The western sentinel., 1892-08-18
LOCATION FOR APARK.

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Carolina that we again give up space
in our columns in order to repro
duce from Garden and Forest, the
following correspondence:
To the Editor of Garden and Forest
Sir,-To some OF your readers
Roam Mountain is perhaps still un-
known. although the summit, which
is within thirty hours ride of New
York, is one Of the most beautiful
spots in America, and offers oppor-
tunities to lovers of nature which no
other place of easy access to the peO
pie of our northern cities equals.
Roam Mountain, which is one of the
highest of the Appalachian peaks, is
situated eighty miles northwest OF
Asheville, in North Carolina, the
boundary between that State and
Tennessee crossing its summit. 1t
can be reached from this city by an
agreeable and easy journey. The
quickest and most picturesque route
is by Philadelphia. Harrisburg and
the Cumberland and Shenandoah
valleys: in Pennsylvania and Mary
land the traveller passes through one
regions of the continent; just before
the Potomac River is crossed, he
passes over the battlefield of Antie-
tam; in Virginia he can break his
journey at Luray and explore the
caves which have made this place
famous The accommodations here
are excellent A second stop can be
made Il few hours further south at
the Natural Bridge. one of the mar
Yels of America, and unsurpassed as
a single object, independent OF other
features ofstriking beauty. Passing
from the valley of the Shenandoah,
the route enters that of the upper
James, a region of fertile fields, low,
well-wooded mountains and pictu-
rescue scenery. The cars are changed
at johnson City, in east Tennessee,
once notorious for the badness of it's
hotel, but now a booming town with
an electric railway, brick blocks, a
magnificent new hotel, and all the
push and 90 of the 'EneW South
Here, the traveller leaving the East
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia
Railroad embarks on a narrow gauge
road built to bring the iron ore from
the famous Cranberry mines situated
at the foot of the Roam. It's way for
twenty miles is up the broad valley
of the Nautauga River, a tributary
of the Holston, which flows out from
the western slopes of the Blue Ridge;
then it swings to the south and ira
verses Happy Valley, whose fertile
soil q hundred unmanured crops of
corn have not exhausted. This is
the first valley in Tennessee settled
by whites; here is still to be seen the
remains OF the first blOck-hOuse built
to afford defense against the Indians:
here is standing the tree under which
the first court was held in Tennessee,
and not very far away are the ruins
of the first iron furnace established
west of the Alleghanies. Gradually
the valley narrOws and the rOad-bed
is carried along the borders of Doe
River, tumultuOus mountain
stream, which heads high up on the
flanks Of the Roam. In picturesque
ness this part of the journey is not
surpassed by that OF any other rail
route in the country; at one place,
the stream tumbles through a mar
row gorge at the foot of precipices
hundreds of feet high; at others, its
rocky banks are clothed with tall
Hemlocks, shading vast thickets of
the great Bay (RhododendrOn maxi
muml, which grows here with lux
uriance and splendor which aston
ishes the Traveller unfamiliar with the
Appalachian forests Here twenty
years ago he could have seen these
forests in all their magnificence and
Natures supreme effort in forest
production, for in the number of
species of which they are composed,
and in the size and beauty of indi-
vidual trees. these southern forests
surpaSs every other deciduOus forest
of the earth. But the magnificence
of the forest of the Doe River valley
is thing of the past; twenty saw
mills and a dozen tanneries strung
along the lire of the narrow gauge
railroad have done there work effect
ually. First the Black Walnuts
went, and then The Cherries, for
which this valley was famous. When
these were consumed, the lumbermen
turned their attention to the Yellow
Popular (Liriodendron Tulipiferal
their work has been done thorough
ly; stumps of this tree seven or eight
feet across are common enough, but
the big trees are all gone. Now they
are cutting White Oaks, and the
Hemlocks for tan bark. Large Hem
locks, however, can still be found
near the streams, and on the first
bench above the river stand as fine
Chestnut-trees as can be seen on the
continent.
At Roam Mountain Station the rail
is left and the journey to the summit
of the mountain is made over an ex-
eellent road. The distance is only
twelve miles, the summit being easily
reached in four hours. The ascent. is
of peculiar interest to the lover of
trees, who will see a great variety
and many noble specimens. At the
sheltered base of the mountains,
Magno1ias abound, and then the
road winds upward gradually from
these and their relative, the Tulip
tree, through White Oaks and Chest
nuts, Lindens and Red Oaks, Buck
eyes, Birches, Sugar Naples and
Hawthorns, until, as the upper limits
of the forest are reached, its cOnspic-
uous features are the Black Spruce,
the Balsam, the Striped Maple, the
Mountain Maple, the Beech, the Vel
low Birch, and the Mountain Ash,
that is to say, the inhabitants of the
sub-arctic forests of North America.
In this short drive, therefore, of
twelve miles, are to be seen trees
which, at the sea-level, are scattered
through more than ten degrees of
latitude. On the western slopes of
the Big Smoky Mountains in Ten
nessee, individual trees are, perhaps,
1ar0ar and the nlImbpr ot snecieS