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Through the branches of lush oak, hickory, black cherry and maple trees, hikers meet a sphinx’s gaze. Carved out of shale-sandstone conglomerate, the approximately 14-foot-long piece bears a pharaoh’s headdress, a lion’s paws and tail and a disappearing smile. The statue is so out of place that it seems like a mirage, but it’s actually one of about 10 carvings that make up Worden’s Ledges — accessible by a 0.7-mile loop trail in Hinckley.
“It’s surreal,” says Judy MacKeigan, a historian for the Cleveland Metroparks. “You feel like it’s an ancient forest down there in the stone, mosses and ferns, and all of a sudden you’re looking around at … fantastic things that Noble Stuart carved in the ledges.”
A large ledge, etched with H. M. Worden 1851, announces the spot’s namesake. Stuart’s father-in-law, Western Reserve settler Hiram Worden, is captured in profile on the edge of that ledge — artwork so detailed that you can see the hairs in his beard and the pupil in his eye. Some carvings, like this one, are supplemented with concrete.
In 1851, Worden purchased 56 acres of land surrounding the ledges, starting a farm during a time when Hinckley was sparsely populated because of its rugged, hilly terrain. That year, he married Melissa Bissell and later had four children — including Nettie, who inherited the homestead in 1903. In the 1940s, she married her third husband, Stuart, a retired bricklayer and stonemason. Sometime between 1944 and 1948, Stuart chiseled these awe-inspiring carvings, including a fallen-down, life-size crucifix with a Bible at its base — located by the parking lot of the trailhead.
“There was a school called primitive American art,” MacKeigan says. “Stuart was doing this in the 1940s. That’s at least 50 ... years after its original popularity.”
Finding the rest of the carvings off the trail is like a scavenger hunt. You must circle the area several times and carefully search to see them all.
“You got to look left. You have to look right. You have to look up. You have to look down. You have to peer around,” says MacKeigan.
Nettie’s name is scrawled in cursive near the path. Close by is half of a face, with a defined eye and nose, protruding out of a point of a rock — believed to possibly be Revolutionary War officer Marquis de Lafayette. A schooner, rumored to symbolize Stuart’s family’s journey to America, is lightly outlined high up on a ledge off the path.
Hidden about 25 feet high on another nearby ledge is founding father George Washington. His curly hair and high-collared coat are barely visible, and the top of his head is fading into the rock. Stuart cut holes in the stone to climb and steady himself while creating these high-up carvings, according to The Plain Dealer.
You have to climb over boulders and fallen trees to see a deeply carved cross. Is All is written over top, with an open Bible underneath — honoring Stuart’s church-going family.
Finally, along the trail, you come across “T. Cobb” — an engraving paying tribute to baseball player Ty Cobb. His visage, featuring a wide smile and prominent nose, is etched out of a flat rockface. Like almost all of Stuart’s subjects, Cobb’s expression is now covered in green moss and lichens, with ferns draping down near his face. The carving, eroding with time, is truly becoming a part of the forest — nature merging with primitive art.
“It’s like an open-air museum,” MacKeigan says. “It’s a beautiful walk.” // KP
Hinckley, clevelandmetroparks.com
