USA > North Carolina > Western North Carolina; a history, 1730-1913 > Part 50
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THE CHIMNEYS. At the head of one of the Pigeons, and just west of Collins gap, visible from the Ocona Lufty road, are three sharp, pyramidal shaped pinnacles called the Chim- neys. They are covered with small spruce pines and rocks, but how any soil manages to cling to such steep mountain sides is a mystery. They are green in winter because of the spruce pines covering them, and present a striking contrast to other peaks around them.
GRAPHIC PEN PICTURES. In "The Heart of the Allegha- nies" we have glowing descriptions of the view from Cling- man's Dome, the culminating point of the Great Smoky range, and which Gen. Clingman measured in 1857; of the Great Balsam Divide, the Plott Balsams, and of the mysterious Juda-Culla Old Field, just south of the Old Bald gap between Richland creek and Caney Fork river; which always "presents a weird and unnatural appearance. Its only growth presents a peculiar yellowish look, and the fact that no tree or sapling has ever grown within its limits has not been accounted for scientifically." Here, the legend says, the giant Tsulkalu made a clearing for his farm. Here flint arrow-heads and broken pottery have been found, showing "almost conclu-
sively that some of the Cherokees themselves . oc- cupied it as an abiding place for years." This book also tells of the "fire-scalds, " and of the Devil's Court House in the Balsams, which, however, is not his Supreme court house, the latter being on Whiteside mountain. Gen. Clingman, in his "Speeches and Writings," describes Shining Rock in the Bal- sams most strikingly; and says of the Devil's Old Field on the Balsams that it was the Devil's chosen resting place. He also accounts for the balds by saying the Indians supposed they were made by the devil's footsteps as he walked over the tops of the mountains. A fine description of the Tucka- seegee falls above Webster is given in the "Heart of the Alleghanies."
OTHER NOTED ROCKS. Buzzards' Rocks and the Dogs' Ears, near Shull's Mills, Watauga county; Black Rock, above Horse Cove; Satula (pronounced Stooly), near Highlands; Samson's Chimney, near Howard's Knob at Boone; Hawk's Bill and Table Rock, between Morganton and Linville moun- tain; Riddle's and Howard's Knobs, near Boone; Nigger Head, near Jefferson, and scores of others are objects of local
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interest in various localities. Hanging Rock, above Banner Elk, and the North Pinnacle, on the Beech mountain, in the same locality, are noted rocks, from the last of which a fine view can be had after an easy climb from a good road.
TRACK ROCKS. "Some distance further to the west (from Juda-Culla Old Field) on the north bank of Caney Fork, about one mile above Moses' creek and perhaps ten miles above Webster, is the Juda-Culla Rock, a large soap-stone slab cov- ered with rude carvings, which, according to tra- dition, are scratches made by the giant in jumping from his farm on the mountain to the creek below."' Tracks of elk, wolves, etc., are said to be visible in a rock at the head of Devil's creek in Mitchell county.
"THE ROCKS." What are locally known as "The Rocks" are two immense masses of stone standing detached in a pas- ture field on the road from Plumtree to Bakersville. They are a landmark. Bynum's Bluff is also noted.
SMALL NATURAL BRIDGE. Just over the ridge from the Caney Fork of the Tuckaseegee river, in what is called Can- ada, and where it has been suspected that one or more block- ade stills have existed in time past, present and (will) to come, is Tennessee creek. It flows under a small natural rock bridge when it is normal, and over it when it is "full."
THE TRIANGLE TREE. Almost one mile above Fairfax post office on the Little Tennessee river, in Swain county, stood, until a great freshet came and washed it away eight or ten years ago, one of the most unusual and remarkable freaks in the shape of tree growth in America. But so isolated had it become by reason of the practical abandonment of late years of the wagon road from Bushnel to Rocky Point that few strangers ever saw it, while to the few natives of that region, who had seen it for years and years, it called for no marked attention.
It was a large spruce pine at least three feet in diameter five feet above the ground where a limb or branch of a diameter of at least eighteen inches left the main trunk at an angle of about forty-five degrees and extended out toward the river, while three feet above its point of departure from the main trunk a second limb or branch, twelve inches in diameter, shot out in the same direction as the first, but at an angle of seventy-five or eighty degrees and joined itself to the first limb
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six or seven feet from its base so perfectly that it grew into and had become a part thereof, thus forming with the main trunk a perfect triangle of living wood. It was easy to climb into this triangle and by sitting astride the first or lower limb to hold the body erect against the trunk of the tree imme- diately under the second limb. It is a pity it was never photo- graphed, but the dimensions given above are accurate, since they were carefully measured and noted while the tree was still standing in all its glory.
THE HIGH ROCKS. Just below the mouth of Eagle creek are what are locally called the "High Rocks." They are a tumbled mass of solid rocks, some of them larger than a two- roomed house, resting one upon the other above the riverside and extending almost to the top of the mountain. They are apparently now just where they found themselves when eons and eons ago some cataclysm of nature tumbled these moun- tains about as though they had been pebbles and grains of sand.
THE CHIMNEYS. On the road from Montezuma to Banner Elk and just before reaching the Sugar Gap, are two other large masses of rock projecting out of the side of the mountain like two enormous and discolored incisor teeth. One of them is said to be eighty feet in height and the other and further one from the road, nearly as high. There is no photograph of these immense rock heaps, but fortunately there is no danger of their destruction by a freshet or other cause. They are called "The Chimneys."
THE DEVIL'S CAP. Eight miles from Altamont and about three from the Cold Spring hotel in Burke county, on Ginger Cake mountain, and just east of Linville river, below Linville Falls, is what is called the Devil's Cap. It is a perpendicular mass of rock sixty or seventy feet high and about twenty feet in diameter, surmounted by a large flat stone so placed on its pedestal as to look as if it must surely soon slide off and fall to the ground. It is in a little swag or gap in this ridge, and is best seen from the top of a precipice near by, from which can also be had, through a rift in the dense foliage, a magnificent view of the wild and romantic Linville Gorge, the wildest and most inaccessible in the mountains, with the possible exception of that of the Nantahala, between the "Apple Tree" place and Jarrett's Station on the Murphy branch of the Western North
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Carolina Railroad. This freak of nature, the Devil's Cap, however, has been photographed.
DUTCH CREEK FALLS. Within half a mile of Valle Crucis school, Watauga, are the Dutch creek falls, which are about eighty feet in height. The little stream spreads itself evenly over the surface of the precipice down which it slides rather than falls, forming a fine picture as seen from the gloomy gorge below. It is more easy of access than falls generally are, and is well worth a visit.
LINVILLE FALLS are at Linville, a postoffice and village in what is now Avery county. The falls had in 1876 two distinct falls, each about 35 feet in height, the upper falls pouring into a small basin and then plunging over another precipice into the black pool below. But, of late years, the lower ledge of rock has given way from some cause, and much of the water passes under and around the boulders into which it has been broken, instead of falling smoothly over a straight line of rock, as formerly. It is the most accessible of all falls now.
ELK FALLS. Three miles from Cranberry are the Falls of Elk, and they are about as high as the Dutch creek falls, but carrying more water in the descent. The cascades or rapids of the same creek a few miles above, at Banner's Elk, are also worth a visit.
WATAUGA FALLS are a few hundred feet west of the North Carolina and Tennessee line. They are hardly falls, but rapids, pouring an immense volume of water through a narrow gorge, and requiring several hundred feet at that place to gain com- parative smoothness. The scenery around the falls is wild and imposing, the rocks left bare by the current being immense. It is only about a quarter of a mile from the Butler-Valle Crucis turnpike.
THE "DRY" FALLS. The Dry, or Pitcher falls, of the Cul- lasaga river, four miles from Highlands, are so called because the stream leaps from the precipice above and leaves a clear dry space beneath, behind and under which one can pass to the further side dry-shod. It is about seventy-five feet in height and the water pours over the rock ledge from which it leaps much as does a stream poured from the mouth of a pitcher.
HICKORY-NUT FALLS. The Hickory Nut Falls are just east of the Hickory Nut gap of the Blue Ridge. This appears to
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be a mere ribbon of water hung from the top of the preci- pice, but in reality it is a creek of such size as to have power to turn a grist mill before leaping to the gorge nine hundred feet below.
CHIMNEY ROCK. Between this loftiest waterfall in the Ap- palachians and the Hickory Nut gap road is the Chimney Rock, an enormous rock mass on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge, eighty or ninety feet in height. The large trees growing around it reveal by contrast its immense size and height. Though, till within the last twenty years, no man had ever scaled its height to let the plummet down, a ladder- like stairway now reaches its summit and a wooden railing extends all the way around it.
THE POOLS. The Pools, just above the old Logan hotel or tavern in the same picturesque locality, are three circular holes from eight to fifteen feet in diameter, in the rock bed of the creek, all of which are said to be bottomless. It is evident that they were made by the revolution of small stones on the softer surface of the creek bed, kept in constant mo- tion by the continual flow of the creek; but they are not bot- tomless, nor is there any danger of suction, as swimmers disport themselves in their cool depths every summer.
ESMERALDA's CABIN. Just across the road is the detached rock mass locally known as Esmeralda's cabin, because of the delightful romance located in that region by the gifted Mrs. Frances Hodgson Burnett, called "Esmeralda," and which was popular twenty-five years ago. Indeed, the novel was dramatized and successfully played at that time in New York and all over the country.
SHAKING BALD. Here, too, is Esmeralda Inn, long kept by Col. Thomas Turner, a veteran of the Federal Army, and now by his son, while not far away is Bat Cave, a gloomy cavern in the face of the mountain above one prong of the Broad river; and Shaking Bald, a mountain top which, in the sev- enties, caused considerable newspaper comment because of the noises said to have been heard in that locality. Earthquake shocks and volcanoes even were predicted for several years, but nothing ever came of the stories. This locality, one of the most charming and picturesque in the mountains, is ade- quately described in Christian Reid's "Land of the Sky," the novel which gave its name to this entire region. It was
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published in 1875 5 and was one of the means of drawing pub- lic attention to the beautiful scenery of the mountain region of North Carolina and its unsurpassed summer climate. The Hickory Nut region is in what is called the Thermal Belt.
HOT SPRINGS. Paint Rock and Hot Springs, on the French Broad river, about forty miles northwest from Asheville, are two other remarkable places in this mountain region worthy of mention, which the same gifted author described with her facile pen in the same charming story. Hot Springs was dis- covered in 1887 by some soldiers from the Watauga settle- ment when in pursuit of a band of Cherokee Indians, and has been a noted health resort ever since. Although its waters are strongly impregnated with mineral and have medicinal properties, they are as clear as crystal. They are very bene- ficial for gouty and rheumatic troubles. There is a large and well appointed hotel which is very popular every season of the year.
PAINT ROCK. "The Painted Rock" of old Cherokee days, or "Paint Rock" of our times, is a rock cliff over a hundred feet in height which has a red stain on its outer surface caused by the oxidation of the iron in its composi- tion. Whatever figures of men or animals ever existed upon its face have long since disappeared. There is the usual ro- mantic story of one or two lovers throwing himself or herself, or themselves, from the top of this rock and from the top of another rock nearly as high in the neighborhood of Hot Springs, called Lover's Leap, but there is no tangible evi- dence that any local lovers ever were so foolish.
THE SMOKING MOUNTAIN. Twenty years ago there were a series of newspaper stories of a smoking mountain above Bee Tree creek in Buncombe county, and many citizens visited the locality in question only to be disappointed, while none save those living constantly in the neighborhood ever saw the smoke, and by the time others were called from a distance it had disappeared. What it was, if anything more than autumn haze or imagination, was never established. It, however, "had nothing to do with anything regarding vol- canic action. " 6
THE WALKS. A short distance below Flat Shoals of Watauga river, and near the Tennessee line, are a series of im- movable natural stepping stones, regularly placed across the
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bed of the river, and over which one may walk dry-shod even when the stream is considerably swolen. Hence the name- The Walks.
"THUS FAR." Almost from the Virginia line to the Little Tennessee river there is a fringe of balsam or white spruce crowning the crest of the western escarpment known as the Smoky mountains, except where the dense blue fringe of trees is broken by the "balds." But, remarkable as it may seem, there is not a single tree or sapling of the balsam growth south of the Little Tennessee, although the Gregory Bald, only a few miles to the northeast, is fringed by a dense growth of balsams which extend to both the Big and Little Parson balds. The soil and climate and, indeed, the altitude of the range south of the Little Tennessee, are almost identical with those to the north, but neither bird nor breeze has ever car- ried the balsam seed across the river and imbedded it in the soil beyond in a manner that has resulted in its growth across the dead line of that rapid stream.
HELL'S HALF-ACRE. 7 "The bear-hunters are the only men familiar with these head-waters of the Richland creek. At the foot of the steep, funereal wall lies one spot known as Hell's Half-Acre. Did you ever notice, in places along the bank of a wide woodland river, after a spring flood, the great piles of huge drift-logs, sometimes covering an entire field, and heaped as high as a house? Hell's Half-Acre is like one of these fields. It is wind and time, however, which bring the trees, loosened from their hold on the dizzy heights and craggy slopes, thundering down into this pit.
"THE CHIMBLEYS AND SHINIES."7 The "Chimbleys and Shinies," as called by the mountaineers, form another feature of the region of the Gulfs. The former are walls of rock, either bare or overgrown with wild vines and ivy. They take their name from their resemblance to chimneys as the fogs curl up their faces and away from their tops. The Shinies are sloping ledges of rock, bare like the Chimneys, or cov- ered with great thick plaits of shrubs, like the poisonous hem- lock, the rhododendron, and kalmia. Water usually trickles over their faces. In winter it freezes, making surfaces that, seen from a distance, dazzle the eye.
"HERRYCANES." The effects of a hurricane in the Bal- sam mountains are described thus in "The Heart of the Alle- ghanies":
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"For two miles, along this sharp ridge, nearly every other tree had been whirled by the storm from its footing. They not only covered the path with their trunks bristling with straight branches; but, instead of being cut off short, the wind had torn them up by the roots, lifting there- by all the soil from the black rocks, and leaving great holes for us to descend into, cross and then ascend. It was a continuous crawl and climb for this distance."
Violent windstorms are rare in these mountains, owing to the fact that they are broken up as they approach from the lowlands east, west and south; but there are two other places called "herrycanes," one being on a branch at the head of Tusquittee creek in Clay county, and the other on Indian creek just above its junction with Ugly creek, thus forming Cataloochee creek in Haywood county. The Clay hurricane occurred soon after the Civil War or during it, and the Hay- wood hurricane about 1896. The fallen timber in Clay is still visible, while a whole mountain side in front of Jesse Palmer's residence is covered with the rent fragments of giant trees which have been uprooted or twisted from their trunks bodily.
LOOKING-GLASS FALLS. These are in Transylvania county and are on G. W. Vanderbilt's "Pisgah Forest tract." In the sale of his timber in 1812, he reserved twenty acres around these falls. 8
NOTES.
1From "Asheville's Centenary."
2Balsam Groves, 231-232.
'From "The Despot of Broomsedge Cove," by Miss Mary N. Murfree.
"Nineteenth Eth. Rep., p. 407.
'D. Appleton & Co., publishers, but now out of print.
"Joseph Hyde Pratt, State Geologist, to J. P. A., April 5, 1912.
"Zeigler and Grosscup, p. 64.
"Buncombe Deed Book, No. 161, p. 518.
CHAPTER XXIV MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY
"The State publications tell us, with well founded pride, that North Carolina was the first government in America to order a geological sur- vey. Can she, on that account, afford to be the last state to publish a full exposition of her geological structure and mineral resources?"- "Heart of the Alleghanies," page 198.
WHERE TO GET THE FACTS AND FIGURES. North Caro- lina no longer deserves this reproach, as Bulletin No. 18 of the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey, pub- lished in 1909, is a bibliography of North Carolina geology, mineralogy and geography, with a list of maps. It contains, with an admirable index, 428 pages, and is devoted exclu- sively to an alphabetical arrangement of the names of authors, their writings on geology and mineralogy, mining and other matters connected with minerals, etc., of this region. It was prepared by Dr. Francis Baker Laney, Ph.D., assistant cura- tor of geology of the U. S. National Museum, and Katharine Hill Wood. It is thorough and exhaustive.
In addition thereto Professor Joseph Hyde Pratt, State Geologist, and Professor Joseph Volney Lewis, formerly of the Survey, but now of Rutgers College, N. J., are the au- thors of Volume I of the Reports of the North Carolina Geo- logical Survey, which contains a description of the corundum and the periodite deposits of Western North Carolina. It also was published in 1905, and contains maps, drawings, pictures and designs illustrative of the subjects treated. It contains, with the index, 464 pages, and either or both of the above vol- umes will be sent on application, if accompanied with the postage.
There are also several others of great value, among which are Economic Paper No. 22, on forest fires and their pre- vention; Economic Paper No. 3, on talc and pyrophyllite de- posits in North Carolina; Economic Paper No. 1, on the maple sugar industry; Economic Paper No. 20, on the wood using industries of North Carolina; Economic Paper No. 23, on the mining industry in North Carolina during 1908, 1909 and 1910, and No. 15 on mineral waters.
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AVAILABLE SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR DESCRIPTIONS. A sci- entific explanation of the formation of the Asheville quad- rangle will be found in the Asheville Folio, No. 116, U. S. Geological Survey; and an interesting dissertation on the geo- logical formation and age of the Grandfather mountain is contained in "The Heart of the Alleghanies"; and in the same volume is a reference to Mr. King, the artist, who made a journey through these mountains in 1874, and gave a de- scription of their mineral possibilities in Scribner's for that year. September 15, 1864, Prof. Charles Upham Shepard of Yale gave his views as to what minerals and metals might be dis- covered here, among which are gold and diamonds, and he is quoted in Gen. Clingman's "Speeches and Writings."
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA
BY JOSEPH HYDE PRATT
The State of North Carolina is divided into three physio- graphic divisions, which have been designated as the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont Plateau, and Mountain Region. That part of the State lying to the west of the Blue Ridge is in the Mountain region. This includes the Blue Ridge and the Great Smokies and the country between, which is cut across by numerous cross ranges separated by narrow valleys and deep gorges. The average elevation of this region is about 2,700 feet above the sea level, but the summits of a great many ridges and peaks are over 5,000 feet, while a consider- able number of peaks have a height of over 6,000, the highest of which is Mount Mitchell with an elevation of 6,711 feet. Over the larger part of this region are to be found the older crystalline rocks, gneisses, granites, schists, and diarite that are of pre-Cambrian age, which are greatly folded and turned on their edges. On the western and eastern borders of this mountain region, approximately along the line of the Blue Ridge and Great Smokies, there are two narrow belts of younger sedimentary rocks, consisting of limestone, shales, and conglomerates, and their metamorphosed equivalents, marbles, quartzites, and slates of Cambrian age.
The sedimentary rocks have been formed from sand, gravel, and mud which have been deposited as the result of alteration and erosion of the older rocks.
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By the present position of the rocks we are able to obtain records regarding the order in which the rocks of western North Carolina were formed, and thus obtain a geological history of the Mountain section. All the rocks of western North Carolina are amongst the oldest geologic formations, although there is considerable variation in the time at which the various rocks encountered were formed. The oldest rock formation is known as the Carolina gneiss, which consists of large areas of mica, and garnet schists; and mica, garnet and cyanite gneisses. The exact origin of this rock has not been definitely determined : it may have resulted from the meta- morphism of a granite rock. Mount Mitchell and the other mountain peaks of the Black mountains are of Carolina gneiss, as are also Gray Beard, the Craggies, Sunset Moun- tain, Pisgah, Great Hogback (Toxaway), and Standing In- dian (Clay county).
The next oldest rock formation of Western North Caro- lina is known as the Roan gneiss, which is not as extensive as the Carolina gneiss, but forms much smaller areas and, as a rule, forms long narrow bands cutting the Carolina gneiss. They are also much less altered and are undoubtedly younger. Roan, High Knob, Big Yellow Mountain, Cocks Knob, the eastern slope of Craggy Dome and Bull Head Mountain, Nofat mountain, and part of Cæsar's Head, are all of Roan gneiss. These mountains are, therefore, younger formations than those mountains composed of Carolina gneiss.
Another granite formation has been intruded into the Caro- lina and Roan gneisses, forming rather small areas in the northwestern portions of the mountains. These granites, known as the Cranberry and Beech granites, are observed in the vicinity of Blowing Rock, Beech mountain, Rich moun- tains, and part of Pumpkin Patch mountain. A similar gran- ite, known as the Henderson granite and of approximately the same age, is found over a considerable area of southeastern portions of Transylvania and Henderson counties and south- western portions of Buncombe county.
All these rocks referred to above are of deep-seated origin and the lapse of time between the formation of the different ones was undoubtedly very great. They formed mountain ranges that were much higher than now observed, but these have been subject to erosion which has brought them to their present outline.
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The next formation was the lava rocks, which were poured forth upon the surface of the Archean rocks. These lava flows are of considerably later period than the granites and gneisses and are older than the overlying Cambrian sedi- mentary rocks, and they may belong to the Algonkian age. Some of these rocks were undoubtedly of volcanic nature, the intrusions coming to the surface as flows of lava and spreading out over the Carolina and Roan gneisses and the Cranberry and Beech granites. There was a very long inter- val between the formation of the last of the Archean rocks before the volcanic activity; and during this period these old Plutonic rocks were subject to very excessive erosion. This volcanic activity probably extended into the Cambrian time, and many of the lava flows were probably at the surface when the Cambrian strata were laid down. The indication of this is the finding of sheets of basalt conglomerate inter- stratified with the lower strata of the Cambrian. Rocks of this period include metadiabase, found just north of Lin- ville and to the east in Grandmother gap and crossing the Yonahlossee road at several places; blue and green epidotic schists, which have probably been altered from basalt, such as are to be seen in the vicinity of Pinola and Montezuma, Avery county, and Hanging Rock, Caldwell county; a gray and black schist probably formed by the alteration of an andicitic rock, which is to be observed on Flat Top moun- tain and Pine Ridge, Watauga county; and metarhyolite, such as is found on the slopes of Dugger mountain, Sampson mountain and in Cook's gap, Watauga county.
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