THE LAND OF THE CHEROKEES 



545 



And first and last, it is a forest country. A relatively 

 small portion of its total land area will ever be devoted 

 to agriculture. The remainder is chiefly valuable for 

 forests, the natural richness and variety of which stand 

 as the source of all its charm 

 and wealth. The mountains 

 and valleys are densely 

 wooded with a luxuriant 

 growth of hardwoods, inter- 

 spersed with the sombre 

 green of pine, spruce 

 and hemlock. Almost 

 every species of forest tree 

 native to the eastern United 

 States seems to be striving to 

 claim these mountains for it- 

 self. Nature is enacting here 

 a warfare among the trees 

 not unlike that of the Indian 

 tribes of years ago. Trailing 

 the Appalachian Mountains 

 southward from Canada, the 

 spruce is making its southern 

 stand on the highest moun- 

 tains of the Blue Ridge while 

 on the slopes and in the 

 coves the beech, birch, sugar 

 maple, hemlock and white 

 pine of the northern forests 

 are battling for possession 

 with the southern horde of 

 hardwoods, including the 



oaks, poplars, hickories, a stretch of good mountain road built by the gov 

 gums, maples and magnolias. ernment. nathala national forest 



But luxuriant as is the 

 forest growth, these forests are not in the best of condi- 

 tion because so much of the region has been violently 

 lumbered and burned by recurrent fires. The area of 

 original virgin forests remaining is small and while the 

 cut-over lands today are dense and green with young 

 timber, much of it is being reclaimed by inferior species. 

 But some of these species, while called inferior at the 

 present time, may in years to come acquire, like the once 

 despised gum, high commercial value. Nevertheless this 

 second growth timber and particularly the forest grow- 

 ing power of this mountain soil, represent a great poten- 

 tial wealth for the region. All that seems necessary to 

 keep these mountains dense with timber is fire protection, 

 regulation of grazing after cutting and an ever-conscious 

 appreciation of the fact that the forest growth is the 

 .'iource from which all its wonderful possibilities take 

 life and permanence. 



For none can deny that the secret of the bounty and 

 beauty of this land, rich in Cherokee lore, is its forests. 



With them gone, its beauty and charm will be gone. 

 Its recreational possibilities will vanish like supshine 

 before the storm. Its waterpower will have been scuttled 

 and its soil will erode and wash until it will become a 



no man's land of gullied 

 hills and flood infested 

 valleys. Today, it is a re- 

 mote country abounding in 

 nature's riches and laden 

 with man's redeemable 

 possibilities. Almost in the 

 center of the greatest civil- 

 ization in the world and sur- 

 rounded by millions of peo- 

 ])le, this land of the Chero- 

 kees, so serenely pleasing, so 

 full of the things that are 

 clean and big and inspiring 

 in life, is for all practical 

 purposes, in another world. 

 It needs the magic touch 

 of good roads to lift the cur- 

 tain and reveal the splendor 

 and beauty of its proximity. 

 It needs a conscious awaken- 

 ing to the value of its forest-: 

 growing power and the mean- 

 ing of timbered mountain- 

 sides and wooded coves in 

 the building of promised 

 lands. As a scenic area for 

 automobile touring, it would, 

 with good roads, be unsur- 

 passable but back of its rec- 

 creational, water-power and agricultural opportunities, 

 stand its forests, the source and shelter of all and a 

 wealth producing opportunity unexcelled by all others 

 combined. The land of the Cherokees needs a vision. 

 It needs to have ever before it the vision of a 

 country, moulded in God's crucible as it has been 

 moulded, but with well cared for and productive forests ; 

 happy and thriving communities supported by the wood 

 using trades ; dotting farms and orchards resplendant 

 with prosperity because of the markets and employ- 

 ment furnished by the forest industries ; developed water 

 power operating its wood using factories and lighting its 

 mountain homes ; telephones ringing in the mountain cab- 

 ms ; hard surfaced roads built with the aid of forest 

 revenue ; automobiles bringing the message of common 

 progress and prosperity from north and south, east and 

 west; and finally modern schools where the unusual in- 

 telligence of these mountain children can be developed 

 to the fullest. 



MAN-CAUSED FOREST FIRES ARE PREVENTABLE- 

 DO YOUR PART 



