Tertiary and industrial adventure park Stöffel
The tertiary and industrial adventure park Stöffel is an open-air museum in the Westerwald . It is named after the Stöffel, a basalt knoll located between the Nister and Hornister brooks in the area of the communities Enspel , Stockum-Püschen and Nistertal in the Westerburger Land .
The park was created in the largest contiguous basalt mining area in the Westerwald with around 140 hectares. Basalt mining on today's park site was stopped in 2000. Immediately afterwards, however, there is a basalt quarry that is still active today. On the site there is an ensemble of historical basalt processing buildings that is unique in its completeness and an important fossil deposit from the late Paleogene (formerly known as the "Tertiary") 25 million years ago. Since 1990, numerous fossils have been discovered in the sedimentary deposits of a lake that was buried by a volcanic eruption and turned into oil shale . The most famous find is the gliding "Stöffelmaus" Eomys quercyi . Other finds include crocodile teeth, insects and amphibians (frogs, tadpoles and salamanders), mammals and plants.
In addition to the historical workshop, which has already been converted into a museum, the "Basalt Industry Museum" is being built in a crusher building from 1902. Part of the newly built, award-winning information center is to house the "Tertiary Museum". A lookout tower on the southern edge of the area creates an overall impression. Various monument trails and themed trails take up individual areas of basalt processing and illustrate the basalt path in the area. The “Excavations” visitor center is located in the lower quarry area, where visitors can view scientific excavations and experience the preparation of fossils in the preparation workshop.
A special feature of the park is the reintroduction of botanical " exotic species " - today's relatives of the plant communities of that time. The exact composition of the tertiary flora must first be analyzed, for which a paleobotanical dissertation was the first step. The recultivation of individual areas of the basalt open-cast mine is currently underway. In the course of this, the upcoming area will again become a strongly structured landscape with height differences of up to 100 meters and a centrally located bathing lake with fun and culture stations.
In the late autumn of 2005, a 17 meter high observation tower with an integrated weather station was built at Stockum-Püschen . From there, park visitors and hikers can follow the work in the active part of the quarry and the growth of the adventure park.
The basalt stage with an auditorium for 400 people was built in a former gravel silo.
The tertiary and industrial adventure park Stöffel is a geo-information center of the National Geopark Westerwald-Lahn-Taunus .
Stöffel observation tower
literature
- Thomas A. Bartolosch u. a .: Basalt mining in the Bad Marienberger area (= Bad Marienberger contributions 1). Verlag Westerwaldverein Bad Marienberg eV, Bad Marienberg 2006, ISBN 3-921548-56-X .
- Petra Pintscher (Red.): In space beyond time / Stöffel Park . Dörner + Karbowy, Hattersheim am Main, 2009, ISBN 978-3-9811521-1-1
- Michael Wuttke, Bernd Freihaut: The Stöffel Park: Change from a basalt mining area to a cultural landscape . BAG (ed.), Lebensräume, Linz 2006, pp. 62–73.
- Michael Wuttke, Bernd Freihaut: A basalt plant as a monument to earth and industrial history . industrial culture 15 (2008), 46, ISSN 0949-3751 . in: H-Soz-Kult, March 27, 2009, pp. 12–13, Essen 2009.
Web links
Coordinates: 50 ° 37 ′ 7 ″ N , 7 ° 53 ′ 18 ″ E
Mining Museum of the Altenkirchen District | Fortuna pit | Ceramic Museum Westerwald | Kubach crystal cave | Westerwald Landscape Museum | Autumn labyrinth show cave | Museum in the Grafenschloss Diez | Visitor mine Grube Bindweide | Lahn Marble Museum Villmar | Tertiary and industrial adventure park Stöffel