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Darby History
The Big Darby Watershed has a rich and diverse history. Explore its cultural history, its geology, and its biology. Travel with your imagination through the history of this “Last Great Place” and envision a sea of prairie grass, herds of elk, pioneer farms, and the Wyandot Indian Chief Darby who lived and hunted along the stream. Culture - Just as the water of the Darbys sustains life, it also sustains a way of life. Prior to European settlement around 1800, the region was inhabited for centuries by Native Americans and crisscrossed with important Indian trails. Biology - When the first European settlers entered the Darby Watershed in the 1800s, they encountered a tremendous variety of plant and animal life that included over one hundred species of fish and forty species of mollusks. Geology - The Darbys arose approximately 16,800 years ago as an outflow for melt-water from the retreating Wisconsinian Age glaciers. These waters cut an initial channel through the glacial till deposits to the underlying limestone bedrock. Since that time, erosion and alluvial processes have continued to shape the landscape’s topography, and together with the local climate and vegetation, created its fertile soils. Evidence of this geologic history is visible today in the glacial erratics scattered throughout the watershed, the limestone outcrops uncovered by the river corridor and highway cuts, and the intensive agricultural production made possible by the rich, glacial soils.
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