Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in relation to the forests, rivers, and mountains of the southern Appalachian region

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  • SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. 47 Lenoir are cutting the pine in the Johns River Valley. The other smaller bodies of white pine have been culled of their finest trees. FOREST OF THE WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN REGION. This region embraces the northwestern corner of North Carolina, the northeastern corner of Tennessee, and the adjacent portion of southwestern Virginia. In this portion ot the Appalachians, the Unaka (here represented by Iron Mountain) and the Blue Ridge ranges approach nearer each other, and the intermediate land retains more of its original character as a plateau lying between the great Appalachian Valley, drained by the Tennessee River, on the northwest, and the Piedmont Plateau on the southeast. The White Top group comprises the mountains along the northern rim of the elevated mountain region. To the irregular mountain ridge which in this more Topographic northern region forms the boundary line between North Carolina and Tennessee, the name of Stone Mountain is applied. Here and there this ridge rises into peaks of prominence. On one of these, Pond Mountain, which has an elevation of 5,100 feet, the boundary lines between North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia corner. Another of these, White Top Mountain, some 5 miles to the northeast, and a far more massive and imposing mountain, rises to an elevation of 5,678 feet. Still another, Mount Rogers, on the Balsam Ridge, about 5 miles a little north of east from the White Top, rises to an elevation of 5,719 feet. The general course of this Stone Mountain ridge is to the northeast as far as Mount Rogers and then continues eastward as Iron Mountain to New River Gap. Northwest of it, in Tennessee, is another less regular and less prominent ridge known as the Iron Mountains, reaching an elevation at intervals of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet; and 6 to 3 miles to the west of this latter, in Tennessee, is the Holston Mountain ridge, reaching a still higher elevation. These ridges are all approximately parallel, having in East Tennessee a general northeasterly course. To the northwest of these mountains lies the broad, fertile valley of the South Holston; to the southeast is the more elevated valley of New River, broken into an endless series of steep, round-crested hills, mostly cleared, and producing well in both grass and grain. Broad agricultural valleys lie between the Iron and Stone mountains
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).