A place on the glacial till
Subtitle: time, land, and nature within an American town
By: Thomas Fairchild Sherman ; drawings by Byron Fouts.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York
Number of pages: 213
Subjects: Ecology -- Ohio -- Oberlin Region; Geology -- Ohio -- Oberlin Region; Geomorphology -- Ohio -- Oberlin Region
Description: In A Place on the Glacial Till, Thomas Fairchild Sherman writes about the history of the life and land around his long-time home in Oberlin, Ohio, offering a quiet message that speaks to us wherever we are: that all time and nature abide within the rocks and soil, with connections, beauty, and meaning as deep as history and as broad as human understanding.

The area surrounding Oberlin has a rich and varied past, and Sherman weaves together old and new findings from geology, archeology, and ecology to remind us of its elemental roots. Over the millennia this region of north central Ohio has been a barren, glacier-covered land mass; a sea bed teeming with marine life; the homeland of Adena, Hopewell, and Erie peoples; a part of the Connecticut Western Reserve; and the home of a small, distinguished college dedicated to music and the arts and sciences.

The land today holds all the wildernesses of its past, and all the dreams and aspirations of those who have lived upon it. Reminiscent of the meditative prose of Annie Dillard and the environmental writing of John McPhee, A Place on the Glacial Till recalls a multitude of studies of time and nature and joins them in a new appreciation of the land and its meaning for our lives.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-213).

6