Mountain Paradise, Lost and Found
Chattahoochee National Forest
At the turn of the 20th century, mountain beauty was no longer considered a natural resource. After gold fever struck and subsided, it was lumber that spurred the next natural mountain resource rush. Driven by a hunger to satisfy a young nation's thirst for achievement, ax and saws went to work on the scale of a frenzy, it has been estimated that as much as 80% of the wooded mountain slopes and ridges throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains were completely leveled. Clear cutting laid waste to the landscape, causing erosion that devastated the watersheds and vast wildlife habitats were destroyed. During this time Congress began to pass bills that would allow the purchase of these wastelands. Clear cutting depreciated the value of mountain lands making private owned property available for reasonable cost with the exception of the Great Smoky Mountains region, that landscape didn’t particularly go cheap. Through these Bills and Acts of Congress the National Forest Service was eventually established to control and oversee the preservation, conservation and natural development of these forested lands we enjoy so much.
Today the majority of these wooded forests consist of an amassment of young tree growth, just babes compared to their giant forefathers. What the Forest Service was able to achieve along with its reforestation program was to obtain as many stands of “old growth forest” that were left due to their difficult access. These jewels were locked away deep within the forest and along the high ridges of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The two largest tracts of “old growth forest” lie to the north of Union County, those being the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest and Slick Rock Wilderness Area in the Nantahala National Forest of North Carolina. The other “old growth forest” is the granddaddy of them all, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Eastern Tennessee and North Carolina.
The majestic mountain beauty of Union County is now under the guardianship of the Chattahoochee National Forest, which encompasses all National Forest lands throughout North Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Not only have these mountain forests been saved and restored, their priceless watersheds and wildlife have returned to a natural order within the Forestry Service properties. Throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains the National Forest Service continues their hard work preserving these necessary watersheds that are essential to all life forms throughout the Southeastern United States. Their dedicated service has maintained these natural waterways and wildlife. Such success is due to the planning program of the National Parks and Forest Service.
What wasn’t necessarily in the overall plan of the National Forest Service was the preservation of sites that contain the mysteries and mystics within these mountain wildernesses. Sacred sites, legends and myths have once again reclaimed their ancient status within these National Forest and Parks. We’re not just talking about 18th and 19th century explorers, hunters and settlers who came to these mountains, or the lives and legends of local Native Americans who have lived here for so many generations. We're talking about signs of the ancients and the other worldly presences that reflect a time that goes back further than prehistory. There's a sense of the unknown here in Union County and its neighboring rugged mountain regions, holding several of these geographical treasures, indefinable, unexplainable mysteries that boggle the mind.