Flint Ridge Ancient Quarries and Nature Preserve is a Native American

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...

located in Hopewell Township, Licking County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, about north of Brownsville at the intersection of Brownsville Road and Flint Ridge Road. Old quarry pits are visible, and a museum is located on the site.

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

is a variety of

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

and the flint on the ridge is within the Vanport Limestone Member of the Allegheny Formation of Pennsylvanian age. Flint Ridge was an important source of flint and Native Americans extracted the flint from hundreds of quarries along the ridge. This "Ohio Flint" was traded across the eastern United States and has been found as far west as the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

and south around the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

References

External links

Flint Ridge State Memorial
- official site
FLINT - OHIO'S OFFICIAL GEMSTONE
{{authority control Museums in Licking County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Licking County, Ohio Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio State parks of Ohio Ohio History Connection Protected areas of Licking County, Ohio Native American museums in Ohio Mining museums in Ohio Natural history museums in Ohio Flint mining