Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
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  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
  • 34waterfalls
  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

New to the guide?

Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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Lake ErieWest Virginia36 places368 places813 places135 places523 places2321 places2124 places2416 places1613 places134 places418 places182 places217 places1710 places1014 places142 places27 places76 places613 places133 places34 places414 places143 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places22 places22 places26 places64 places4

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Parks, forests & wildlife areas

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117 parks in 7 regions

Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries

Glenford · Licking County · Central Ohio
The Great Indian Quarry of Ohio
National Register of Historic PlacesOhio's state gemstone
Directions →Official source →

The quarry that supplied flint to peoples across eastern North America, and the goal of the Black Hand's path.

Ridge
A nearly eight-mile vein of colorful flint in Licking and Muskingum counties
Quarry pits
Hundreds of pits and workshop sites, 12 to 80 feet across and 3 to 20 feet deep, over more than 2,000 acres of ridge top
Used by
Archaic, Adena and especially Hopewell peoples
Trade
Flint Ridge flint turns up at sites as far away as the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains
State gemstone
Flint, adopted in 1965
Museum
Built directly over a restored prehistoric quarry pit

The story

Flint Ridge is a nearly eight-mile ridge of high-quality flint in Licking and Muskingum counties, scattered with hundreds of quarry pits and workshop sites across more than 2,000 acres of ridge top. It has been called the Great Indian Quarry of Ohio. Peoples from across Ohio came to dig the rainbow-colored stone for tools and weapons, and the Hopewell especially prized it for its beauty and traded it widely.

Studies show it was a quarry, not a village: groups came for short periods, took what they needed and left. Today 533 acres are preserved, with two miles of trails passing the old pits, and the museum is built around one of the restored pits, with the flint walls exposed.

Related sites

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
Official page
Location confidence
Verified property location
Located from the site's street address
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

Where the Black Hand Pointed

Down the Licking River at Blackhand Gorge, the story goes, there was once a black hand carved on the cliff, and the way it pointed led to this ridge. The legend says the trail ran to the Great Quarry, where tribes from across the continent gathered for flint, and that the hand carried a message: all who travel here do so in peace.

The flint itself traveled far. Pieces of Flint Ridge flint have been found across the eastern United States, as far as the Gulf of Mexico and the Rocky Mountains.

Behind the legend

The hand at Blackhand Gorge was real and was destroyed in 1828 by canal builders, and the peace-message reading is only one of several theories. Flint Ridge is documented: the state made it a memorial in 1933 to 1934, listed it on the National Register in 1970 and adopted flint as the official gemstone in 1965. The quarry pits, ranging from 12 to 80 feet across, now show as gentle dips in the forest floor.

The traveled-far claim rests on artifact studies, and it is one of the reasons archaeologists think the Hopewell traded across a huge network.

If you go

Walk the trails past the old pits and, if the museum is open, look at the quarry pit inside it. Then read the Dillon State Park entry for the Black Hand legend.

Visiting

Status
Grounds open daily
Managed by
Ohio History Connection
Hours
The park and trails are open during daylight hours daily. The museum has been closed for interior repairs, so confirm before you go.
Admission
Adult $5, child 5 and up $3, under 6 and Ohio History Connection members free (listed by the Ohio History Connection).
Please note
Removing any artifacts or flint is strictly prohibited.
Address
15300 Flint Ridge Road, Glenford, OH 43739
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

Dillon State Park
About 8 miles · A lakeside camping park a few miles west, near Blackhand Gorge.
Open
Buckeye Lake State Park
About 11 miles · Ohio's oldest state park, with a floating bog.
Open

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.