Glacier cut grooves and Inscription Rock

A continuation of Kelleys Island visit.

Anne-Marie and I drove the golf cart to the north coast of the island, and visited the Glacial Grooves State Memorial, the State Park, and Lake Erie.

There were signs at various locations around the deep grooves, explaining the process of how the glaciers  grooved into the limestone, and the extent of the quarry operations that almost destroyed them in this area.

Two views showing how some areas were smoothed from finer material in the glaciers, and others were coarser and roughly scraped.  At the upper end, you can see how vast the quarry was, and one of the signs said that nearly all of the exposed limestone had grooves, and the deepest most dramatic grooved stone was removed long ago.

This sign was near the small bay at the State Park, and the Glacier Groove Monument.

the Cemetery was established in 1854, and the population must have been quite large during this time, as almost 1/4 of the cemetery markers are from before 1900.

Some of the oldest markers.  Some of the white marble stones didn’t weather well, and could hardly be read.

Inscription Rock has a raised deck around it, and a protective roof over the deck.

The wavy texture of the rock is from glaciers.  The inscriptions are shallow and can barely be seen in direct sunlight, except for the ones done by later visitors.  Fossilized shells and marine animal material are present throughout the surface of the rock.

The Kelley Mansion built in 1865, now undergoing renovations.  This is one of the many buildings built of locally quarried limestone.

The Kelleys Island Police are in a 1800s built building.  The cart is returned, and we are ready for dinner and the boat ride back to the mainland.

The closest boat is heading to Put-In-Bay, South Bass Island, and the furthest one out is ours.  A last look at Kelleys Island.

The return trip gave us some views of the roller coasters of Cedar Point Amusement Park.

We returned to the trailer tired after a full day of touring Kelleys Island, and we are ready for Sunday, and the visit to South Bass Island, and Put-In-Bay.