Cleveland museum saves Conneaut forest

By MARK TODD - Staff Writer - mtodd@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon

August 09, 2008 01:34 am

— CONNEAUT — Ancient hemlock trees that brought such joy to Harriet Armstrong will now flourish under the care of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The museum, which owns more than 2,000 acres of ecologically significant land in Ashtabula County, recently added nearly 14 acres of prime hemlock forest to its holdings, said Jim Bissell, the museum’s curator of botany and coordinator of natural lands.
The forest is the centerpiece of a former working farm on Center Road near Gateway Avenue in Conneaut, a short distance from Interstate 90. The hemlocks mark the first Conneaut lands in the museum’s considerable county collection, Bissell said.
A newly-erected sign along Center Road proclaims the property the Lyman-Powell-Armstrong Hemlock Swamp, in honor of the families that have owned the farm and the land it occupies for nearly 120 years. The property was given by Richard Armstrong Jr., and Donald Horwood in memory of Harriet Powell Armstrong, “who loved this farm and wished to preserve it as a gem of nature,” according to the sign.
That’s no exaggeration, said Horwood. Harriet Armstrong was his former mother-in-law, and the hemlock swamp site was one of her favorite spots, he said.
“She wanted it preserved forever,” Horwood said.
A dedication ceremony last weekend was attended by more than 40 people, many of them family members, according to reports.
The family and museum have discussed the property over the past couple years, the parties said. “We knew (the museum) was interested because they visited (the site) many times,” Horwood said.
The museum, in turn, said the forest has been on their radar for some time. “We’ve known of it since the 1970s,” Bissell said.
The “swamp” in the name may be misleading. The land is part of a drainage system, but it is not a bog with standing water, Horwood said.
Instead, the property is home to some magnificent trees and rare plant life, Bissel said.
“Huge, old hemlocks,” he said. “It’s something to see.”
The public is invited to roam the Lyman-Powell-Armstrong Hemlock Swamp. The best entry point is adjacent to the barn at the old homestead, located near the Gateway Avenue/Center Road intersection on the west side of Center. The farm sits near the commemorative roadway sign.