Jackson Bog
State Nature Preserve
58 acres - Stark County
Address
7984 Fulton Dr NW
Massillon, OH 44646
Lat/Long Coordinates
N40 51.563'
W081 29.897'
Special Features
- Boreal fen remnant
- Rare plants including insectivorous species
Facilities
Bulletin board, 1.25 mile boardwalk trail and interpretive signage. Parking is available at the adjacent Jackson Township Park.
Learn more
Jackson Bog is a 58-acre preserve located in northern Stark County and owned by the Jackson Township Local Board of Education and the Ohio Division of Natural Areas and Preserves. The area was dedicated in1980 as an interpretive preserve.
The "uniqueness" of Jackson Bog is a result of natural events that occurred thousands of years ago. Beginning more than a million years ago, at least four major continental ice sheets advanced into Ohio. The most recent glacier, the Wisconsinian, bulldozed its way south from eastern Canada and lumbered across much of North America about 25,000 years ago.
Jackson Bog, which is actually a fen, or alkaline bog, lies at the foot of a dry, sandy kame (a glacially deposited hill or ridge). The belts of kames in this area of Stark County provide an extensive aquifer. These highly permeable gravel deposits readily absorb surface water and then hold it in staggering quantities as groundwater.
Whenever this groundwater reaches the surface, as it does here in Jackson Bog, artesian springs and seeps result. Springs emerge from beneath the elongated kame that borders the northern edge of the preserve. It is these gravel deposits with their corresponding springs that hold the key to the very existence of Jackson Bog.
Local directions
Located in Stark County, 2 miles north of Massillon on Fulton Drive and .5 mile west of the intersection of SR 687 and SR 241. The preserve is adjacent to Jackson Township Park. |