Appalachian Comeback^ 



305 



the domain of the Cherokee, the Sen- 

 eca, the Gatawba. In the blue haze, 

 the forest stretched unbroken, chiefly 

 hardwood, with great expanses of oak, 

 chestnut, yellow-poplar, cherry, beech, 

 maple, ash, white pine, hemlock, and, 

 at higher elevations, spruce, and fir. 



The forests were first used by the 

 men who pushed on through the moun- 

 tains and into the valley of the Ohio. 

 As the little bands threaded the wilder- 

 ness trails, some saw their opportunity 

 en route and stayed behind. They made 

 clearings in the rich bottom lands at 

 the forks of streams and reared their 

 families there. Later new homesteads 

 were carved from the wilderness 

 further "up the creek." The popula- 

 tion grew, and people tended land, 

 turned out stock, and hunted. Villages 

 grew into towns that were built with 

 wood from the forest. The great pop- 

 lars, pines, and oaks within easy reach 

 of mountain watercourses were rafted 

 to distant sawmills for use by the grow- 

 ing Nation outside this fastness. 



The big forest still stood in its silent 

 grandeur, however; so far, there had 

 been only a nibbling at its edges or a 

 little hole here and there cleared for 

 pasture or a deadening in which to 

 grow corn for the family at the head 

 of a creek. It was an immensely rich 

 timber world that contained the finest 

 hardwood that ever stood; a country 

 of endless beauty, one in which its iso- 

 lated folk passed on to their descend- 

 ants of today words and songs little 

 changed from those of Elizabethan 

 England. 



During and after the Civil War, the 

 railroads began to string the little vil- 

 lages together. Railroads crept up the 

 valleys slowly in search of the almost 

 unlimited supplies of coal. Oil brought 

 them into the Pennsylvania highlands. 

 As the little balloon-stacked engines 

 rocked over the slender rails, the whis- 

 tle warned of approaching doom. With 

 assured rail shipment to the outside, 

 where an expanding Nation demanded 

 and got what it needed, the stage was 

 set for the coming of the big sawmills 

 into the mountains. They came, slowly 



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at first, and then with logging railroads 

 of their own, like locusts. Handsome 

 timber in increasing amounts fell to 

 the ax, but there always seemed to be 

 more. Sawmill towns sprang up in their 

 temporary ugliness, thrived, and van- 

 ished as the cutting moved on. Fire 

 raged on the heels of loggers, and 

 devastation over large areas seemed 

 certain. When Europe burst into the 

 horror of warfare in 1914, demands on 

 the forest mounted and reconstruction 

 saw no let-up. So the large sawmills, 

 accompanied by many little sawmills, 

 marched across the face of the remain- 

 ing Appalachian wilderness, and its 

 big timber disappeared. Today, after 

 the Second World War, a host of little 

 mills is picking up the scraps and eat- 

 ing into thrifty young timber that will 

 be needed in the future. 



And the people in this mountain 

 country? Little farms are strung along 

 the stream bottoms and at the heads of 

 the creeks. But the country has changed 

 and young folk like to hear tell of the 

 days that were. Most recognize that an 

 enormous forest restoration task is 

 ahead. Not so many realize that it has 

 already been started. 



SHORTLY AFTER THE TURN of the 

 century, a few far-seeing men in New 

 England and the South noticed the 

 disappearing forests, the damage to 

 soil and young timber from fire, the 

 effect on stream flow and the purity 

 of water supplies. They saw that those 

 things were not good. After years of 

 work with an apathetic public, success 

 crowned their efforts, and in 1911 the 

 Congress enacted legislation whereby it 

 became possible for the Federal Gov- 

 ernment to purchase areas of wild lands 

 on the headwaters of the navigable 

 rivers, and the chain of national forests 

 in the Appalachians was born. 



Purchase of land has been going on 

 through the years until now there are 

 about 6 million acres in public owner- 

 ship under well-organized protection 

 against fire, and managed so that the 

 remaining resources can be conserved, 

 improved, and made to serve the needs 



