Fiery Gizzard: Voices From the Wilderness - Softcover

Priestley, Mary Patten

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0978976878 ISBN 13: 9780978976873

Publisher: Proctor's Hall Press, 2014

Synopsis

Fiery Gizzard, Voices from the Wilderness is a series of essays about a section of Tennessee’s South Cumberland State Recreation Area that includes and surrounds the Big Fiery Gizzard Creek, its tributaries, and the waters that it feeds. The essays follow the natural and cultural history of the gorge and the people who have lived there. The Gizzard is a narrow canyon in the Cumberland Plateau, hemmed in by sandstone cliffs that were formed more than three hundred million years ago. Ecologically, it is a refugium, a place where northern plants, forced south during the most recent ice age, found a home. These, plus southern plants that have migrated northward into the protected gorge, have resulted in the extensive biodiversity of the Gizzard. For thousands of years, Woodland Indians hunted and camped here. Then European explorer-botanists came through, followed by settlers who arrived in the eighteenth century to farm. The discovery of coal in the 1850s brought prosperity for some, misery for others. Entrepreneurs built an experimental blast furnace and named it after the creek. During the Great Depression, a group of businessmen from neighboring Tracy City purchased 211 acres at the head of Big Fiery Gizzard Creek and donated it to the State of Tennessee for use as a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. That land plus two parcels owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority -- Foster Falls and Little Gizzard Creek small wild areas -- were the first properties in the Gizzard set aside for conservation and recreation. When the South Cumberland State Recreation Area was established in the 1970s, these lands were included. Conservation efforts continue today in this special place that is a favorite destination for many who live on or visit the South Cumberland Plateau.

About this title

About the Author:

A native of Chattanooga, Mary Patten Priestley has spent her adult life in Sewanee, Tennessee. Since majoring in forestry at Sewanee, she has earned master’s degrees in biology and in fine arts. She edits the Sewanee Plant Press, which is the newsletter of the Friends of the Sewanee Herbarium. She also writes articles for the Tennessee Conservationist Magazine and the newsletter of the Friends of South Cumberland. Mary has authored three children’s books, William’s Wildflowers; Dad’s Railroad, the Mountain Goat; and Little Brown Hen, Librarian, as well as Hike ‘Em All at South Cumberland. She is co-author and illustrator of Go Take a Hike, a guide to hiking on the Domain of The University of the South. Mary is active with the Friends of South Cumberland and with the Tennessee Native Plant Society. She and husband Mac, emeritus professor of mathematics at Sewanee, are the parents of three grown children.

About this edition

• Publisher: Proctor's Hall Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0978976878
• ISBN 13: 9780978976873
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 102