Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Walk Over Williams Mountain

I'm afraid I don't get the ORV experience. Why would you want to ride a noisy machine right by tons of really cool things when you could walk and listen and experience them on every level? I was unhappy at seeing the ORV tracks that led down to this spring head. There are extremely rare plants that live in these micro ecosystems and one trip on a 4 wheeler could destroy all of them in one pass. This is the spring head on Williams Mountain above Whites Creek. My botanist friend has asked me to be on the lookout for a rare orchid that grows in spots like this.

This is the Williams Cemetery. I have no idea how that circle was drilled onto the rock headstone. In every one of these old remote cemeteries I always see the headstones that are spaced only a few feet apart. They lost a lot of children in early times. And by early times I mean less than 100 years ago. My maternal grandmother gave birth to 5 babies but only raised 3 children in deep rural Georgia. In parts of Tennessee, like Williams Mountain, it wasn't any better. There are four headstones in this photo and seven more of the small ones just out of the frame to the right.


1 comment:

  1. Your blog has inspired me to start my own. We have common interests but are very different in many ways. You are invited to visit me at Les Ami(e)s du Richelieu, URL http://lesamisdurichelieu.blogspot.com/
    I have been following yours since the day of the ash disaster.

    ReplyDelete