Cumberland Gap and Flowers Redux; April 25, 2008

Monday we rode up to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park. It was quite interesting to me, because about 45 years ago, on a weekend off, from taking a course on the use of radioisotopes in research at Oak Ridge, our family drove up and through Cumberland Gap.

Pictures: Left, me, standing in the Gap

Right, overlooking the Gap from the pinnacle.

Things have changed a lot in 45 years! (It doesn’t seem that long to me.) In the first place one can drive within thirty miles or so of Cumberland Gap on a four-lane limited- access highway; whereas we had to take curvy mountain roads, at what might be considered a long time ago. But what is most amazing is the Cumberland Gap itself. When we drove there forty five years ago, a very busy, three-lane highway passed through Cumberland Gap, with no place to stop to view and to reflect on the significance of where we were. Now that highway has been eliminated and a tunnel , accommodating four lanes of traffic was constructed in 1995-96. Above the tunnel, the entire Gap has been converted into a wooded park, with only a hiking trail passing through the Gap. Well, actually there is also a railroad track, but it is well hidden. There is also a road to the pinnacle, overlooking the gap with a view of the surrounding area of three states: Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia.

A word or two about the historical significance of Cumberland Gap. Cumberland Gap has been an important route for the Indians across the Appalachian Mountains. This chain of mountains was a major impediment to westward migration from the colonies in pre-Revolutionary War Times. Daniel Boone was important explorer of the Kentucky area and frequently used the Cumberland Gap to enter the Kentucky frontier. Later he led a group that blazed the Wilderness Road through the Gap and this became a major thoroughfare for settlers into the Ohio River valley. During the Civil War, the Gap changed hands between the Union and Confederate Armies several times. Although this might have been an important route to supply the Union armies in Eastern Tennessee, generally it proved impractical. The route was too long, and in and weather made the roads too muddy. Livestock were driven over the route, but there was so little forage to consume on the way, the poor animals were nearly starved to death when the arrived at their destination, and hardly fit tobe slaughtered for food.

A few notes on flowers. The iris we had seen and is pictured here is a crested dwarf iris. They stand about five inches off the ground, and have what appears to be three blooms in one, but is actually a single complicated bloom.

The mystery yellow flower turns out to be ragwort. Another picture appears here.

New (to us) Flowers in Tennessee April 17, 2008

We took a short walk in the woods, behind our RV, yesterday. There are many Spring flowers out, but we saw some that are either new to us or that we can not identify. The most interesting ones are in the photos above. These purple flowers in some ways look like irises. they are purple, but they have three protrusions, or "beards" rather than one we usually see in iris. They look like some type of orchid to me.

The next interesting flowers resemble what we know as "dog-tooth violets", except the leaves are not spotted. I wonder if they are not just a variant. There are two photos of these, below.

We also found a flower, which is new to us. This is called "foamflower" according to a pamphlet we have. The flower reassembles what we in New England call :Wild Lilly of the Valley". The plant is much taller, perhaps seven to ten inches high and the leaves are different than wild lilly of the valley. A picture of a foamflower is above, on the right.

From Tennessee, April 14, 2008

A White Trillium


Several White Trilliums in a Glen




Bloodroot



Yellow Trilliums

Yellow Violets

Violet Violets

We have had a change of plans. Instead of heading west, we decided to stay in the east for a while longer. We are now up at an Escapee RV park in Heiskell, TN, just a little outside of Knoxville and a little more than an hour’s trip to Smoky Mountain National Park. (We decided to change plans, because of the extra mileage of a trip to Phoenix to the Mayo Clinic for some further medical testing required in June, seemed just too expensive in view of the present–day cost of diesel fuel.)

We made the trip from Florida to Tennessee last week. Our daughter, Diana, was on vacation from her school librarian job, so she was able to come to visit us for a few days. We had great fun -- going to the National Park as well as other local attractions.

It is a beautiful time of year here in Tennessee. The spring flowers are coming out. The redbud trees are at their peak here and the dog woods will are just about to come into full bloom. When Diana was here we went to the Smoky Mountains. It was fun to go up the mountains in the car, and stop to look at the flowers. As we gained altitude, there were fewer and fewer flowers, and when we reached the top at some 6000 feet (just a little higher than Denver, so in western parlance, not so high!), nothing was in bloom, and even the trees had not started to bud.

At the lower elevations we saw:
Redbud trees
Dogwood
Purple, white and yellow violets
Flox
White Trilliums
Yellow trilliums
Bloodroot
Fringed Phacelia
Wood anemones
Wild Geraniums

I had never seen yellow trilliums before. They are shaped somewhat like “Johnny Jump Ups, or Wake Robin that we see on Missouri, but are prettier and occasionally you see a plant with the petals fully extended. The White Trilliums were in abundance, and in places an area over about one hundred feet square would be blanketed with them.

The fringed Phacelia was also new to me. These are white flowers with a six delicate fringed petal, - the plant rising perhaps two to three inches off the forest floor, growing where there is sunshine. They were in abidance on the grassy roadside, but they were also seen in the woods.

On another day we all went to visit Museum of the Appalachia, which is Norris, a small town about ten miles from where we are staying. This is a de4lightful museum with many restored buildings, most transported from what were a small isolated Appalachian Villages. There were, of course, a blacksmith shop, an old school, several old barns and an assortment of log cabins. These villages were relatively isolated, and so were pretty self sufficient. They do seem similar to other reconstructed pioneer villages in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. There was also a large building with a collection of the various tools and household items used one hundred to two hundred years ago. What seems unique to this area is the importance of music. There were a number of exhibits devoted to music, and an obvious pride that many of the pioneers of country music came from the Appalachian region. In that line, there were two musicians performing – one playing the guitar, the other a fiddle.

Well, there seem lots to do here. We have done just a little exploring of the area – visiting one state park and searching out a place that served authentic Tennessee barbeque.