We walked 600 feet from Cave Road with Larry Henry to the lip of Rocky Fork Gorge and looked down at wondrous beauty, at churning brown waters of the creek insistently seeking its route along this four-mile stretch to join Paint Creek. We had met Nancy Henry at the road where she excused herself to go off on a solitary journey of discovery. We trudged in the warm March sunlight through the fluffy snow along the escarpment while Henry pointed out the trees and then the plants threatened, endangered, rare in his fervid monologue of why this land was so precious to him and demanded protection. He was insistent, the land was still and trusting and not making any demands upon tomorrow. We took Larry’s word that here grew Watkin’s Violet, Yellow Ladyslipper Orchid, Snow Trillium, Sullivantia, Century Plant, Wild cabbage and White Cedar. He rattled off the numbers existing in each patch struggling on a slope in those silent times alone when he’d made a count. He recalled each assembly not as a statistic, but as a shepherd protector of this flock. He knelt to gently wipe the snow revealing one hidden leaf and then soothingly covered it with as much tenderness as a father at midnight covering a child who had kicked off the bed covers.

His passion to create this Highlands Nature Sanctuary consumes us. Larry, this missionary of the wilderness, a preacher rabid with purpose, a gentle protector of nature for plants we could not spell or might unknowingly crush under our tread. Observing squirrel tracks, he pointed to its snow clearing and movement to a Hickory and this became as exciting as a documentary filmed on the Serengeti. His plea and his example of protection for this beloved and uniqueness around us, numbed us in the excitement and anxiety for his cause. What if this were lost? Larry and Nancy Henry, through their chance discovery of this land, man to create the non-profit Highland Nature Sanctuary to protect forever this gem of land near Hillsboro, almost equidistant from Columbus or Cincinnati. Some of the dream is already set. Their own parcel is willed to the Sanctuary. As bulldozers sat in the adjoining property, they negotiated with the landowner and secured a two-year, $140,000.00 loan from The Nature Conservancy to stop the bulldozers. It is this loan they must pay off before proceeding to protect other land, parcel by parcel, in this planned dream that has an end but a precarious beginning, built mainly on faith and hope and idealism.

We made our way down the bank to Rocky Fork Creek, looking that the rock formations, recess of a cave or the limestone walls where plants had clung for 250 years. At least 13 species of mussels live in the creek, including the state-threatened Lampsilis faciola. In the 23 caves, live three species of bats and several species of cave-adapted invertebrates. The rare Frost Cave isopod, a tiny crustacean related to pill bugs, was first discovered and described to science from this region. If I were watching these creatures on a TV documentary, I’d channel switch. Boring. Then I thought of mother bats unable to comprehend or shelter their young when their environment was destroyed. Mussels, Pill buts, bats, plants with Latin names, neither warm nor fuzzy, just creation in the great scheme of things, all interconnected. How do we save and protect these in this beautiful gorge that awes us? We are catching Larry’s excitement. Our shoulder ache from the burden of his mission. We take small breaths from anxiety that this must not be lost. Kayakers come darting down the creek on the water’s hurried trip thorough this beauty. My shout breaks their journey and their paddles pull them sideways, "Do you know where you are? This is the greatest day of your life. You are meeting the man, Larry Henry, who is trying to save this place. He’s trying to protect what is around you as the Highlands Nature Sanctuary." We talk for a minute and they go on. Larry is a realist, but he is a dreamer. Today is so rare and special because I have met him.

The big dream can reach its goal in small steps. The odds of one couple making a difference are formidable if not overwhelming. WE are told that each of us can make a difference, but life gives us calluses on our hearts - some of us. The dream is already set. WE walked on protected land - when the loan is paid. These dreamers have been greeted with disbelief, suspicion, bureaucracy, discouragement, dark doubts that they might never accomplish their goal, broken promises amid the background whines of chain saws and bulldozers on the hillside. Who of us for however noble a cause, would have single-handedly taken on such a cause with their signature - pledge on the loan? Beauty of nature surrounded and awed us. It was also in the being of two ordinary yet extraordinary humans, Larry and Nancy Henry.

We were on sacred ground, more sacred than one could imagine. The Shawnee and Iroquois considered it so and did not hunt here, using this special place for ceremonies. Making our way out of the gorge, Larry stopped at a tree. Here in 1787, Daniel Boone was tied one night while his Indian captors slept in the overhanging ledge below.

In Ohio, twenty pieces of land are unique in their highly rated need for protection while this project is at the top of the list. A charitable contribution made payable to: Highlands Nature Sanctuary, 7629 Cave Road, Box 457 Bainbridge Ohio 45612 will begin its protection. To see what needs protection first-hand, write to the same address or call the Henry’s at 937/ 365-1363.

The Henry’s hope that 5,000 believers in a dream will each give $100 and the heart of Highlands Nature Sanctuary can be protected. Contributions beyond that goal will bring the larger dream to fulfillment.