Glen Helen Nature Preserve

Glen Helen Preserve is a much-loved natural resource for Antioch College and for the village of Yellow Springs, Ohio. A recreational destination and environmental education hot spot, Glen Helen’s 1,000 acres contain important habitat and water resources. The preserve is used as an outdoor laboratory where college students engage in environmental research, and it also hosts an outdoor school and ecological day camps for younger kids.

Established in 1929, the preserve is named in memory of Helen Birch Bartlett, the daughter of Antioch alumnus Hugh Taylor Birch, who donated the land to the college. The preserve’s 20-mile network of footpaths connects visitors with wildflowers, 400 year-old trees, limestone cliffs with waterfalls and overhangs, and the beautiful yellow spring for which the nearby village is named. The land also includes a section of the National Scenic Little Miami River and two of its major tributaries.

In 2011, Trust for Public Land helped the college take steps to permanently protect Glen Helen, allowing Antioch College and its Glen Helen Ecology Institute to make it an enduring ecological and public resource with permanent restrictions for development of the property and with easements managed by Tecumseh Land Trust.