Jocassee Journal Information and News About the Jocassee Gorges

Jocassee Journal Information and News about the Jocassee Gorges Spring/Summer, 2002 Volume 3, Number 1 The Toxaway River spills downstream in North Carolinas Gorges State Park. (Reprinted from Mosaic: 21 Special Places in the Carolinas, copyright 2002, by permission of Westcliffe Publishers Inc., Englewood, Colo., and Tommy Wyche, the photographer.) Jocassee Gorges included in new book Mosaic: 21 Special Places in the Carolinas By Tommy Wyche owned and managed by agencies of the states of North Carolina and South Carolina and the U.S. Forest Service. (Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of installments In the heart of the wilderness lies Lake Jocassee, a 7,500- from Tommy Wyche’s new book, “Mosaic: 21 Special Places acre turquoise jewel of clear, pure water of remarkable in the Carolinas,” published in 2002 by Westcliffe beauty. Duke continues to own and operate this lake as Publishers. Thirty-eight pages of photos and text in the book part of its hydroelectric pumped storage complex. are devoted to Jocassee Gorges. Text and photos reprinted Jocassee Gorges is one of the most biologically diverse with permission. To order the book, call Westcliffe Publishers and important landscapes in the eastern United States. at 1-800-523-3692.) This extraordinary wilderness resource, standing alone, Nine separate areas comprise the parks, wildlife was a compelling cause for preservation. But the Jocassee management areas, and preserves of Jocassee Gorges, as Gorges does not stand alone. Like the keystone of a great this area on the North Carolina-South Carolina border arch, this 50,000-acre tract links two other large natural has come to be known. Seven of the areas, about 39,000 preserves of the Blue Ridge Escarpment to form a acres, are in South Carolina, and three, about 11,000 167,000-acre unspoiled natural area. On the east, South acres, are in North Carolina. Carolina’s Table Rock State Park and the Mountain Superlatives cannot be avoided when describing this Bridge Wilderness Area encompass some 47,000 acres; spectacular wilderness of nearly 50,000 acres of mountain and on the west, more than 70,000 acres of Sumter, lands, cut by steep ravines, rushing streams, and scores of Nantahala, and Chatahoochee National Forests, stretch waterfalls, and abundant plant and animal life. These along the Blue Ridge Escarpment. Together, these lands wilderness properties, once owned by Duke, are now comprise a wilderness area of truly national significance – (See New Book on Page 2) New Book greater numbers of European (Continued from Page 1) settlers, even while the land was under Indian control. Land grants in this area were especially important today recorded as early as 1791. in view of the fact that it is Horsepasture became a located within one of the common name used by fastest growing regions in settlers for the Jocassee area the country. during the Civil War. When Recorded history of this word spread that Sherman part of what are now the and his troops were on their Carolinas dates back to the way into upper South explorations by De Soto in Carolina on their march from 1589 in the vicinity of the Savannah, the settlers, whose Keowee River. The capital livelihood depended on their of the Lower Cherokee livestock, herded their Indian Nation was located animals into this “pasture for on the Keowee at Keowee horses,” to hide them in this Town, a short distance remote, secluded valley. The downstream from where the rugged terrain provided a Jocassee Dam now stands. natural barrier to Sherman’s The Keowee flows through advance. Unfortunately, the Oconee County, and the valley was inundated in county’s name derives from August 1916, when the dam Uk-Oo-Na, meaning on Lake Toxaway broke, “watery eyes of the hills,” flooding out residents and doubtless referring to the depositing a three-foot layer myriad springs, streams and of sand in the once fertile creeks of the Blue Ridge Where Eastatoee Creek enters the Eastatoee Narrows, the vale. Escarpment. The Cherokee entire flow of the creek passes through a 5-foot-wide channel In addition to fur trading called the escarpment the in bedrock. (Reprinted from Mosaic: 21 Special Places in and agriculture, the Jocassee the Carolinas, copyright 2002, by permission of Westcliffe Blue Wall, an apt phrase for Gorges incubated an industry Publishers Inc., Englewood, Colo., and Tommy Wyche, the the nearly vertical photographer.) new to the mountains. In the mountainsides that rise early 1900s logging virgin more than 4,000 vertical timber emerged as a major feet within three or four miles. source of employment. Various timber companies were By the late 1700s trade routes between the Cherokees formed, a sawmill was built in Pickens, South Carolina, and the English had become well established, with and the Pickens Railroad became an important link to Keowee Town the hub along the trading path that the Southern Railway for loggers. By 1927, however, extended into Tennessee. Eventually, relations between timber had to be cut in increasingly remote and steep the Indians and the English became tense and hostilities mountains, and hauling it out by horse and mule-drawn erupted. The Governor of South Carolina had Fort wagons was no longer practicable. The easy days of Prince George constructed on the bank of the Keowee timber harvesting had passed. opposite the Indian capital. A war ensued; in November In January 1927, three New York capitalists formed 1785, at a meeting on the banks of the Keowee, Indian the Appalachian Lumber Company, a New York chiefs signed a treaty with General Andrew Pickens, corporation, and easily raised $1.6 million with a stock surrendering all of what is now the area of the Jocassee offering. (This equates to approximately $10 million Gorges to the United States. adjusted for inflation today!) With these funds, the The Cherokee called the area Jocassee, which means Company constructed a huge, triple-band sawmill near “Place of the Lost One,” a phrase derived from a legend Pickens large enough to handle trees sixty inches in of a princess named Jocassee whose lover was killed in a diameter. It then purchased the Pickens Railroad and tribal battle her brother. Upon seeing the severed head of built logging railroads and spurs along the creeks, with her lover, the princess slipped away in a canoe; she then trestles spanning deep ravines to reach the most remote stepped into the river, but instead of sinking, she walked areas where the “big ‘uns” grew. across it to meet the ghost of her lover and disappeared. (Next installment: Appalachian Lumber Company goes The fertile valleys of the Horsepasture, Laurel Fork, bankrupt in 1929 after a torrential rainstorm washes out Toxaway and Eastatoe Rivers attracted greater and many of the train trestles in Jocassee Gorges.) 2 A Becoming an Outdoors-Woman group toured Jocassee Gorges during peak leaf season. Pictured (standing, from left) are Lisa Dalton, Ineke Powers, Jill Denton, Chris Worthy, Angela Smith, Sharon Wright and Susan Dickerson. Kneeling (from left) are Susan Dalton and Jerri Channell. (Photos courtesy of Susan Dalton) Becoming an Outdoors-Woman group tours Jocassee Gorges By Sharon Dobbs, Angela Smith and Pamela Youngblood Instead of battling whitecaps, we posed for pictures in front of cascading waterfalls. Whitewater Falls was Kayaking on Lake Jocassee sounded like heaven. So breathtaking in the crisp autumn air. So early one misty October morning we breathtaking, in fact that Pamela had to gathered our duds, met at a friend’s wait behind while others completed the house, and sped toward our adventure. hike. From Whitewater Falls we We envisioned sparkling blue water ventured on to tour the Walhalla State lapping gently against our boats, crisp Fish Hatchery before enjoying a hearty autumn air, and glorious foliage in the lunch of hot homemade soup, distance. One problem - heaven was compliments again of our creative extremely cold and windy that Becoming an Outdoors-Woman staff. morning. The whitecaps on Lake Things don’t always turn out as Jocassee were visible from the Devils expected, but with the Becoming an Fork State Park visitor’s center as our Outdoors-Woman program, it’s shivering hands clutched our coffee guaranteed to be an adventure filled cups: No way would we be allowed to with friends, fun and frivolity! kayak that bitter day. (Sharon Dobbs, Angela Smith and Pamela Our spirit for adventure, however, Youngblood are teachers at Pickens High was undampened. Instead of calling it School. After their first Becoming an a wash, our gracious Becoming an Outdoors-Woman experience in 2000, they Outdoors-Woman leaders offered us a formed their own group called the healthy mountain hike instead. The Outdoors Women Leaders or OWL’s. For day was saved! We waved goodbye to more information on the Becoming an Becoming an Outdoors-Woman Outdoors-Woman program, call (803) instructor (and DNR Freshwater Whitewater Falls 734-3624, e-mail [email protected] Fisheries Section assistant chief) Ross or visit the DNR Web site at http:// Self as he took the kayaks and drove www.dnr.state.sc.us/cec/ow.html.) away into the mist. 3 Diversifying Jocassee Gorges to include grasslands-shrublands for wildlife By Anna E. Huckabee South Carolina DNR Jocassee has great potential to become the Cinderella most common species such as the Eastern towhee and story of modern wildlife management, but to get there, American goldfinch have experienced significant it must be diversified to give both late-successional and declines in the last 35 years, some as much as 20 percent early-successional species a place within the landscape. since 1966. (Succession refers to the growth stages of a forest.) The 43,500-acre Jocassee tract is large enough to provide a variety of habitat types for populations of plants and animals that require such areas in their life cycles.

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