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47-464: The Unicoi Mountains remain one of the most primitive, undeveloped areas in the eastern United States. Human habitation in the range's river valleys and deep hollows was never dense. While logging occurred in the 19th and 20th centuries, logging operations in the Unicoi area were not as extensive as in other forested areas in the region. The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest , located in the northeastern Unicois,

94-527: A tree of modest size (6–12 metres or 20–39 feet), and has a rounded, irregular shape. The needles are in bundles of two, occasionally three, yellow-green to mid green, fairly stout, and 4–7 centimetres ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 –3 in) long. The pollen is released early compared to other pines in the area which minimizes hybridization. The cones are very short-stalked (almost sessile ), ovoid, pale pinkish to yellowish buff, and 4–9 centimetres ( 1 + 1 ⁄ 2 – 3 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) long; each scale bears

141-476: A billion years ago from ancient ocean deposits. Quaternary Period rocks are sometimes found in alluvial areas along streambeds. The Unicoi Mountains were formed roughly 250 million years ago during the Alleghenian orogeny, when a continental collision thrust the rocks upward. The Unicoi Mountains are coated by a primarily second-growth mixed hardwood and pine forest. Cove hardwood forests are typically found at

188-462: A dense stand. Table Mountain pine typically has long, thick limbs on much of the trunk even in closed canopy stands. Male cones are 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) long. Female cones are sessile and range from 4.2 to 10 centimetres (1.7 to 3.9 in) long. Cone scales are tough and armed with broad, upwardly curving spines. Pinus pungens was described by British botanist Aylmer Bourke Lambert (1761–1842) in 1805. Pinus pungens distribution

235-463: A footpath in the southern Unicoi Mountains to travel from one side of the southern Appalachian range to the other. Known as the Wachesa Trail (after a later Cherokee who lived at its eastern terminus), the path stretched from modern Cowee to a halfway point near Beaverdam Creek and descended through Unicoi Gap to Great Tellico . Present-day Joe Brown Highway roughly follows the ancient trail. By

282-414: A stout, sharp spine 4–10 millimetres ( 5 ⁄ 32 – 25 ⁄ 64  in) long. Sapling trees can bear cones in as little as 5 years. Buds ovoid to cylindric, red-brown, 6–9 millimetres ( 15 ⁄ 64 – 23 ⁄ 64  in), resinous. Pinus pungens is a native, slow-growing conifer. It is often small in stature and exceedingly limby. It rarely grows beyond 66 feet (20 m) tall, though

329-531: Is Jeffrey Hell, located in the Citico Creek Wilderness. Grassy balds—a type of highland meadow consisting of fields of thick grass and sparse tree coverage—are not uncommon in the higher elevations. The summit of the highest mountain in the range—Huckleberry Knob—is a grassy bald. Other grassy balds include Oak Knob (a subpeak of Huckleberry), Hooper Bald, and Bob Bald (a subpeak of Stratton). For centuries, Native Americans used

376-490: Is adapted to survive frequent, low-severity fire up to medium intensity fire. One major adaptation of Pinus pungens to fire are the long dormant serotinous cones that open and spread seeds after high heat exposure. Pinus pungens was historically subject to a full range of fire frequencies and types: frequent low-severity surface fires, mixed-severity fires, and stand-replacement fires. Fire occurs infrequently on contemporary Appalachian landscapes where Pinus pungens

423-579: Is centered in the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States, primarily in the Blue Ridge and Valley-and-Ridge provinces of the Appalachian Highlands . Its range extends from central Pennsylvania, southwest to eastern West Virginia and southward into North Carolina, Tennessee, and the extreme northeast corner of Georgia. There are outlying populations of Pinus pungens to the east of

470-491: Is common. Current age structure of Pinus pungens suggest fire is an important influence on stand structure and regeneration as it regulates and clears the land periodically. This can be seen in areas of the Chattahoochee National Forest , Georgia where large Table Mountain pines have not regenerated due to lack of needed conditions to rejuvenate both the soil and trees. Large gaps in year tree classes are

517-553: Is home to one of the few remaining stands of old-growth forest in the eastern United States. The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest along Little Santeetlah Creek is home to a substantial stand of virgin cove hardwood forest, and contains some of the oldest and tallest trees in the Unicoi Range. The largest trees in Joyce Kilmer are over 150 feet (46 m) tall and have circumferences of just over 20 feet (6.1 m). The oldest trees in

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564-532: Is home to one of the last remaining old growth cove hardwood forests in the eastern United States. Grassy balds and heath balds are seen atop summits in the Unicoi Mountains, the highest of which rise to elevations of over 5,000 feet. The Cherohala Skyway — a National Scenic Byway completed in 1996— traverses the crest of the Unicoi Mountains connecting Tellico Plains, Tennessee with Robbinsville, North Carolina . The name "Unicoi" comes from

611-710: Is now the Joyce-Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness. That same year, however, Babcock began logging the Citico Creek watershed on the Tennessee side of the mountains. This operation continued until 1925, when a massive forest fire destroyed the company's logging tramways and wiped out nearly half the forest. The company continued low-scale logging in the Doublecamp area until 1929. The logging practices of Babcock and other logging companies proved extremely detrimental to

658-400: Is thus buried at Stratton Meadows. John's son, Robert "Bob" Stratton (1825–1864) eventually moved a few miles north of Stratton Meadows to the mountain that now bears his name, Stratton Bald . Stratton lived just west of the mountain's summit in a meadow now known as "Bob Bald" until 1864, when he was ambushed and killed by bushwhackers at the height of the U.S. Civil War . Sometime after

705-635: The Appalachians in the piedmont often on isolated peaks and monadnocks Pinus pungens prefers dry conditions and is mostly found on rocky slopes and peaks, favoring higher elevations averaging of ~300-1700 meters. Pinus pungens prefers dry conditions and is mostly found on rocky slopes, rocky knobs, and peaks, favoring higher elevations, from 300–1,760 metres (980–5,770 ft) altitude. It commonly grows as single scattered trees or small groves, not in large forests like most other pines, and needs periodic disturbances for seedling establishment. Throughout

752-587: The Cherokee word ᎤᏁᎦ ( unega), which means "white." It refers to the low-lying clouds and fog that often drape the Southern Appalachian mountains in the early morning or on humid or moist days. The name Unaka — which historically refers to the mountains along the Tennessee–North Carolina border— has the same Cherokee root as "Unicoi." There it is said to be associated with the white of

799-659: The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness . Beginning in 1915, the Babcock Lumber Company of Pittsburgh operated a standard gauge railroad in the area, logging out roughly two-thirds of the Slickrock Creek watershed before construction of Calderwood Dam threatened to flood the lower part of the railroad. A decline in the price of lumber during the Great Depression also encouraged preservation of

846-483: The Unicoi Turnpike — which closely followed the old Wachesa Trail— was completed in 1816, the Unicoi Mountains remained largely devoid of all but a few mountain families. The family of John Stratton (1799–1862) settled in the area now known as Stratton Meadows (atop the main crest near where Cherohala Skyway crosses the state line) in the 1830s. John's father, Absolum, died while visiting his son in 1852 and

893-622: The Appalachian Mountain range, P. pungens is a component of conifer-dominated communities along combination with other pine species. The three tallest known Pinus pungens are in Paris Mountain State Park , South Carolina; they are 26.85 to 29.96 metres (88 ft 1 in to 98 ft 4 in) tall. Fire histories developed for two Pinus pungens communities in southwestern Virginia revealed that between 1758 and 1944, fires burned approximately every 5 to 10 years during

940-667: The Atlantic coasts and Spanish settlements in Mexico. While English explorers and traders were probably using the Wachesa Trail as early as the 1690s, the first documented crossing was that of Colonel George Chicken in 1725. Chicken, a South Carolina emissary travelling to the Overhill towns in hopes of obtaining their support in the colony's ongoing struggles with the Creek tribe , left Little Tellico in

987-710: The Cherokee National Forest and the Nantahala National Forest, several designated areas protect various parts of the Unicoi Mountains. 35°14′32″N 84°5′13″W  /  35.24222°N 84.08694°W  / 35.24222; -84.08694 Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is an approximately 3,800-acre tract of publicly owned virgin forest in Graham County, North Carolina , named in memory of poet Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918), best known for his poem "Trees" . One of

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1034-518: The Civil War, the family of John and Albertine Denton moved to Little Santeetlah Creek, where they built a log cabin. According to family lore, the Dentons lived in a hewed-out giant chestnut tree log while they were building their cabin. The log had a diameter of over 6 feet (1.8 m) and housed the entire family of seven in two rooms. The Denton family remained in the area until around 1900. The cabin

1081-595: The Little Tennessee Valley at the range's northern extremes, Great Tellico along the Tellico River in modern Tellico Plains, and Great Hiwassee along the Hiwassee River at the western base of Starr Mountain. Excavations conducted at Citico (at the mouth of Citico Creek) revealed that it is a multiphase site, with periods of occupation stretching back thousands of years. 16th-century Spanish explorers were

1128-561: The Middle towns at 10am on July 24, 1725 and proceeded approximately 25 miles (40 km) across the southern Unicois to a campsite "about five Miles Short of a place called the Beaver Dam." Chicken's party departed at 5am the following morning and arrived at the village of Great Tellico at 3pm, having travelled another 25 miles (40 km). In 1730, Sir Alexander Cuming, a flamboyant Scottish emissary, travelled from Charleston, South Carolina to

1175-581: The Overhill town of Tanasi in the lower Little Tennessee Valley in hopes of gaining the allegiance of the Cherokee for England (although Cuming's trip was part of an attempt to scam the people of Charleston). Cuming followed the same trail Chicken had taken five years earlier, departing from Tassetchee in the Middle towns and proceeding to a campsite "3 miles from Beaver Dam Creek." The following day, Cuming's party passed over "Ooneekawy Mountain" and proceeded another 12 miles (19 km) to Great Tellico. Although

1222-634: The Unicoi Mountains. The Tellico River rises on the slopes of McDaniel Bald in the southeastern corner of the Unicois and flows northwestward across the entire range before emptying into the Little Tennessee River near Vonore, Tennessee . Another tributary of the Little Tennessee, Citico Creek, is formed by the convergence of two streams which rise in a densely forested area of the northwestern Unicois known as Jeffrey Hell. The Bald River rises on

1269-562: The boars were able to escape from the lot, however, and fled to the remote slopes and stream bottoms. The introduced boars continue to thrive in the Appalachian environment to this day. The boars are considered a nuisance by forest officials due to the erosion damage they cause to the local watersheds. Moore attempted the same feat at his Rancho San Carlos in Carmel, California which had the same results of invasive wild boar escaping and devastating

1316-413: The construction of a highway linking the Tennessee and North Carolina side of the Unicois. The original path of the highway would follow the ancient path of the Wachesa Trail and Unicoi Turnpike, although organizers chose a more feasible route over the Unicoi crest to Robbinsville. The highway— named "Cherohala Skyway" (a fusion of "Cherokee" and "Nantahala")— was completed in 1996. Along with

1363-618: The country, the Forest Service decided on an uncut 3,800-acre (15 km ) area along Little Santeetlah Creek, which was dedicated as the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest on July 30, 1936. The memorial is a rare example of old growth cove hardwood forest, a diverse type unique to the Appalachian Mountains . Dominant species are yellow-poplar , oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore. Some trees are over 400 years old, and

1410-589: The dormant season. Lack of Pinus pungens and increasing dominance of trees belonging to the Fagaceae (Oaks & Beeches) appear to coincide with fire exclusion practices initiated after 1950 resulting in a lack of regeneration. Pinus pungens has adaptations to fire that are consistent with both long- and short-return-interval fire regimes. Medium-thick to thick bark, a large rooting habit, self sufficient self-pruning limbs, and pitch/sap production to seal wounds are characteristics of Pinus pungens that suggest it

1457-555: The east. Its tributary, Little Santeetlah Creek, drains the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. The highest summits in the Unicoi Range rise above 5,000 feet (1,500 meters), although most fall between 4,000 and 5,000 feet along the two crests and between 3,000 and 4,000 feet beyond the crest to the east and west. Huckleberry Knob— the highest mountain in the Unicoi Range at 5,560 feet (1,690 m)— has 3,400 feet (1,000 m) of topographical prominence . Other summits with 1,000+ feet of prominence include Bob Stratton Bald along

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1504-690: The first Europeans to see the Unicoi Mountains. In 1540, the Hernando de Soto expedition passed just west of the mountains en route from the Chiaha villages in East Tennessee to the Coosa chiefdom in northern Georgia. In 1567, the Juan Pardo expedition visited the villages of "Chalahume" and "Satapo" (later Chilhowee and Citico) in the Little Tennessee Valley while attempting to find a route between Spanish settlements on

1551-474: The forest are over 400 years old. Other stands of old growth forest include a 187-acre (0.76 km) patch around Falls Branch Falls and a remote section of the Citico Creek Wilderness near Glenn Gap. The understories of the mountain slopes and ridgecrests are often covered by dense thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel. These thickets are often called "hells" due to their general impassability. The most outstanding example of rhododendron-laurel thicket

1598-445: The forest environment of the Unicoi Mountains, and the U.S. Forest Service began buying up the land in the 1930s. The forest service's policy of letting natural processes heal the forest has allowed the forest to recover to a great extent. In 1958, Sam Williams— a resident of Tellico Plains— led a well-publicized covered wagon train across the Unicoi Mountains to Murphy, North Carolina, which became an annual event to promote

1645-564: The largest contiguous tracts of old growth forest in the Eastern United States, the area is administered by the U. S. Forest Service . The memorial forest is a popular family hiking destination and features an easy two-mile, figure-eight trail that includes a memorial plaque at the juncture of the two loops. In 1975 the memorial forest was joined with a much larger tract of the Nantahala National Forest to become part of

1692-539: The local landscape. In 1915, the Babcock Lumber Company began a massive logging operation in the northern Unicoi Mountains. The company logged nearly two-thirds of the Slickrock Creek watershed until 1922, when the construction of Calderwood Dam along the Little Tennessee River threatened to flood the railroad tracks leading into the area and forcing an end to the company's logging operations in what

1739-775: The long chestnut blooms that were prevalent in spring in the mountains, before the Chestnut blight . The Unicoi Mountains stretch for roughly 37 miles (60 km) between the Little Tennessee River in the north and the Hiwassee River to the south, and for approximately 60 miles (97 km) from its foothills along the Tennessee River at the range's western extreme to the Cheoah River at its eastern extreme. The range covers just over 1,000 square miles (2,600 km). The sources of several rivers and major streams are located high in

1786-399: The lower elevations along rivers and streams, and chiefly consist of yellow poplar, white oak, red oak, hemlock, and multiple other species. A mixed hardwood-pine forest covers the mountain slopes, and chiefly consists of white oak, red oak, hickory, table mountain pine , pitch pine , and shortleaf pine . While the vast majority of trees in the Unicoi Mountains are second-growth, the range

1833-422: The massive logs and stumps are still visible. Another more recent loss is that of the giant hemlocks due to an infestation of an exotic insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid . Concerned that a falling limb or tree might injure a visitor, Forest Service managers decided to bring down dead trees near the memorial trail in a way they believed would mimic natural windthrow . In November 2010, the Forest Service blew up

1880-520: The oldest yellow-poplars are more than 20 feet (6.1 m) in circumference and stand 100 feet (30 m) tall. Missing is the American chestnut , once the dominant tree of the forest, a victim of the chestnut blight accidentally introduced from Asia during the early twentieth century. Although the last of the Kilmer chestnuts had probably died by the late 1930s, their wood is so rot-resistant that remnants of

1927-513: The slopes of Beaverdam Bald in the southern Unicois and winds its way northward through a scenic gorge before plunging over an oft-photographed 90-foot (27 m) waterfall en route to its mouth along the Tellico River. Santeetlah Creek rises on the western slope of Huckleberry Knob and flows down around the base of the mountain en route to the Santeetlah Lake impoundment of the Cheoah River to

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1974-608: The southern boundary of the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness and Beaverdam Bald in the southern part of the range. The Benton MacKaye Trail , a cross-country hiking trail that traverses the Southern Appalachian Mountains, passes over several summits in the Unicois. The Unicoi Mountains consist chiefly of Precambrian metasedimentary rocks of a type known as the Ocoee Supergroup, formed over

2021-461: The tallest individual recorded was 95 feet (29 m). Pinus pungens is typically around 16 inches (41 cm) diameter at breast height (DBH). The maximum recorded DBH was 34 inches (86 cm). The trunks of Pinus pungens are often crooked and have irregularly shaped cross-sections. Older trees tend to be flat-topped, while young trees can vary in form from that of a large bush when open-grown, to slender with relatively small limbs when grown in

2068-465: The time Euro-American explorers arrived in the region in the late 17th century and early 18th century, the Cherokee had established numerous villages in the outlying areas of the Unicoi Mountains. The Middle towns— located in the Robbinsville vicinity— included Tassetchee, Elijay, and Nequassee . The Overhill towns included Tallassee , Chilhowee , Citico , and numerous other villages in

2115-516: The trees with explosives, making the lower loop trail much lighter and drier, thereby changing the environment and creating a public relations challenge. Table Mountain Pine Table Mountain pine , Pinus pungens , also called hickory pine , prickly pine , or mountain pine , is a small pine native to the Appalachian Mountains in the United States . Pinus pungens is

2162-586: The trees. In 1934 the Bozeman Bulger Post (New York) of the Veterans of Foreign Wars petitioned "that the government of the United States examine its millions of forested acres and set aside a fitting area of trees to stand for all time as a living memorial" to Kilmer, a poet and journalist killed during World War I , whose 1913 poem "Trees" had become a popular favorite. After considering forests throughout

2209-571: Was dismantled by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and today only a chimney fall remains. Around 1911, George Gordon Moore— an official for the Whiting Manufacturing Company—; attempted to establish a boar hunting reserve atop Hooper Bald in the southeastern Unicois. The reserve consisted of a 500-acre (2.0 km) enclosed lot stocked with Russian blue boars imported from Europe. Most of

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