Monthly Archives: November 2011

During a recent Museum tour (November 2011), a local resident of the area who lives along Beaver Creek, just south of the mouth at Lake Erie, mentioned to us that Beavers have returned to Beaver Creek.  She mentioned that there was evidence of this on her property, clearly showing that the Beavers had been working on trees.

I was extremely excited and wanted to learn more.  This information subsequently led to an excursion of the area and the photos below. These photos, made at the “Beaver site” along Beaver Creek, which we are now calling it, clearly show evidence of their existence once again in the Beaver Creek Watershed.  Beavers have not been noted as being inhabitants of the area for many, many years, so this is quite a find.  The trees that they are working on look to be mostly Cottonwood.  We plan to continue to monitor this development and will travel this portion of Beaver Creek with a kayak at some point in the near future to learn more about the beavers in this area.

The New Indian Ridge Museum is celebrating 11 years of preservation and education this month.  We are also celebrating the important acquisition of some remains of a Woolly Mammoth skeleton.  The lower jawbone (with 2 teeth), a vertebrae, a bone from the foot, and lower leg bone were found by J. Alex Justice in the late 1800s in an iron bog off of Green Road here in southern Lorain County.  Mr. Justice was a local outdoorsman who lived in a cabin at the corner of Route 18 and Quarry Road just South of Wellington, OH. (in Brighton, OH.).  He would often walk to Florida, in search of artifacts and items he could add to his home “museum.”  He passed away in the 1920s. Most of his artifacts ended up in the Southern Lorain County Museum (in Wellington, OH.), but Col. Vietzen, as a friend of Mr. Justice, acquired some of the material before Justice’s death.  The Mammoth remains were among some of that material.  These bones rested in the Paleo case at Col. Vietzen’s museum for many years.

After Col. Vietzen’s Indian Ridge Museum was sold, Col. Ron Sauer acquired the Mammoth remains.  In November 2011, the Rounds family purchased these important local artifacts for preservation at the New Indian Ridge Museum.  We are excited to preserve these unique pieces.

Just think, this Mammoth roamed Lorain County thousands of years ago!

The Mammoth Bones in a case at the New Indian Ridge Museum.  The tag in the photo with the words “Mammoth Lower Jaw Lorain Co., O.” is in Col. Vietzen’s hand and accompanied the jawbone in Col. Vietzen’s case. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 18, 2011

RE: Curator of the Amherst Historical Society Position

Please be advised:

Col. Matthew W. Nahorn, Director and Founder of his New Indian Ridge Museum in Amherst, has been named Curator of the Amherst Historical Society effective immediately.

“The Amherst Historical Society, a nonprofit 50lc(3) organization, was founded in April of 1973 and currently boasts about 350 members. The Society became accredited in 1990 by the Ohio Association of Historical Societies and Museums (OAHSM). Only about 15% of Ohio museums and historical societies have achieved such accreditation.”  It is located at the intersection of N. Lake Street and Milan Avenue in Amherst.

Col. Nahorn, 22, is excited to accept the responsibilities of this new position, in an effort to continue his life-long passion of preserving our local history and educating residents on our rich past.  He stated, “The Amherst Historical Society is a prestigious local institution, and I am pleased to have been chosen to curate its important collection of artifacts, historical documents, and buildings here in Amherst.  As a lifelong Amherst resident, I look forward to continuing to study our past while preparing for our future.”

Col. Nahorn will immediately delve into a research project this January, working with historical documents and related information, in an effort to compile a history of “early Amherst” which will document the years around the time of the City’s founding.  It will be a fitting project, as this is Amherst’s Bicentennial year.

For more information, please visit or contact:

http://www.amhersthistoricalsociety.org/

http://www.newindianridgemuseum.org

Submitted by the Office of the Director of the New Indian Ridge Museum

Mr. Jack Scaife, a contributor to the New Indian Ridge Museum and friend of Museum Director, Col. Matthew W. Nahorn, has donated an important historic wood specimen to the Museum.  On November 4, 2011, during a tour of the Beaver Creek on our Museum Preserve Grounds, Mr. Scaife made the donation.  Mr. Scaife is an avid researcher and collector of history and prehistory – both of geologic and archaeologic significance.

The specimen he donated is a large chunk of a White Oak (Quercus alba) tree that was found a good eight feet deep into the ground while excavating a house foundation in Tiffin, Seneca County, Ohio, just west of the Sandusky River, in 1970.  In 1999, the log section was found to be 400 years old through an analysis performed by the University of Toledo.  The tree had fallen into a boggy, clay area 400 years ago and was preserved in this largely anoxic area, away from decomposers that would have broken down the wood.  The specimen is in excellent shape, and even after four centuries of being sealed in the boggy area eight feet below the surface, it still has a nice white oak “wood” smell.

This is a great piece of Northern Ohio’s history, and we are very pleased Mr. Scaife chose the New Indian Ridge Museum to preserve this unique specimen for years to come.  We look forward to studying the piece and gaining knowledge from the specimen’s rings and other interesting preserved features.