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

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

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Leo Petroglyph

Leo · Jackson County · Southeast Ohio
A carved sandstone slab above a hemlock gorge
National Register of Historic PlacesState memorialPetroglyphs

A roofed sandstone slab carved with about three dozen figures, from a fish and a snake to human footprints, with a short trail below it through a hemlock gorge.

Carvings
About 37 figures: people, birds, other animals, a fish, a snake and human and animal tracks
Largest figure
A horned head with bird claws
Age
Unknown; soft sandstone suggests no more than about 1,000 years
Shelter
A roof built over the slab by the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s
Trail
A half-mile gorge loop past cliffs 20 to 65 feet high, a rock shelter and hemlocks
Listed
National Register of Historic Places, 1970

The story

The Leo Petroglyph is a sloping sandstone outcrop on the edge of a small gorge near the village of Leo, carved with about 37 figures: people, birds and other animals, a fish, a snake, and human and animal tracks. The largest is a horned head with bird's claws. Nobody knows what the carvings meant. The Ohio History Connection credits them to the Fort Ancient culture, because soft sandstone would not hold carvings much longer than about 1,000 years.

In the 1930s the Works Progress Administration built a shelter over the slab to protect it. Weather and vandalism have still blurred some figures, and they show best in low, angled light. The site was listed on the National Register in 1970. Below the slab a half-mile loop drops into a gorge of hemlocks and sandstone cliffs with a large rock shelter and spring wildflowers.

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Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
November 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.

The Horned Figure

The biggest carving on the rock is a head with horns and the feet of a bird. Around it walk people, birds and animals, and across the stone run tracks, as if someone wanted to show who had passed this way.

Nobody alive can read it.

Behind the legend

The figures and their count, the Fort Ancient attribution and the age estimate come from the Ohio History Connection. Any meaning given to the horned figure is interpretation; the carvers left no explanation.

If you go

Come early or late in the day, when low light brings out the carvings. Then walk the gorge loop. Buckeye Furnace is nearby.

Visiting

Status
Open daily
Managed by
Friends of Buckeye Furnace for the Jackson County Historical Society, on Ohio History Connection land
Hours
Open every day, all daylight hours.
Admission
Free
Please note
View the slab from the walkway and do not touch or chalk the carvings. The gorge trail runs along cliffs, so wear good shoes.
Address
400 Park Road, Ray, OH
Official information →Directions

Parks nearby

Lake Alma State Park
About 9 miles · A small lake with an island gazebo in the Jackson County hills.
Open
Tar Hollow State Forest
About 15 miles · Ohio's third-largest state forest, with pine ridges and backpack trails.
Open

Details last checked 2026-11-05. Confirm hours and prices before you go.

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