Research Notes: March 10

3/10/99

For the Magic of Balds article

Asa Gray, “Notes of a Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina,” in Richard Rankin, Ed., North Carolina Nature Writing, p. 52

on Roan Mtn.: “It was just sunset when we reached the bald and grassy summit of this noble mountain, and after enjoying for a moment the magnificent view it affords, had barely time to prepare our encampment between two dense clumps of Rhododendron Catawbiense, to collect fuel, and make ready our supper. The night was so fine that our slight shelter of Balsam boughs proved amply sufficient ...”

2 additional Asa Gray quotes in The Botanical Exploration of the Southern Appalachians by Earl L. Core

“Your pleasant letter of the 3d June reached me on Roan Mountain, in a comfortable little house, at the elevation of about 6,200 feet above the sea, enjoying glorious views of range after range of the Alleghany Mountains, and on the grassy plateau Rhododendron Catawbiense, perhaps more of it than in all the rest of the world, just coming into blossom. Then the valleys and mountain-sides all around, covered with forest, are adorned with Rhododendron maximum, and Kalmia latifolia in immense abundance and profuse blossoming, of every hue from deep rose to white, and here and there, among other flowering shrubs, Azalea calendulacea, of every hue from light yellow to the deepest flame color.” (1879 letter)

“Then we went on to our favorite Roan Mountain, on the borders of North Carolina and Tennessee, one of the highest in the Atlantic United States, and the finest; the base and sides richly wooded with large deciduous forest trees in unusual variety even for this country, the ample grassy top (of several square miles) fringed with dark firs and spruces, and the open part adorned with thousands of clumps of Rhododendron catawbiense.” (from a letter written in 1884, on Gray’s final trip to the Southern Appalachians. pp. 44-45 in The Distributional History of the Biota of the Southern Appalachians, Part II: Flora)

B.W. Wells, The Natural Gardens of North Carolina, 1932.

pp. 194-200 “Whoever visits a rhododendron bald in early June will find himself in the presence of one of the finest natural scenes to be enjoyed anywhere in the world. Where a bluet-dotted grass area is present to give the shrubs a park-like setting, the rhododendron with its luxuriant masses of purple flowers makes an unforgettable picture.... Like a broker giving a tip on the market, the author would here drop a tip to the reader who is sensitive to floral beauty, that he some year in early June give himself the treat of seeing the high mountain rhododendron celebrate the coming of spring. As in the case of a financial coup, he will never regret the experience.” (pp. 198-99)

Zeigler, Wilbur G. and Ben S. Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies, 1883.

p. 68 “On the south brow of the Great Divide, only a few feet lower than the extreme summit, lies an open square expanse of about 20 acres embosomed in the black balsams. It has every feature peculiar to a clearing left for nature to train into its primitive wildness, but in all its abandonment the balsams have singularly failed to encroach upon it; and, as though restrained by sacred lines which they dare not pass, stand dense and sombre around its margin…. It is called the Judyculla old field, and the tradition held by the Indians is that it is one of the footprints of Satan, as he stepped, during a pre-historic walk, from mountain to mountain…. There are other bare spots on these mountains know as scalds, and like this old field, situated in the heart of fir forests.... In a few years the wilderness with have reclaimed them, but the Judyculla old field will remain, as now, a mysterious vistage, which the mutilations of time cannot efface.”

pp. 253 “That view from the Roan eclipses everything I have ever seen in the White, Green Catskill and Virginia mountains....” authors quote another traveler as saying, before they themselves ascend the Roan, later in the narrative.

pp. 270-272 “I ... arrived at sunset on the summit of that majestic mountain. The scene below ... was one tumultuous mountain ocean, rolling with rough and smooth swells toward the ragged horizon…. One hundred and twelve feet below the extreme top of Roan mountain is situated Cloudland Hotel, over 6200 feet above the sea, and the highest habitation east of the Rockies. There is enough novelty in the situation of a summer resort at so lofty an altitude to captivate the tourist, even were there no attractions of sky, climate, scenery, or the aspect of the mountain top itself. It is a beautiful, rounded meadow, where the rocks, which one would naturally expect to see exposed, are hidden under a clump of soil clad with luxuriant grasses, mountain heather, and clumps of rhododendrons, and azaleas. Somber forests of balsam stretch like natural fences around the edges of the treeless expanse, which, for over two miles, pursues the center ridge of the mountain ...”

Warner, Charles Dudley, On Horseback, 1889.

p. 49, On his ascent to the summit of Roan Mountain (up the Tennessee side): “We mounted slowly through splendid forests, specially of fine chestnuts and hemlocks. The big timber continues ... (to) within a short distance of the top. There, there is a narrow belt of scrubby hardwood, moss-grown, and then large balsams, which crown the mountain. As soon as we came out upon the southern slope we found great open spaces, covered with succulent grass, and giving excellent pasturage to cattle. These rich mountain meadows are found on all the heights of this region.”

Morley, Margaret, The Carolina Mountains. 1913.

p. 289: “The top of Cold mountain, to which cattle and sheep are driven for the summer, is an extensive pasture of blue-grass and white-clover, where a large spring of water, cold and delicious, wells forth. To spend a summer day roaming about one of these high balds is a pleasure one cannot repeat too often. In the splendid exhilaration of the air, which is not thin enough to be oppressive, and through the cold tissues of which the sun sends a delicious flood of warmth, the body seems to be taken up and rejuvenated. And where else is the sky so luminous, or clouds so purely white? ... The most beautiful wild flowers have arranged themselves in gardens to please you, and out of the rocks leap sparkling waters still more to refresh you. From the Forks of the Pigeon how many of these charming balds can be ascended?

p. 298-9: “The Balsams, as well as the Blacks, are named from the mantle of balsam firs that covers all their higher parts ... These wide black mantles laid over the shoulders of the high mountains give strength to the landscape. As seen from below, they seem completely to envelop the mountains, but at a higher elevation, or upon approaching the summits, one discovers that the mountain-top is always treeless. This is true of the higher mountains, whether they are fir-clad or not, the ‘bald’ varying in size from a few yards across ... to rolling meadows hundreds of acres in extent on others. The large balds, such as that of the Roan, the Big Yellow, and other well-known forms, also give character and added beauty to the landscape, in which they appear like peaceful islands in the billowing sea of tree-clad mountains.”

“There is a road leading out of Waynesville and up to what is known as the Eagle’s Nest, on one of the Junaluska spurs of the Balsam Mountains.... There is a hotel at the top ... There, before your eyes, Pisgah, Cold Mountain, Shining Rock, Lickstone, and the other balds we know so well, stand amidst the lesser mountains.”

p. 334: “The Roan, standing boldly out in the landscape, is remarkable as being without trees excepting in the ravines and a narrow belt of firs towards the top. For this reason it is a mountain of pastures, as are Grassy Ridge Bald and the Big Yellow Mountain connecting with it towards the East...”