Hinckley's Gold
by "Sam" Boyer
Brunswick Sun Times, 6-14-1979
Hidden in Hinckley Metropark is a treasure...not silver or gold,
but
unusual works of art – Carvings in a stand of
ledges on the face of the rocks.
About a mile south of the nearest public access,
a trek takes one to what are known as
"Worden's Ledges." The walk and climb are arduous
without regular paths. But park officials
would like to keep things that way because of the
danger of vandalism. Some incidents have
already taken place, even without the area
publicly popular.
A shorter route, but not much less arduous,
is from private property. And, ironically, the
owner of that land had the key to the mystery
of the carvings.
As Sun photographer Joe Darwal, park
maintenance personnel
and
this reporter
proceeded to cross fences and muddy patches
through pastures on
our way "down" to the area,
Jim Kamp, the park official in charge of the
Hinckley Metropark,
told what he knew of the area.
It had been owned by a Mr. Worden,
who began the carvings on the ledges
which are just
as interesting but not as large an area
as the popular Whipps Ledges.
Worden, however,
appeared to be just one of
several "artists" who left their marks
on the rock formations which
must have taken millions of years to form.
Suddenly the group came upon a long rectangular rock
which bore the words "Gate Post
Cut, 1852." Much of it was moss covered
but recognizable.
It gave some notion of the time
element involved.
Then a huge "face" peered out from the sheer ledge.
The name "T. Cobb" was inscribed
beside it. (Was it Ty?). It was a two-dimensional figure,
probably five or six feet long and three
feet across. Next the group spotted an open
Bible with a cross atop it.
The words "is all" were
carved at either side.
Next was found an intricate clipper ship in full sail.
Above some 25 feet was a face.
Once small face seemed completely inaccessible.
It stood in a clearing about 14 feet above
ground and a ladder or other aid would have been
required to reach it.
Kamp explained the story. Once on the "trail"
of the artifacts it is easy for a person to
follow. Kamp said it seems that Worden or
a successor carved the path from the rock face, and
lined it with stones and crushed sand from the sandstone.
It still remains completely free of
obstruction, or even weed growth.
The group came across a work by another contributor.
"Nettie" was written in script on a
rock face. Nettie was the wife of Nobel Stuart,
who owned the property to the east of the ledges.
Around the corner was the face of a
man carved similarly
to a ship's figurehead in a piece of
stone which juts across the path.
The beard of this carving
has been cemented in and it leads one
to believe perhaps it was defaced of just broken.
Stuart was a bricklayer by trade, so it is likely
he did the work. He died about a year ago at age 93.
In another rock was found
"H. M. Worden, 1851" chiseled out.
And then – a Sphinx. A
long rock has been used to form the figure with
great similarity to its famous counterpart.
The path was retraced, back to the east
(which is the correct direction to travel) trying to
see some carvings that were missed.
Kamp said there are about 17 in all.
Then this reporter talked with 77 year-old Bill Wiese,
who finally unlocked the mystery.
"Why would anyone want to do this kind of thing?"
he was asked.
Wiese is a native Clevelander who only
came to Hinckley in 1954.
But ironically, he
worked for a firm called Simons, Worden, White.
The Worden family was the very same one
which had owned the property.
Worden's manufactured chisels.
And that's what started the whole project –
trying out the chisels.
"Back in those days, every chisel had to be
guaranteed," said Wiese.
"They were used in
specialty work such as carving monuments and
headstones from marble
and granite, so they had
to be very sharp and very strong."
It used to be a joke, he said,
that Worden would finish
work Friday and start out on horse
and buggy up York Road, change horses,
and proceed
out to Hinckley where he would try out
his chisels.
Wiese knew a bit about that kind of work, from his
own experience and from the fact that
his father was a stoneworker and
made pieces of marble
and granite into beautiful items – all by
hand.
Wiese said Stuart married a daughter in
the Worden family,
which is probably why he
also got to add his touch to the works.
A hundred years ago, Wiese said,
the front of the 10-plus acres
on which he resides was a
stone quarry (on Ledge Road) and there are natural
springs along the ridgetop.
Wiese retired 11 years ago.
He has been widowed three times
and has a son, Bill, who
lives in Hinckley, and a daughter, Gloria,
and two grandchildren
residing in North Carolina.
"We had to test out chisels from about an eight to ten.
Some are very finely worked, some
are larger. We had pure steel then. It was boiled
eight hours
a day and only poured once and all
the impurities boiled out. In 1916, for instance,
cars were made with 16-gauge steel with 40 to
43 parts of carbon. It was tough."
The lively septuagenarian maintains his active life
"puttering around" the place, raising a
garden, keeping his horses and dogs....and
keeping an eye on a wonderful tribute to man's
creativity in Worden's Ledges.
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