The Dr. Paul Daniel Trail Volunteer Cabin is named in honor of Paul Daniel, professor emeritus of zoology at Miami. He will be honored Saturday at Hueston Woods.
After dedicating his life to teaching, 28 years of which were spent at Miami University, Paul Daniel is living out his retirement in Maryland with his wife. But over a decade later Daniel, professor emeritus of zoology, has yet to be forgotten by the Oxford and Miami communities.
This Saturday, as part of the Trail Weekend conference at Hueston Woods, the dedication of the Dr. Paul Daniel Trail Volunteer Cabin will become official.
According to Hueston Woods bike trail steward Bob "Biker Bob" Feldman, the cabin will be used as a meeting place, a classroom and an information center for trail users.
"(Daniel) was a local trail activist and he was instrumental in bringing trail awareness up until he retired and moved away," Feldman said. "He used to lead hikes around the whole park every year and organize volunteer efforts, so when we built a trail cabin we thought we'd dedicate it to him for his efforts."
Funding for the cabin came from a local foundation that provided building materials to the mountain bike trail crew and other volunteers. The trail crew also received help from Dustin Weida, a graduate of Miami's department of architecture.
In addition to the dedication that will take place this weekend, an unofficial dedication was made to Daniel in mid-October while he was visiting Ohio.
"I was highly honored to be asked here and I was very pleased that several of my friends were there," Daniel said. "Hueston Woods and Oxford have always been a very special place in
my life."
During his teaching career at Miami, Daniel, who feels that Oxford is lucky to have Hueston Woods so nearby, led a hike around the park each year on Martin Luther King Day.
"The students were all off so I thought they could come out and hike with me," Daniel said. "I found out that a lot of them would rather stay in bed and sleep, but a lot of townspeople came out to hike with me and we'd hike all the way around the park."
Enjoy what you're reading?
Signup for our newsletter
Don Kaufman, retired zoology professor and director of the Hefner Museum, believes that Daniel deserves to be honored by the cabin dedication because of all the scientific work that he did at Hueston Woods and all of the hikes that he organized and led around the park.
"He was the premier naturalist person who really understood nature at Miami and he was very well known for his work with high school teachers," Kaufman said. "He had a wonderful following among high
school teachers."
As for the Trail Weekend conference, a trail care crew from the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) will be at Hueston Woods this weekend to teach proper trail-building
technique and care.
According to a press release regarding the event, a successful trail will last a long time and will require minimal maintenance so that trail damage is reduced, the environment is protected and visitor enjoyment
is enhanced.
"We're going to help or work on the existing hike or bike trails and people are going to bring their ideas and proposals to talk about what ideas we could do in the park," Feldman said. "We'll talk about recycling, alternative energy, a research center ... we'll be discussing the park future of Hueston Woods in general."
Events will be open to the general public and to people who have an interest in outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and horseback riding.
Feldman said that he expects anywhere from 50 to 100 people to attend the conference, many of whom will come from Columbus, Cincinnati
and Dayton.
Several Miami professors, students and graduate students have made contributions to the Trail
Weekend conference.
Read More
How one professor and her classes are preserving Oxford’s Black history
By Sean Scott | March 20, 2024Jazma Sutton, an assistant professor of history, teaches The Black Midwest (HST 350Q) and Black Women in America (HST 450D) classes. In both courses, she has students working with the Smith Library of Regional History and Miami’s archives to document and preserve Black history in Oxford.
Miami faculty members recount Freedom Summer in new documentary
By Luke Macy | February 25, 2022After seven years of work, “Training for Freedom,” a documentary highlighting Oxford’s involvement in the Freedom Summer of 1964, premiered on PBS Western Reserve on Valentine’s Day.
“Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic”: History in the making
By Alice Momany | August 29, 2021In March 2020, Miami University’s archives launched “Documenting the COVID-19 Pandemic,” a collection focused on life during the COVID-19 pandemic.