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Requiem for a forest.
PermaLinkDateline: Tellico Plains, TN, Cherokee National Forest
I’m sitting here in deep shock.
A little while ago I returned from a drive up to State Line and back (about 5 miles to the NC border where there used to be a nice campground.) My first trip up this year. I can’t believe what I’ve just seen.
The Forest Service (sic) has utterly destroyed the area between Green Cove (where I live) and the state line. They’ve bulldozed all the ad-hoc camping spots that have been here for a hundred years, curbed and graveled them (eliminating most of the spots in the process) and made “camping” spots, all for $20 a day. No, that’s not a mis-print. More than an RV park charges but with NO amenities.
As recently as a couple of years ago, Tellico was a place to go to get away from it all. Especially developed areas. This place was pretty much as it had been left when the CCC finished with their work during the Depression and logging ended in the 70s. Weekends were a joy. There was multi-purpose recreation – families pitching tents anywhere they could find a flat spot, others fishing, others riding their dirt bikes and still others hiking and simply enjoying nature. Groups of camping friends in RVs parking on other flat spots that had evolved over the years strictly from actual use.
That’s all gone now. The area doesn’t look much different than any other exurban commercial RV park. If I want to go somewhere, coast to a stop in my little rig and flatspot camp, now I’ll have to leave the Tellico mountains. This page on Tellico camping is now mostly a memorial to what used to be.
I’m going back tomorrow with a camera and photograph the destruction. Hopefully I’ll have a new web page up by dark. I’m soooo thankful that I spent some time a couple years ago photographing the area for my Tellico web page.
For the first time in a long time words are failing me. I have that same sick, hollow feeling in my chest that I did when I got the call telling me that Dad had died. This place survived the war for Southern Independence. It survived being clear-cut for timber at the turn of the last century. It’s survived tornadoes and the blizzard of ’93. It survived the CCC. But it’s not going to survive the assault of the forest dis-service and their bulldozers and their greed. In a small way, I think I know how the survivors of Katrina felt. And how my ancestors who fought in the Great War for Southern Independence felt.
If there is any more stark illustration of government run amok, I can’t think of it. It’s rapidly approaching the time to lock and load.
John
Posted by neonjohn on May 31st, 2007 under Government, RV/Camping
January 18th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
That kind of crap is going on all over the south. Most southern states are becoming police states. Don’t be surprised when they close and gate the trails, and MAYBE allow certain clubs an occasional trailride.
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
Many years ago I used to go scuba diving at Reef Point between Newport and Laguna. We had to cross private property to get to the beach. It was a steep climb back up with all the gear but worth it. There were mainly divers, surfers, dogs, and occasionally a nudist. Nobody bothered anybody’s stuff. Then the Irvine Company sold it to the State (California). They put up a parking lot, banned dogs and nudists, and made the walk so far they basically banned divers as well. Then they destroyed the beauty of the place by building condos across Pacific Coast Highway. There never used to be any trash there. Now it stinks. And you have to pay money to go to your own beach! Oh well, the water is too polluted to go in now anyway…
July 25th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Clovelly, Devon, England has this beautiful costal town, (privately owned). Only one steep road but with two names, one for each side:
Upalong and Downalong.
Not so fun is that when I visited the place some years later they had built a visitor center and all persons now have to pay their way to see the town.
North Cape, a mega tourist attraction for more than Europe (owned by Norway’s Government) established the area as a private run tourist trap (visitor center/Imax lookalike cinema) that cost you about $50 to see. In no way can you get to the plateu without paying.
You are not alone, see.
July 5th, 2012 at 10:26 pm
i am so sad about the way the usa, canada, and the uk is going. i am waiting 4 a deal to go through so i can split and i am so afraid the borders will be closed be4 i can get outta here. i stumbled on this site and am so jazzed to find others who think like me. it seems every guy i meet lately doesnt know one end of a hammer from the other, wont even mention screwdrivers, ha.keep on truckin, and if there are any intellegent gypsies out there i would really like to chat. cheers