R. Keith Clontz
Afternoon Light on Short Off Mountain
A Table Mountain Pine on Short Off Mountain.
From Wikipedia:
History (of Linville Gorge Wilderness)
Prior to the European colonization of North America, virtually all of western North Carolina was inhabited by tribes of the Cherokee Indians. In the Cherokee language, the Linville River is called Ee-see-oh, which means "river of many cliffs" when literally translated. Early white settlers named the river Linville in honor of John and William Linville, explorers who were scalped by the Cherokee in the gorge in 1766.
The steepness of the sides, the depth of the gorge, and the peaks of the Jonas Ridge to the east and Linville Mountain to the west made settlement impractical in the 1800s and 1900s. In the early 20th century, logging was a major industry in the surrounding region, but the gorge itself was spared clearcutting. The forbidding nature of the terrain made resource extraction unprofitable, which is the primary reason why the gorge is one of the few remaining examples of old growth forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains range. No industrial logging ever took place within the gorge, and its virgin forests span 10,000 acres (40 km2). The gorge is remarkably free of manmade structures, and of the four major gorges in North Carolina, the Linville Gorge is the only one without a road in the bottom.
Formal protection of the area began in 1952, when the land was purchased with funds donated by John D. Rockefeller. When the Wilderness Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Johnson in 1964, the Linville Gorge Wilderness became one of the first formally designated Wilderness areas of the new National Wilderness Preservation System. It is the only gorge or canyon in the United States that was labeled a wilderness area in the initial year of the Wilderness Act that has never changed in acreage. It is managed by the Grandfather Ranger District of the United States Forest Service.
Only You Can Protect Linville Gorge Wilderness From Becoming a Managed Forest.
Afternoon Light on Short Off Mountain
A Table Mountain Pine on Short Off Mountain.
From Wikipedia:
History (of Linville Gorge Wilderness)
Prior to the European colonization of North America, virtually all of western North Carolina was inhabited by tribes of the Cherokee Indians. In the Cherokee language, the Linville River is called Ee-see-oh, which means "river of many cliffs" when literally translated. Early white settlers named the river Linville in honor of John and William Linville, explorers who were scalped by the Cherokee in the gorge in 1766.
The steepness of the sides, the depth of the gorge, and the peaks of the Jonas Ridge to the east and Linville Mountain to the west made settlement impractical in the 1800s and 1900s. In the early 20th century, logging was a major industry in the surrounding region, but the gorge itself was spared clearcutting. The forbidding nature of the terrain made resource extraction unprofitable, which is the primary reason why the gorge is one of the few remaining examples of old growth forest in the Blue Ridge Mountains range. No industrial logging ever took place within the gorge, and its virgin forests span 10,000 acres (40 km2). The gorge is remarkably free of manmade structures, and of the four major gorges in North Carolina, the Linville Gorge is the only one without a road in the bottom.
Formal protection of the area began in 1952, when the land was purchased with funds donated by John D. Rockefeller. When the Wilderness Act was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Johnson in 1964, the Linville Gorge Wilderness became one of the first formally designated Wilderness areas of the new National Wilderness Preservation System. It is the only gorge or canyon in the United States that was labeled a wilderness area in the initial year of the Wilderness Act that has never changed in acreage. It is managed by the Grandfather Ranger District of the United States Forest Service.
Only You Can Protect Linville Gorge Wilderness From Becoming a Managed Forest.