Where Was the Catawba 14,000 Years Ago?

McColl Property:  Yellow line represents where I understand the Pleistocene Catawba  River Path was.
The Red line represents I-77

Pleistocene Catawba Riverbed

The Master Naturalist group walked along a gravel road towards the Catawba River.  The road sloped up, headed South, perpendicular to the existing river.  We stopped to view the ancient riverbed (yellow line on McColl property map above), some 100 feet above and a quarter mile North of the current path of the river.  We stood there looking at rounded stones, polished smooth by the river's flow during the Pleistocene, greater than 10 Ka, according to USC geologists.

Site on Catawba River for the new York County Nature Museum

Coyote Scat

 As we looked around the ancient riverbed, we noticed blackberry bushes and coyote scat.  Animals had created a trail.  Steve Fields, MYCO Curator of Natural History, told us coyotes and domestic dogs have an anal gland that secretes a fluid used to mark territory.  Perhaps the coyote had marked territory along the trail.  We also noticed bleached white animal hair in the coyote scat.

Anyway, back to the past...the basement rock/bedrock is uplifted granite, felsic (Fe = iron) rock in an uplifted pluton (chamber of cooled, molten rock).  The characteristic red clay is weathered granite.  The red color,  iron oxide (felsic, Fe = iron).

Red eyed vireo

As we moved towards the bluff, and parallel to the electric transmission lines, we heard a Red eyed vireo in the nearby woods http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-eyed_Vireo/id .

Scarlett Tanager

According to Steve, the vireo's call is "Here am I, Where are you?

We then heard a Scarlett Tanager http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Scarlet_Tanager/id

Also in the power line right of way, we saw an Eastern fence lizard http://www.wildherps.com/species/S.undulatus.html

We also saw a Fowler's toad under a discarded board.

Fowler's Toad

Bracken Fern

We made our way down the bluff, to the man-made deck/overlook, about 20 feet above the river.  There, we enjoyed lunch and the excitement of our fortunate observations.  We also got to practice keying out ferns.  The Bracken fern is one we've seen at several of the sites.




While at the overlook, we saw Squaw root and American Hornbeam http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/trees/caca.html
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Squaw Root by J. McGill

American Hornbeam 

Something that has always fascinated me, because it is clever, is a fish weir constructed by Native Americans, in the river using rocks.  They placed the rocks at an angle, diverting the fish coming down the river into a narrow opening, making it easy to spear them.

The picture on the right, came from another blog:  http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-nonnewaug-road.html

There were numerous weirs along the Catawba.  Here is one near Lake James.

Tip of Yellow Arrow Marks Tip of Weir

The next picture was taken at the new York County Museum/McColl site on the day of the trip.

Catawba River, McColl Site, Fort Mill, SC
by J. McGill

On the way back up the bluff, we saw a Fiery Searcher beetle, along with Box elder, Slippery elm, May Apples, Adamascar lily, and Crossvine.

May Apple

Adamasco Lily Zephranthes atamasco