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The Hollow's Living Landscape

In 1979 and 1980 six articles were published in The Legend that discussed the origins of Sleepy Hollow, its land, plants, insects, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. An edited and condensed version of these articles originally written by the "Ghost Writer in the Sky" is presented below.

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Where Did Sleepy Hollow Come From?

As we gaze at the beauty that is "Sleepy Hollow" the meaning of the above question comes to mind. According to scientific evidence, billions of years ago when the earth began to cool after it had been a molten mass for eons of time, it was covered with many gases, mostly oxygen and hydrogen. As the earth cooled further, these gases condensed and formed one cast ocean the scientists called panthalassa.

Gradually over hundreds of millions of years one great continent emerged from the waters. Scientists call this continent Pangaea. About 200 million years ago this continent began to crack apart into seven separate continents. They were forced apart by molten volcanic rock that rose up in these cracks. This volcanic action is still taking place beneath the waters of the oceans of the world. This action is moving all of the continents of the world apart at the rate of about one inch a year.

According to these proven facts, it is interesting to contemplate that 200 million years ago, the North American Continent, and of course Sleepy Hollow, was then located somewhere over near the northwest coast of Africa.

The Origin of Sleepy Hollow Terra Firma

Where did your lawn and garden soil come from? Scientists tell us that after the single great continent of Pangaea broke apart, local events were happening. The same lateral forces that were causing the continental plates to separate caused the land surface to rumple up, usually around the edges and parallel to the newly forces oceanic coastlines. This is what caused Virginia's Blue Ridge and other ranges of the Appalachian Highland to form.

When this phenomenon first occurred, these eastern mountains, though millions of years in forming, were, geologically speaking, comparatively young. They were sharp peaked, rugged, and much higher than they are now. They were similar in appearance to our much younger present day western Rocky Mountains that have not yet had time to weather and wear down. The Appalachians were originally thrust up to heights of over ten thousand feet. Through eons of time, these mountains have now weathered down to an average height of only three or four thousand feet. This settling down action is still going on, though not nearly as fast as it once was.

Where did all of this lofty geological material go? Well, because these mountain ranges were considerably higher, their sheer weight subjected them to frequent earthquake activity. Their overall bulk was far greater and heavier and they were still forming and shifting position. This movement caused crushing and breaking up of mountain rocks. Also, because these mountains were higher in elevation, they were exposed to considerably more of the erosive action from wind, rain, snow and ice which in turn caused the grinding action of avalanches and glacial friction. When all of these combined forces of nature took place, the different kinds of rocks that were formed for various reasons and at different times formed part of the heights which were being ground up into small particles (sand and gravel) and in many cases thoroughly pulverized (clay).

The prevailing air movements, caused by the rotation of the earth, storms and precipitation caused by the sun, then blew and washed this reduced rock residue eastward and down onto the lower levels of the bedrock of the already existing Piedmont Plateau. This rocky plateau was formed during an even earlier geological time known as the Cretaceous Period of the Precambrian age (over a hundred million years ago). This bedrock plateau is composed of igneous (heat affected from the center of the earth) and metamorphic (solidified mostly due to gravitational pressure) rock material with an overmantle of saprolite which is softer rock due to exposure to the elements.

This residue, which had its source up on top of the Blue Ridge and other Appalachian Mountain ranges, became the overburden on the Piedmont Plateau, thus forming the Piedmont Plain. This overburden is made up in layers of sand, gravel, clay and fluvial material (decayed and decomposed former living material from both plants and animals). This mixed and blended soil is generally classified by soil scientists as Blue Ridge Complex, a label which pretty well identifies the parent material from which it originally came.

Sleepy Hollow is situated on and is part of the Piedmont Plain, so this is what scientists tell us is the source and makeup of the soil in which our lawns and gardens are now growing.

As an aside, since astronomer estimated that approximately 10,000 tons of cosmic "star dust" from outer space (mostly burned up meteoric residue) filters down through the atmosphere to the earth's surface everyday, it would be safe to assume that a small part of your lawn and garden soil actually comes from outer space. (Is that why my car gets so dirty?)

The Plant Origins of Sleepy Hollow

Soil scientist have found that our soil is made up of basic mineral and natural add fluvial material. Fluvial material is organic, decomposed former living matter from both plants and animals.

The types of plants that grow in any given area depend on a complex combination of soil, climate, and geological conditions. The climate of the Sleepy Hollow area has changed many times since the beginning of our planet. There have been warm periods lasting millions upon millions of years. For eons, torrential tropical rains fell almost continuously with sharp thunder and lightning to furnish an abundance of violet rays and nitrogen that were readily used by the growing evolving plants. Those conditions produced tremendous accumulations of decayed vegetable matter that was then layered and embedded in the soil, and was then as now a source of nutrient.

Later, there were palms and broad leaf trees that grew much like those that now grow in Africa and South America and other places where the weather is continuously warm. We know this because perfect impressions in sedimentary rocks of ferns and palm fronds have been found in this area, as well as impressions of some of our present day plant species, depending in which sedimentary period layers of rock they fell. This shows that many of our present day plant species have had their beginnings at that time.

Later, about one million years ago, the Pleistocene Epoch of the Quaternary Period Began. The Pleistocene Epoch is characterized by a series of four great glacial and interglacial periods, each of which lasted hundreds of thousands of years. The interglacial periods were comparatively warm (we are in one now), during which time many species of plants grew, developed, flourished and evolved. Some species continued to grow although others became extinct for various reasons—climatic and geological changes, disease, and over-consumption by insects and animals.

For example, the evergreen southern live oak of the sub-tropics is a transitional type between tropical broadleaf trees and our northern oaks. The evergreen conifers and pines with their needles gradually evolved in order to protect their growth from the cold frigid winds and tundra conditions cause by drafts blowing down off the great ice sheets. These ice sheets were in some places thousands of feet thick and they completely covered the upper and lower polar regions extending down into the mid-latitudes.

We are now in the Holocene or recent Epoch. The last great glacier gradually melted and recede as recently as 10,000 years ago. The common native trees, shrubs and plants that we now see in Sleepy Hollow have been growing, developing and evolving for about the last million years, changing their characteristics and growing positions on the face of the earth according to the advancing and receding of the great glaciers.

Today in Sleepy Hollow we are rather fortunate to be in the middle of an overlapping shield of climatic conditions that allow certain plants of both the North Temperate Zone and South Temperate rate Zone to grow. We have some plants and trees that grow naturally here in the wild as far south as the gulf-coastal states and others that grow naturally as far north as south Canada.

When Captain John Smith came up the Potomac River Valley as far as Great Falls in 1607, he marveled at all the large tall straight trees that flourished in these dense virgin forests. They were the same species that we now have in out yards—pines, cedars, maple, oaks, hickories, gums, wild cherries, poplars, dogwoods, etc. The only difference was that many of those wonderful trees were nearly 200 feet high and eight to ten feet in diameter at the base. They had never been cut over. Our trees now, as large as some of them are, are all second, third, and sometimes fourth growth from the original wild natural stands.

In Sleepy Hollow we now have many "hardy" plants growing that have been introduced from most of the temperate zone countries of the world. Some of these plants have been naturalized and grow freely even without cultivation. That is, they will re-seed and/or propagate themselves through their root systems. They are called escapes from cultivation. Examples of these are Japanese Honeysuckle, Mimosa from Persia (Iran), French Lilacs, English Ivy, Norway Maple, etc.

Most of the lawn grasses have been introduced from the pastures of Europe. Some have come from out own western plains. The grasses and clover are not shade tolerant and do not grow naturally in the dense forested area as this part of Virginia was originally. Most grasses are open country plains plants. For full growth and unimpeded development, they require a whole day of sunlight every day during the growing season.

Grass is the natural food for grazing animals such as horses, cattle, sheep, deer, bison, antelope, etc. The ecology of grasses is such that they have been accommodated to this condition and are naturally re-seeded and fertilized in soil by these hoofed animals as they graze. That is why we have to periodically artificially fertilize our lawns in order to keep them pretty and green, because, you see, there are no hoofed animals grazing on them.

Some Microbes and Insects That Reside in the Hollow

Unquestionably, microbes and insects have contributed greatly to the material in the soil of our yards which nourishes the growth of our lawns and all plants, both cultivated and wild.

Among the earliest living organisms on earth are the microscopic single cell bacteria called microbes. They are so called because of their small sizes. They cannot be seen without the aid of a microscope that magnifies thousands of diameters. Microbiologists explain to us that throughout the millions of years of change and growth under varying natural conditions of temperature and climate, microbes gradually developed into a teeming multitude of varieties and types, each with a high degree of specialization.

Entomologists tell us that after more eons of time these myriads of microbes and bacteria gradually grew and developed into an astonishing variety of insects. The insects, of course, grew thousands of times larger and became far more complex in their conformation than their ancestors, the microbes. Some present day insects have not changed form in over a million years. During their individual lifetimes, most insects undergo three or four changes in form, depending on the species. This is known as metamorphosis.

Many of the species of insects that are familiar to us in Sleepy Hollow are classified as Hexapods, or six-legged; some also have wings. The legs are jointed and their bodies are usually segmented into three parts, the head, thorax, and abdomen. Beetles, grasshoppers, seventeen-year locusts and many others have what is known as exoskeletons (exterior skeletons) because they have no internal bones. This tough, horny shell offers the insect exterior protection from parasites and the rigidity it needs to carry out its life cycle.

The seventeen-year cicadas (locusts) that are prevalent in our area have a most unusual life cycle in that after the eggs are laid up on a tree limb they drop to the ground, hatch and enter the ground as grubs, burrowing down into the soil for 8½ years. Then they turn around and start back up for 8½ years. Just before the grubs emerge from the ground (by the millions in a peak year), the grubs become mobile pupae (they have legs), climb about halfway up the nearest tree, split open and an adult locust emerges, full grown with wings. Within a matter of ten days and to two weeks they all fly around and loudly sing a staccato sound, mate, lay their eggs and die. The ground is often widely littered with their bodies. New eggs drop to the ground and the cycle starts all over again. While the grub is in the soil it lives off organic material. They eat nothing while they are out of the ground, although they do a lot of damage to trees and shrubs by splitting tender twigs and branches where they lay their eggs. It is not known whey they do this. The branch then becomes weakened and often dies because the wound is attacked by microbes. A sort of pruning of our trees and shrubs takes place throughout our area at this time.

Some common insects in the Hollow are imports. For example, the honey bee from Africa and Southern Europe; the beetle causing Dutch Elm disease, and the Japanese beetle. About thirty years ago we were struck by a tremendous infestation of Japanese beetles that came from Japan in a shipment of Iris bulbs. For about three years all of our roses, fruit trees, maples and many ornamentals were completely stripped of blossoms and leaves during a period of a few weeks in mid-summer. It was found that one cubic foot of top soil contained as man as 130 Japanese beetle grubs that were ready to hatch. The US Department of Agriculture discovered a microscopic spore that would attack the grubs and this spore dust was distributed to the residents of the Hollow. They put it on their lawns and in a matter of two or three years the beetles were decimated. Due to regular applications of this spore dust, they are comparatively rare now.

Ants, termites, wasps and bees all belong to the same family of insects and are familiar residents of the Hollow. They are similar in that they all exist in communities with each produced by a single female or queen. If the queen is destroyed, the whole colony falls apart and disintegrates. Most of the individuals in the colony spend their lives looking after the queen and her offspring.

Many people think of spiders as a type-of "bug," but they are not true insects. They belong to another family called arachnids. Such other types as ticks, chiggers, centipedes, scorpions and many others are strangely related and belong to this family. I mention this at this time because the bite of at least two spiders that live in the Hollow are dangerous to man and could kill. They are the black widow and the recluse spiders. The recluse spider is a small reddish brown species that often lives in dark closets. Watch out for these!

Reptiles and Amphibians in Sleepy Hollow

Reptiles were at the height of their development about 180 million years ago during the Jurassic period. By comparison, the origins of man appeared only about a million years ago. Today, reptiles exist only as minor remnants of a once great form of life which included the dinosaurs, the largest of both land and water reptiles that ever lived on earth.

It is interesting to not that dinosaur footprints have been found in sedimentary slate rock slabs, which were probably laid down as mud at the time they were made, as near to Sleepy Hollow as along the Potomac River near Leesburg, Virginia. Although no evidence has been found, it isn't hard to imagine dinosaurs in pre-glacial times losing their way down through Tripps Run hunting for food.

Reptiles are cold blooded. A reptile's body temperature naturally becomes the same temperature as its surroundings. It does not remain constant the way many warm blooded animals do.

Before Sleepy Hollow first opened up to suburban residential settlement, there were a number of types of reptiles and amphibians that were living and were quite prevalent in our area, many more than there are now.

Turtle are still found in Sleepy Hollow. In the 1940's boys would walk through the woods and pick up bushel baskets full of turtles. There were three kinds; most were the Eastern Box Land Turtles, but the Eastern Aquatic Painted Turtle and the Common Aquatic Snapping Turtle were also found in swampy areas along Tripps Run and in the stream west of Cedarwood Lane that runs into Tripps Run. This was of course, before the banks were disturbed by the artificial channelization of both streams in the 1950s.

Turtles are usually interesting reptiles in that their protective shell is really an outgrowth or extension of their rib cage. Their ancestors first appeared about 200 million years ago long before the dinosaurs developed. They have managed to survive and remain relatively unchanged for at least 150 million years. Individual turtles normally live for about 150 years, and they eat both insects and certain plant material.

Formerly, in the spring, before the stream channelization took place, the air was filled with the trill whistling chorus of mating frogs—but alas, no more. You may still hear a frog once in a while, but nothing like the cacophony we formerly heard from our frogs. They both have a different song and croak.

The frogs here are three kinds generally, although there may be more. The ones the write has observed here are the pickerel and leopard frogs. Both are about three inches long. Then there is the common bull frog which is larger than the other two mentioned. The bullfrog matures between five and seven and a half inches in length. All the frogs are harmless and should be protected. They eat large quantities of harmful insects such as moths, flies and mosquitoes.

In the Hollow, there have been identified three types of toads, the Spade Foot, American and Fowlers Toad. They are harmless except during the breeding season, when, for protection, a white milky substance emerges through their skin. This fluid is very poisonous if it comes in contact with our eyes or mouth.

Lizards and salamanders also live in Sleepy Hollow. There are three kinds that have been observed in the area—the common skink lizard, about six to eight inches long, the red back and the spotted (black and yellow spots) salamanders.

Then there are snakes. There have been in the past eight varieties identified in the Hollow—garter, green, black rat, king, ring neck, hog nose, water, and Copperhead. The last is an orange/brown snake with a triangle shaped head and a diamond patterned back. This snake is known as a pit viper, and like many other vipers it has a heat sensitive membrane between its eyes which helps it find and accurately strike at warm blooded prey. It has poisonous fangs that can cause death if not quickly treated.

Although this is the natural range for poisonous rattle snakes, and the deadly cottonmouth water snake, none have been observed in the Hollow since the area was developed. They seem to have moved to the mountains west and to waters further south.

The Birds of Sleepy Hollow

Unquestionably, the bird population in Sleepy Hollow has changed during the last fifty years. Early residents can remember when, on cold winter nights walking down the middle of our then narrow roads, how the hoot of the Great Horned Owl could be heard. They you could watch him fly solemnly through the trees to a new perch on a low hanging branch, where he would await his next meal, a mouse scampering across the ground. In the spring of the year, on clear moonlit nights, the interesting call of the often heard but seldom seen whippoorwill could be heard high in the pine thickets. Then too, on bright sunny spring days, the almost human call of Bobwhite would be very much in evidence. In the fall, these interesting little-like birds would scamper in large coveys through the cluff on the floor of the woods. If frightened, they would instinctively form a circle, tails in and instantly fly out in all directions, making a difficult target, indeed.

Then there was the Bluebird, which, when viewed at close range through binoculars, was really a pretty sight. They were quite numerous here then, but unfortunately one of the great migrations of Bluebirds was caught some years back in the midst of a hurricane force storm, and the bulk of the migration was lost at sea. The elimination of the Bluebird nesting places in the now wooden fence posts (in favor of the steel fence posts commonly used now) also greatly reduced their numbers. In addition, Bluebirds were prone to eat sick and dying insects, poisoned by DDT. Since DDT has been banned, they are beginning to repopulate some areas, fortunately.

Lately, you may have noticed that we seem to have an invasion of large black Crows in the Hollow. This is not really bad except that their raucous "CAW" is very annoying to some people, especially in the early morning when a little restful sleep is often most needed.

Sleepy Hollow is the natural habitat for many kinds and species of birds. The birds that you now see in your yards and at your bird feeders are just a small fraction of the birds that could live here or that have lived here in the past. Longtime residents can remember a number of other kinds of birds here when they first moved in, but sadly they have disappeared to more remote natural environments because of the surrounding urbanization and change in the ecology. Formerly, in the early spring, at say five in the morning, if you have your bedroom window open, and wanted further sleep, you would find it imperative to rise and close it. The sound of the multitudes of nesting birds in the surrounding woodland created bedlam. We still do hear some chirping but it is now almost the "Silent Spring" Rachel Carson was talking about, compared with the way it was.