Human History

Prehistory

Millions of years ago, Indiana was a shallow ocean teeming with primordial sea life,

which, through great time and pressure, became the limestone that defines our geology.

We can still find their fossils along creek beds here.

Millennia after rising out of the ocean through tectonic drift, glaciers moved back and

forth over the northern regions of this land, grinding former mountains and hills down flat

over centuries. When those glaciers finally receded over 10,000 years ago, they left in

their wake a rich and deep soil. We see this evinced in our fecund farmland today. We

see how far the glaciers got, where bedrock, ridges, and hills appear once more in the

bottom third of our state, after a largely flat north.

That deep loam soil turned Indiana into a rich oak savannah, with enough trees that it is

said a squirrel could cross the state without ever touching the ground. Large,

now-extinct mammals roamed freely, such as the gigantic mastodons, ground sloths, and Saber-toothed cats, bigger than any feline walking the earth today. Early humans in

the area nearly eradicated the large megafauna, and only 1% of that old-growth forest

remains.

Native History

Indiana is a state named after the indigenous* peoples who called this land home long

before colonizers arrived. Indiana has been a site of human activity for more than

12,000 years. When Indiana was ceded to the USA by the Miami and Delaware Nations

through the Treaty of St. Mary’s in 1818, the human population was under 100,000, with

only 6,000 whites. Now there are 6,732,000 people** here, including ancestors of the

original Potawatomi and Miami people.

Marott Era

George Marott immigrated from England in 1875 and opened his first shoe store in

Indianapolis in 1884. A successful businessman, Marott went on to open a luxury

hotel—now The Marott Apartments on Meridian Street—and several other significant

business ventures. In 1945, George had the generosity and vision to donate the land in

memory of his beloved wife, Ella. George and Ella revered the land for its rare and

natural beauty and wished it to be preserved for the benefit of wildlife.

In 1987, Marott Woods was established as an Indiana State Dedicated Nature

Preserve. We are forever indebted to Marott’s foresight and generosity to bequeath this

parcel of land for us all to enjoy in perpetuity.

*Indigenous should be capitalized here

**Update website to reflect the state population of Indiana at 7 million in 2026

For more Marott Woods history:

https://www.class900indy.com/post/preserving-the-natural-space-of-indianapolis-the-hist

ory-of-marott-woods