CLINGMAN'S DOME

"But, to the observer from Clingman's dome, the clearings on the slopes of the Smokies are hidden from the eye.  On all sides stretch wild, black forests, funereal in their aspect, wakened only by the cry of the raven, or the tinkle of the bell of some animal lost in their labryinths.  The great wildernesses of the deciduous trees lie below, mantling the ridges and hollows.  In vain the eye endeavors to mark their limit:  it is blanked by the misty purple into which the green resolves itself.  Here, for the bear, deer, wolf and panther appears the natural home.  Nowhere is there a more perfect roaming ground for these animals; but the hound, rifle and trap brought into active use by the Indians and mountaineers have greatly thinned out the game; still, no better hunting is to be found east of the Mississippi." (1883, Ziegler pp.140-141)

"In August and September, 1900, Mr. James H. Ferriss and wife, naturalists from Joliet, Illinois, explored the Smokies to the Lufty Gap northeast of Clingman, collecting rare species of snails and ferns.  No doubt Mrs. Ferriss is the only white woman who ever went beyond Clingman or even ascended the Dome itself.  She stayed at the Lufty Gap while her husband and a Carolina mountaineer of my acquaintance struggled through to Guyot and returned.  Of this trip Mr. Ferriss sent me the following account: (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 58, 59.)

"'We bought another axe of a moonshiner, and, with a week's provisions on our backs, one of the guides and I took the Consolidated American Black Bear and Ruffed Grouse line for Mount Guyot, twenty miles farther by map measurement.  The bears were in full possession of the property, and we could get no information in the settlements, as the settlers do not travel this line.  They did not know the names of the peaks other than as tops of the Great Smokies--knew nothing of the character of the country except that it was rough.  The Tennesseeans seem afraid of the mountains, and the Cherokees of the North Carolina side equally so; for, two miles from camp, all traces of man, except surveyors' marks had disappeared.  In the first two days we routed eight bears out of their nests and mud wallows, and they seemed to stay routed, for upon our return we found the blackberry crop unharvested and had a bag pudding....(1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, p. 59.)

"'A surveyor had run part of the line this year, which helped us greatly, and the bears had made well-beaten trails part of the way.  In places they had mussed up the ground as much as a barnyard.  We tried to follow the boundary line between the two States, which is exactly upon the top of the Smokies, but often missed it.  The government [state] surveyor many years ago made two hacks upon the trees, but sometimes the linemen neglected to use their axes for half a mile or so.  It took us three and one-half days to go, and two and one-half to return, and we arose with the morning star and worked hard all day.  The last day and a half, going, there was nothing to guide us but the old hacks. (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 60, 61.)

"'Equipped with government maps, a good compass, and a little conceit, I thought I could follow the boundary-line.  In fact, at one time we intended to go through without a guide.  A trail that runs through blackberry bushes two miles out of three is hard to follow.  Then there was a huckleberry bush reaching to our waists growing thickly upon the ground as tomato vines, curled hard, and stubborn; and laurel much like a field of lilac bushes, crooked and strong as iron.  In one place we walked fully a quarter of a mile over the tops of laurel bushes and these were ten or twelve feet in height, but blown over one way by the wind.  Much of the trail was along rocky edges, sometimes but six inches or so wide, but almost straight down on both sides for hundreds of feet....Sometimes the mountain forked, and these ridges, concealed by the balsams, would not be seen.  Then there were round knobs--and who can tell where the highest ridge lies on a round mountain or a ball?  My woolen shirt was torn off to the shoulders, and my partner, who had started out with corduroys, stayed in the brush until I got him a pair of overalls from camp.' (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, pp. 60, 61.)

"Even to the west of Clingman a stranger is likely to find some desperately rough travel if he should stray from the trails that follows the divide.  It is easy going for anyone in fair weather, but when cloud settles on the mountain, as it often does without warning, it may be so thick that one cannot see a tree ten feet away." (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, p. 61.)

"Away out yonder beyond the mighty bulk of Clingman Dome, which, black with spruce and balsam, looked like a vast bear rising to contemplate the northern world, there streaked the first faint, nebulous hint of dawn.  Presently, the big bear's head was tipped with a golden crown flashing against the scarlet fires of the firmament, and the earth awoke." (1913, Kephart, Horace. Our Southern Highlanders, p.87.)