About the Middle Prong Wilderness Pioneers grabbed up this area, once part of the Cherokee Nation, starting in 1796. After settlement, most of the land was purchased, first by a paper company in the early 1900s, then by a lumber company. A town shaped up at the junction of the Right Prong, Middle Prong, and Left Prong of the West Fork of the Pigeon River. The town was later relocated, but the lumber company continued its quest for timber, removing vast stands of red spruce, Fraser fir, hemlocks, and hardwoods from 1906 to 1926 and building an extensive system of logging railroads. Four of these old railroad beds are now used as hiking trails in today's Middle Prong Wilderness.
Mixed hardwoods cover the lower slopes.
Elevations range from 3,200 feet on the West Fork of the Pigeon River to 6,400 feet near Richland Balsam. Numerous streams work their way down to the river. Only a road separates this Wilderness from Shining Rock Wilderness to the north. Middle Prong is a small Wilderness with a limited and primitive trail system. The hiking rates as difficult, but ample opportunities exist for solitude.