William Werthner was a high school teacher in Dayton from 1875 to 1925 and taught several subjects including botany. Werthner would bring his students here to the Pinnacle cliffs in Moraine where there was an abundance of trees, plants, wildflowers, and several unique, tall, other-worldly spiral shapes made from hard clay. The site was a popular picnic location back in the late 1800’s with a beautiful view looking south of a small pond, the Miami River and green pastures.
In his 1886-1887 high school botany class were two Dayton students that would go on to international fame – poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar and airplane co-inventor and aviator Orville Wright. In their sketchbooks from several trips to the Pinnacles, they drew sketches of tree branches with buds (red maple, buckeye, beech, willow, and ash), tree seeds (sycamore and hickory) and flowers (lilac, tulip, and red clover). Each drawing was very detailed and in addition included a cross-section sketch. In the sketchbook the student also had to add a description, size, form, and anything peculiar about it. A few sketches are shown below.
In May 1887, a notation in Orville’s sketchbook stated that the class went to a nearby spring (a natural water spring) at the Pinnacles to drink and eat lunch. On the way the first flower that they found was the golden ragwort.
The information above is gleaned from a small historical sketch booklet titled “Pinnacles”, written by local author Timothy Gaffney in cooperation with Casey Huegel, Museum Technician at the National Park Service.
