Meigs Mountain Trail

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Meigs Mountain Trail

Meigs-mountain-curry-mountain-jct1.jpg

The Meigs Mountain Trail at the Curry Mountain Trail junction
Length 6 mi (10 km)
Location Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, United States
Trailheads Junction with the Jakes Creek Trail just south of Elkmont
Junction with the Lumber Ridge Trail and Meigs Creek Trail at Buckhorn Gap
Use Hiking
Elevation
Highest point Near Campsite 19, 2,880 ft (880 m)
Lowest point Buckhorn Gap, 2,400 ft (730 m)
Hiking details
Trail difficulty Moderate
Season Open year-round
Hazards Multiple stream crossings

The Meigs Mountain Trail is an American hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Sevier County, Tennessee. The trail traverses the northern slopes of Meigs Mountain in the northwest section of the park, connecting Jakes Creek in the Elkmont area with Lumber Ridge in the Tremont area. The Meigs Mountain Trail, when joined with the 4.1-mile (6.6 km) Lumber Ridge Trail and the first 0.4 miles (0.64 km) of the Jakes Creek Trail, is part of a 10.5-mile (16.9 km) continuous path connecting the Appalachian Club section of Elkmont with the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. In the early 20th century, the logging communities that formed at Elkmont and Tremont branched out across the relatively broad northern slopes of Meigs Mountain. Other than a crude mountain cemetery, the occasional detritus, and a few rock walls, however, very little remains of the mountain's former inhabitants.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park national park in the USA

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site that straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park. Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited national park in the United States with over 11.3 million recreational visitors in 2016. The Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park on its route from Maine to Georgia. The park was chartered by the United States Congress in 1934 and officially dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940.

Sevier County, Tennessee County in the United States

Sevier County ( "severe") is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, the population was 89,889. Its county seat and largest city is Sevierville.

Tennessee State of the United States of America

Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560 and a 2017 metro population of 1,903,045. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017.

Contents

The nearest parking lot for the Meigs Mountain Trail is the Jakes Creek Trailhead parking lot, located at the end of Elkmont Road. The Curry Mountain Trail and the Meigs Creek Trail both connect the Meigs Mountain Trail to Little River Road.

Vital information

Landmarks/overlooks

Jakes Creek Jakes-creek-meigs-trail-tn1.jpg
Jakes Creek
National Park Service United States federal agency

The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. It was created on August 25, 1916, by Congress through the National Park Service Organic Act and is an agency of the United States Department of the Interior. The NPS is charged with a dual role of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places entrusted to its management, while also making them available and accessible for public use and enjoyment.

Geographical and natural information

Meigs Mountain, looking south from the Curry Mountain Trail Meigs-mountain-from-curry-tn1.jpg
Meigs Mountain, looking south from the Curry Mountain Trail

Meigs Mountain is a ridge stretching for roughly 5 miles (8.0 km) between Blanket Creek to the east and the Middle Prong of Little River to the west. To the southeast, Meigs Mountain is flanked by Blanket Mountain, which culminates in a prominent 4,607-foot (1,404 m) summit. To the north, three low mountains are "wedged" between Meigs Mountain and the Little River Gorge— Curry She Mountain to the northeast, Curry He Mountain to the north, and Lumber Ridge to the northwest. The 3,982-foot (1,214 m) summit of Meigs Mountain is located on the mountain's eastern end, with the elevation decreasing gradually to the west and sharply to the north and south.

Little River (Tennessee) river in Tennessee, United States of America

Little River is a 60-mile (97 km) river in Tennessee which drains a 380-square-mile (980 km2) area containing some of the most spectacular scenery in the southeastern United States. The first 18 miles (29 km) of the river are all located within the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The remaining 42 miles (68 km) flow out of the mountains through Blount County to join the Tennessee River at Fort Loudon Lake in Knox County.

Geologically, Meigs Mountain is composed of Precambrian rocks (primarily sandstone) of the Ocoee Supergroup, formed from ancient ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. [1] Rock exposures are not very common along the Meigs Mountain Trail, although the trail crosses multiple steambeds littered with rocks and small boulders. The streams that drain Meigs Mountain are part of the Little River watershed.

The Precambrian is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the Phanerozoic eon, which is named after Cambria, the Latinised name for Wales, where rocks from this age were first studied. The Precambrian accounts for 88% of the Earth's geologic time.

Meigs Mountain is covered by a mature second-growth deciduous forest. Most of the mountain's commercial timber was removed by the various logging operations that occurred on the mountain in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hemlock, magnolia, sourwood, tulip trees, and silverbell trees are among the most common tree types encountered along the Meigs Mountain Trail. [2]

Deciduous trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally

In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous (/dɪˈsɪdʒuəs/) means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flowering; and to the shedding of ripe fruit.

<i>Tsuga</i> genus of plants

Tsuga is a genus of conifers in the subfamily Abietoideae. The common name hemlock is derived from a perceived similarity in the smell of its crushed foliage to that of the unrelated plant poison hemlock. Unlike the latter, Tsuga species are not poisonous.

<i>Magnolia</i> genus of plants

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol.

Historical information

Rusted machine parts and other detritus from the early 20th century are occasionally encountered along the Meigs Mountain Trail Meigs-mountain-trail-detritus-gsm1.jpg
Rusted machine parts and other detritus from the early 20th century are occasionally encountered along the Meigs Mountain Trail

Meigs Mountain is named after Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs (1740–1823), a Revolutionary War veteran who began a re-survey of the last nine miles of the Hawkins Line (the crude early border between Tennessee and North Carolina) from atop this mountain in 1802. [3] Meigs supposedly hung a brightly colored blanket atop the adjacent mountain (which was subsequently known as "Blanket Mountain") for use as a compass reference point. [4]

American Revolutionary War War between Great Britain and the Thirteen Colonies, which won independence as the United States of America

The American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), also known as the American War of Independence, was an 18th-century war between Great Britain and its Thirteen Colonies which declared independence as the United States of America.

Meigs Mountain Cemetery Meigs-mountain-cemetery-tn1.jpg
Meigs Mountain Cemetery

Extensive logging operations on Meigs Mountain began in the 1880s with Knoxville-based entrepreneur John L. English. English selectively logged Blanket Creek for cherry and basswood and moved the logs downstream to a mill in Blount County using a series of splash dams. Although English's operations ceased in the late 1890s after a flood washed away his splash dams, small-scale selective logging continued until the arrival of the Little River Lumber Company around 1908. [5] [6]

Between 1908 and 1939, the Little River Lumber Company removed most of Meigs Mountain's commercial timber. The company built two large band saw mills in Townsend and connected the mills to the Elkmont area via the Little River Railroad. Incline railways were used to reach the trees on steeper slopes, including those along Blanket Creek. [7]

In the early 20th century, the various logging operations led to the development of a small community along what is now the Meigs Mountain Trail. Members of the Huskey and Henderson families lived in the vicinity of the Meigs Mountain Trail/Curry Mountain Trail junction, some of whom are buried in a crude cemetery just southwest of this junction. The Meigs Mountain schoolhouse was also located at this trail junction, although no part of it remains. What is now Backcountry Campsite 19 was once the homesite of Andy Brackin (1888–1924), whose sister and brother-in-law ran a boarding house for loggers at Elkmont. Legendary mountaineer Lem Ownby (1889–1984) lived along Jakes Creek at the Meigs Mountain Trail/Jakes Creek Trail junction until his death in 1984. He was the last of the park's permanent residents outside of Cades Cove. [8] [9]

Trail synopsis

Jakes Creek to Curry Mountain Trail Junction — 4.1 miles

The Meigs Mountain Trail passing through Campsite 20 Backcountry-campsite-20-gsm1.jpg
The Meigs Mountain Trail passing through Campsite 20

After leaving the Jakes Creek Trail, the Meigs Mountain Trail descends immediately to Jakes Creek, where it crosses a log footbridge to what was once the Lem Ownby homesite. Little remains of Ownby's home, although a National Park Service corral stands in what was once Ownby's pasture nearby. From Jakes Creek, the trail ascends the lower northern slopes of Blanket Mountain, passing the occasional rock pile before descending to the relatively broad upper Blanket Creek Valley and Backcountry Campsite 20.

Campsite 20 is flanked by two small streams to the east and Kiver Branch and Blanket Creek to the west. The campsite, which occupies a broad, flat slope at the northern base of Blanket Mountain, is relatively large compared to other backcountry campsites in the park. Mechanical detritus from the early 20th century is scattered around Blanket Creek, and the remnants of a stone wall is visible immediately downstream from the trail.

After crossing Blanket Creek, the Meigs Mountain Trail begins to ascend Meigs Mountain. Just beyond the creek, the trail traverses another broad section of former homesites. As the trail enters the headwaters of Sugar Maple Branch, however, the mountain gradually grows steeper. After winding its way through the various streams that comprise the headwaters of Mannis Branch, the trail arrives at the Curry Mountain Trail junction. The Curry Mountain Trail connects the Meigs Mountain Trail to the Metcalf Bottoms area of Little River Road.

Curry Mountain Trail junction to Buckhorn Gap — 1.9 miles

Backcountry Campsite 19 Backcountry-campsite-19-gsm1.jpg
Backcountry Campsite 19

Southwest of the Meigs Mountain Trail/Curry Mountain Trail junction, a pile of logs and stones comprise the remains of the Henderson homesite. The Meigs Mountain Cemetery is situated atop a hill immediately west of the homesite. Like many mountain cemeteries, most of the graves are marked only by upright stones. Polished markers mark the graves of Polly Huskey (1866–1909) and an infant Huskey. The name "Noah Ownby" is scratched into one of the crude markers.

Beyond the cemetery, the trail continues to gradually ascend to Backcountry Campsite 19. A headwater stream of Henderson Prong has sliced a deep gully in the western half of the campsite, providing its water source. The campsite is littered with sawed logs and stones blackened from campfires.

Just past Campsite 19, the Meigs Mountain Trail gradually descends to Upper Buckhorn Gap, where an unmaintained spur branches off from the Meigs Mountain Trail and winds its way southward along the mountain's remote eastern slope. The Meigs Mountain Trail, however, veers northwest and descends to Buckhorn Gap, where it terminates at a trailfork. From the trailfork, the Lumber Ridge Trail continues westward for another 4.1 miles (6.6 km) to the Great Smokies Institute at Tremont, and the Meigs Creek Trail continues northward for 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the "Sinks" area of the Little River Gorge.

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References

  1. ↑ Harry Moore, A Roadside Guide to the Geology of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1988), 33.
  2. ↑ Michal Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies (Gatlinburg, Tenn.: Great Smoky Mountains Association, 1994), 235-241.
  3. ↑ Dwight McCarter, MEIGS LINE (Asheville, N.C.: Grateful Steps, 2009). p. 52.
  4. ↑ Michael Frome, Strangers In High Places: The Story of the Great Smoky Mountains (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1994), 108-110.
  5. ↑ Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies, 237.
  6. ↑ Vic Weals, The Last Train to Elkmont (Knoxville: Olden Press, 1993), 1-3.
  7. ↑ Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies, 237-242.
  8. ↑ Strutin, History Hikes of the Smokies, 240-242.
  9. ↑ For information regarding the Huskey, Henderson, Brackin, and Ownby families, see their entries at Smokykin.com.

Coordinates: 35°38′52″N83°36′36″W / 35.6478°N 83.6101°W / 35.6478; -83.6101

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