Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Secretary of Agriculture report on watersheds

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-14399.jpg
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  • APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 19 usually impracticable. If sluiced out of the highest reservoir, it gathers in the next below, and so on through whatever system may have been developed. If, perchance, it should pass the last reservoir, the silt is then free for deposit in the navigable stretches of the stream. Regardless of whether there are reservoirs, the ultimate deposit of the detritus is in the navigable sections, whence its removal can be accomplished only by a steam dredge at the expense of the Government. In the degree that the forests are damaged on the high watersheds, then, inevitable damage results to water power and navigation through increased extremes of high and low water and through vast deposits of gravel, sand, and silt in the stream channels and in any rersevoir which may have been constructed. CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS. The Southern Appalachian Mountains contain approximately 9,900,000 acres, having an elevation above 2,500 feet. The Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains consist of an elevated plateau walled in on its western margin by a higher mountain range and with numerous short ranges projecting above its general surface. In one of these, the Black Mountains, Mount Mitchell rises to 6,711 feet, the highest altitude east of the Rocky Mountains. The eastern edge of the plateau is formed partly by peaks rising above the general surface and partly by an abrupt descent that forms an escarpment overlooking the Piedmont Plateau. Over 40 peaks, including approximately 6,400 acres, have an altitude of over 6,000 feet, and 54,000 acres are above 5,000 feet. The ridges of these mountains are rounded, the slopes precipitous, and the valleys deep cut and narrow. In Virginia the Blue Ridge narrows to a single range of a few miles width, but retains its characteristic topography. It crosses the Potomac River at Harpers Ferry, extends through the State of Maryland, and merges into the Allegheny Mountains in southern Pennsylvania. The Allegheny Mountains extend southward from Pennsylvania and form the mountainous part of West Virginia and that portion of Virginia lying near the West Virginia boundary. The highest peak of the Alleghenies is Spruce Knob, in Pendleton County, W. Va., 4,860 feet. The Cumberland Mountains are simply the extension of the Alleghenies and are considered to begin at the northeast boundary of Kentucky. From this line they extend southwest through Kentucky, extreme western Virginia, Tennessee, and into northern Alabama. The Cumberlands are of less elevation than the Alleghenies. Their highest peak is Big Black Mountain, in Harlan County, Ky., which has a height of 4,100 feet. EROSION. The greater part of the Southern Appalachian region is underlain by rocks that weather into soils which are easily eroded when exposed on deforested slopes. Erosion varies in character on account of the different kinds of soil. In some places the entire surface rapidly wears away, each freshet removing a thin layer, so that the fertile soil is soon exhausted. The field is at last worn out and abandoned.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).