Wintergreen Gorge facts for kids
Wintergreen Gorge is a really cool, deep valley found in Harborcreek Township, which is in Erie County, Pennsylvania. This amazing canyon is about 3,980 feet (that's over three-quarters of a mile!) long. It sits right along a stream called Fourmile Creek and is also super close to the campus of Penn State Erie. At its deepest point, the gorge is about 250 feet deep, which is like a 25-story building! The gorge got its name from a plant called "wintergreen" that used to grow there a lot. There's even a big road called the Bayfront Connector that crosses over the gorge on the Wintergreen Gorge Bridge.
How Wintergreen Gorge Was Formed
Wintergreen Gorge wasn't always here. It started forming about 11,000 years ago, which is a long, long time! This happened after the last ice age ended. About 20,000 years ago, huge sheets of ice called glaciers slowly moved across the land. When these glaciers melted and moved away, they left behind a lot of dirt, rocks, and other stuff called glacial debris.
Then, Fourmile Creek started flowing. Over thousands of years, the creek slowly but surely wore away this glacial debris. It also carved deeper into the ground, cutting through a type of soft rock called shale. This shale rock was formed a very, very long time ago during a period in Earth's history called the Devonian period. So, the creek kept eroding, or wearing away, the land, creating the deep and beautiful Wintergreen Gorge we see today!
