them. So she would be getting off easy. I understand exactly how this thing is and nobody can do me any good telling me how they think it is. I know it is a line of female witches and a demented one. I never tried to invent anyone to talk to. I have spent all my idle time reading and don't get lonesome. From now on, however, I am going to stop reading. The stories I read entertain the witch.”

Ben would write to another friend, worrying about Lawrence who had beseeched him to “get in touch with a reliable medium who can visualize and get in touch with spirits in the flesh.” In 1938, Lawrence was placed in an Indianapolis mental institution called Seven Steeples where he died in 1947. In 1960, the Hasselman family sold Pine Hills out of respect for Frank and Lawrence who were devoted to preserving it.

“Pine Hills, why, it’s like my own back yard. It must be saved.”

Besides the natural attractions and the grisly tales that stem from the deep, dark woods, Pine Hills has an interesting conservation story that should also be shared. Without a man named Jack McCormick, Pine Hills may not have been Indiana’s first nature preserve nor would it have been The Nature Conservancy’s first land purchase in Indiana.

To many people, McCormick was an extraordinary man who faced numerous obstacles in order to protect Pine Hills. As a naturalist for Indiana State Parks, he spent several years at nearby Shades. His subsequent visits to the area prompted him to work toward the preservation of Pine Hills once he learned that it would be up for sale. McCormick’s enthusiasm for the area was profound and extended to The Nature Conservancy who became interested in the project when notified of the land’s distinctive natural features.

While McCormick envisioned Pine Hills as an addition to Shades State Park in order to protect it, the money for the state to purchase the land was not available. The Nature Conservancy would put up the money to purchase the property and to transfer ownership to the State once the Conservancy was reimbursed for half the cost. Unfortunately, problems persisted with the state and organizations who had promised McCormick they would help. Despite these issues, Jack McCormick continued to work to save Pine Hills.

All of his hard work paid off and in 1960 the land was fully protected. In 1969, Indiana dedicated the Pine Hills as a state nature preserve. Thanks to McCormick, The Nature Conservancy, DNR and Shades State Park, Pine Hills can be enjoyed by all Hoosiers.

A Pine Hill Slideshow

For a glimpse of what can be seen at the nature preserve...

For More Information

DNR's Pine Hill Nature Preserve

DNR's State Park and Reservoirs

Montgomery Count's Visitors and Convention Bureau - Pine Hills & Shades State Park

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photos © Elena Blando/Ron Leonetti/Christopher Jordan (Pine Hill images); Photo © Christopher Jordan (Pine Hills, in autumn); Photos © Elena Blando (Pine Hills slideshow).