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 332 of 386 items
  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-8806.jpg
Item
?

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

  • 160 SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. to the attention of the Congress of the United States the desirability of establishing a national park at some place in the southern Appalachian region. That the facts which led to the organization of your petitioner, and which are presented as reasons for the establishment of such a national park, are as follows: RARE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN REGION. I ii western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee (or, more definitely, in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains, the Balsam Mountains, and the Black and Craggy Mountains) is found not only the culmination of the Appalachian system, but the most beautiful as well as the highest mountains east of the lofty western ranges. Forty-three mountains of 6,000 feet and upward in altitude, as well as a great number of inferior height, all clothed with virgin forests and intersected by deep valleys abounding in brooks, rivers, and waterfalls, combine to make this a region of unsurpassed attractiveness. Standing upon the summit of one of these sublime heights the eye often seeks in vain for the bare mountain side—the evidence of the devastating ax—and before one stretches out a view magnificently beautiful. If the national parks already established have been chosen for their unusual natural beauty, here is a national park conspicuously fine, awaiting official recognition as an addition to the number. SUPERB FORESTS OF THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN SYSTEM. No other portion of our country displays n richness of sylva equal to that found in the high mountains of the Southern Appalachian region in the variety of its hard woods and conifers. Professor Gray, the eminent botanist, is authority for the statement that he encountered a greater number of indigenous trees in a trip of 30 miles through western North Carolina than can be observed in a trip from Turkey to England, through Europe, or from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountain plateau. Here is the home of the rhododendron and the kalmia: here is the meeting place of the mountain flora of the North and of the South, and the only place where distinctive Southern mountain trees may be found side by side with those of the North. Here, too, are found trees of from 5 to 7 feet, and even more, in diameter, which tower to a height of 140 feet, and, occasionally, much higher, and these patriarchal trees, though innumerable, are but the greatest in a dense forest composed of many other large, beautiful, and valuable varieties. In fine, here is the largest area of virgin forest in the South Atlantic region, and the finest example of mixed forest (by which is meant a forest of deciduous and evergreen trees) in America.
Object
?

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