Big Rock

Big Rock. . , Arguably the most iconic natural feature of the park, Big Rock is truly big. Twelve feet high at its tallest point and weighing in at 103 tons, the granite boulder arrived in what would become Tawawa Park about 15,000 years ago. It was transported by a mile-thick sheet of glacial ice from its native land located to the northeast., According to geologist and Sidney native Albert Binkley Dickas, the Big Rock mineral make-up matches that of a massive, 985-million-year-old outcrop of granite exposed between the cities of Ottawa and Sudbury in southeastern Canada. During earth's most recent ice age, glacial meltwater penetrated fractures in the granite, froze, expanded and broke off rock fragments that were carried 700 miles southwestward into Ohio by the glacial ice. As the climate slowly warmed, the glacier began to melt and retreat to the north, leaving Big Rock as a calling card, testimony to the impressive carrying power of moving ice., The huge boulder sits along the Ward Trail, at one end of Aschenbach Grove. It has been a favorite place for gatherings of families and friends for decades. Countless children have climbed upon it and historically numerous would-be brides have said "Yes" to suitors poised on one knee. No one knows when it obtained the moniker "Big Rock," but the name was firmly established as early as 1876, more than 70 years before the park was named. A Sidney Journal newspaper account of that year refers to Big Rockas it reports on a group of six stonecutters who carved the outline of the U. S. National Shield on the skyward face of the rock, along with their names and, on the north face that of William Binkley, prominent community leader and editor of The Sidney Journal., Dedicated 2021 , Gift made possible by , Albert Binkley Dickas, Ph.D. , Big Rock historian and maternal great grandson of William Binkley , Reference; Ohio Rocks, Mountain Press, 2015, p. 22-23..