Geological History of the Gorge
Geologists believe that tens of thousands of years ago, the Mianus River flowed from Banksville northward to the Stonehill River System in northern Bedford. South of the present day Gorge was another watershed flowing southward to Long Island Sound. The advancing Wisconsin glacier blocked the Mianus from flowing Northward and, as the glacier melted, it formed a large lake at the site of the present Bedford Village.
When the dam for this lake broke, this tremendous flow of water started the formation of the Gorge, which continues to this day. The Mianus River continues to flow northward from Banksville, but now, as a result of this glacial activity, turns southward in Bedford and flows to Long Island Sound in Cos Cob. Enriched with a virgin stand of giant hemlocks, the Gorge has remained virtually untouched by man since it was carved out of our native granite thousands of years ago.
The First Inhabitants
The Mianus River gets its name from the Wappinger Confederacy chief Myanos, who was killed near the Gorge in 1683. Chief Myanos’s tribe controlled the area from the NY-CT border south to Cos Cob and the Long Island Sound. Chief Katonah laid claim to lands in the northern watershed around what is now Bedford village.
White settlers came to the Valley of the Mianus in the early 1600’s carrying diseases that decimated Native American populations. In less than a decade, Sachem Myanos and the Mahican tribe were forced off their land by colonial farmers. Today there is no mark on the landscape but their leader’s name.
The Changing Landscape
In the 1700 and 1800’s, much of the land around the Gorge was cleared for pastures, marked at the edges by walls made from the stones removed from the rocky soil. The steep slopes in the Gorge were not good for pastureland and this old-growth forest was saved. The majority of the old-growth in the Gorge was hemlock, which was not good for lumber. The early settlers used only the bark of hemlocks, from which they extracted tannin used to tan animal pelts.
After the Civil War, many of the local farmers abandoned their land for good farmland in the west. Pastures were allowed to revert back to forest. The second growth forest that grew here was generally even-aged and therefore less diverse than the old-growth forest of the steep gorge. This second-growth younger forest you see in the Gorge today (mostly on the blue trail) is between 50 and 100 years old.
Over the last past few decades, the Gorge has faced new changes, primarily from encroaching suburban development. Unlike the past few centuries where forest became field and visa-versa, today, both forest and field become parking lots and human habitation. Change in land use has altered the hydrology of our watershed, while our cosmopolitan society has introduced a host of exotic plant and animal species to the Gorge's forests. It is in this period of change that the impetus to protect the Gorge emerged.
Creating the Preserve
The movement to protect the Gorge began in 1953 when a group of neighbors aware of the uniqueness of the Gorge, learned of threats to its beauty. In the fall of 1953 a keen-eyed member of the founding group learned that the Greenwich Water Company (now Aquarion) was seeking permission to erect a dam on the Mianus that would have flooded the Gorge. Our founders rallied their troops and prevented this catastrophe. Through negotations, the height of the dam was reduced thereby saving the heart of the Gorge. Only months later, plans were announced to develop 60 acres of old-growth forest deep in the heart of the Gorge - land just saved from the proposed dam. To protect this land and its ancient hemlocks, the committee needed to match the developer’s offer by January 1, 1954.
Realizing they needed confirmation that the Gorge was worthy of protection, the founders enlisted the help of several scientists and walked the Gorge in December of 1953. Two members of the Professional Evaluation Committee for the Gorge were Richard Pough of the Museum of Natural History (who later became first President of The Nature Conservancy) and Dr. Richard Goodwin, famed botany professor at Connecticut College (also an early Nature Conservancy President.) The professionals agreed, "It is an outdoor schoolroom, a sanctuary, a museum and a place of abiding beauty.”
Pooling their resources (including three personal life insurance policies), the Mianus River Conservation Group raised the down payment by 8:00am, January 1. The remainder of the $30,000 purchase price was raised from the community and the then fledgling organization --The Nature Conservancy -- which loaned the money to the Gorge, and in the process, established the very successful revolving Fund.
Mianus River Gorge Preserve
167 Mianus River Rd
Bedford, NY 10506-1808
(914) 234-3455
rodc@optonline.net