Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

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

items 147 of 386 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-8621.jpg
Item
?

Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. northward 10 miles to a rather abrupt ending. The larger part of this ridge rises above 6,000 feet, and Mount Mitchell, the highest of half a dozen grand peaks, reaches an elevation of 6,711 feet. From near the southern end of the Blacks the Craggy Mountain ridge extends south- westward for a distance of nearly 10 miles, and from this same point the Yates Knob ridge extends northwestward in a less regular form toward the Unaka range. These mountains lie between Toe River on the north and the Swannanoa on the south. At the southern end of the Blacks they touch the Blue Ridge. They are from 15 to 30 miles south of Roan Mountain and 30 miles southwest of the Grandfather. The group has an area of more than 170,000 acres, about 20,000 acres of which are cleared. Forests cover nearly the entire area of the Craggy Mountains, though they are not so dense, nor so nearly in their original condition as are those on the Black Mountains, as more or less lumbering has been done along both the eastern and the western slopes. Some of these slopes, too, have suffered much from fire and are almost destitute of young trees and undergrowth. The densest and most primitive forests of the region lie on the west slope of the Black Mountains about the headwaters of Caney River. (See PI. XIII.) Those on the east slope of the Blacks are much lighter and have suffered more from fires. FORESTS OF THE CENTRAL INTERIOR MOUNTAIN RIDGES. 51 Topography. The Balsam Mountains make up the longest of the cross ridges in the Southern Appalachians, extending from Mount Guyot, the highest of the Unakas, on the Tennessee line, in a general southeasterly course to Mount Toxaway (Hogback) on the Blue Ridge, near the South Carolina line, a distance of 40 miles. They reach their highest point in Richland Balsam — 6,540 feet Northeast of and less prominent than the Balsams are the Newfound Mountains, which form another and shorter cross ridge, extending from Mount Pisgah northward to the Unakas. South of the Balsams, the Cowee and Nan- tahala mountains each form short cross ridges, rising to less than 5,500 feet, which extend from the Blue Ridge on the Georgia State line northwesterly to the Great Smokies of the Unaka Range. These cross ridges are in their general features all much Agrtauim* alike, with frequent steep rocky slopes and sharp crests. There is very little land on them suited to agriculture,
Object
?

Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).