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September 12, 1867...John Muir Reaches KingstonSubmitted by WhitesCreek on September 12, 2009 - 9:29am.
Excerpted from "A Walk of a Thousand Miles to the Gulf" September 12. Awoke drenched with mountain mist, which made a grand show, as it moved away before the hot sun. Passed Montgomery, a shabby village at the head of the east slope of the Cumberland Mountains. Obtained breakfast in a clean house and began the descent of the mountains. Obtained fine views of a wide, open country, and distant flanking ridges and spurs. Crossed a wide cool stream [Emory River], a branch of the Clinch River. There is nothing more eloquent in Nature than a mountain stream, and this is the first I ever saw. Its banks are luxuriantly peopled with rare and lovely flowers and overarching trees, making one of Nature’s coolest and most hospitable places. Every tree, every flower, every ripple and eddy of this lovely stream seemed solemnly to feel the presence of the great Creator. Lingered in this sanctuary a long time thanking the Lord with all my heart for his goodness in allowing me to enter and enjoy it. Discovered two ferns, Dicksonia and a small matted polypod on trees, common farther South. Also a species of magnolia with very large leaves and scarlet conical fruit. Near this stream I spent some joyous time in a grand rock-dwelling full of mosses, birds, and flowers. Most heavenly place I ever entered. The long narrow valleys of the mountainside, all well watered and nobly adorned with oaks, magnolias, laurels, azaleas, asters, ferns, Hypnum mosses, Madotheca [Scale-mosses], etc. Also towering clumps of beautiful hemlocks. The hemlock, judging from the common species of Canada, I regarded as the least noble of the conifers. But those of the eastern valleys of the Cumberland Mountains are as perfect in form and regal in port as the pines themselves. The latter abundant. Obtained fine glimpses from open places as I descended to the great valley between these mountains and the Unaka Mountains on the state line. Forded the Clinch, a beautiful clear stream, that knows many of the dearest mountain retreats that ever heard the music of running water. Reached Kingston before dark. Sent back my plant collections by express to my brother in Wisconsin.
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Gosh, I just LOVE this!!
I Google mapped it, but it looks like more than a day's walk. Was there an area called Montgomery that isn't on today's maps?
John Muir would have been an Olympic walker. Here's the map he published in his journal.
As far as I can tell, the towns he mentions are the same ones we have today. His journal is a fascinating portrait of the South after the Civil war. Society and government were completely broken in places. Kingston and the Tennessee Valley were functional, mainly because this area did not secede from the Union, as I understand it. Harriman did not exist yet, but was soon founded by a Union General who returned to start his utopian society after the war.
Muir's journal is complete in the online version linked in the post and I highly recommend it.
To cross the Emory and later the Clinch, would he not have had to come through what is now the Harriman area on his way to Kingston?
Before Harriman became a town, there were several trails leading from the North to the South. One came through what is now the Bittercreek area (Little Emory River). An Indian village once existed in the area of "the split" (where 27 and 61 splits with one going to Wartburg, the other to Oliver Springs. Many Indian artifacts have been found in the area near the Hidden Acres/Tanglewood Road embayment and also the embayment between what used to be called "Big Mama's Tavern and the Cumberland Utility facility on Hwy 61.
Long, long ago, the old train tracks ran from Oakdale through Little Emory to the Everton area.
Another was the stage coach route that existed along the Margrave Road (now street)toward the Cave Springs area and to the North. The Hatmaker house (big two story sitting back against the mountains) just North of Harriman is said to have been a station stop for wagons and coaches back in the 1800s.
Oakdale was a thriving area and a major stop for travelers back in the 1800s also.
For some clarification of the Muir route, and where Montgomery is located, I will post this excerpt from the Snyder Robert's book, "Roots of Roane County."
In writing of the 1792 Clack murder (ambushed by Indians)on what is now referred to as Clack's (or Clax) Gap now, here is an excerpt from that book referring to an account by historian John Will Breazeale about the route the party took......
"Breazeale's description of William Clack's murder on Emery Road makes reference to Judge David Campbell as Clack's traveling companion, and that they were traveling from Nashville to East Tennessee. It is possible that the travelers had followed the route (or approximate route) of the Emery Road from Carthage to the site of Montgomery in Morgan County as shown on Matthew Rhea's 1830 map. Thence from Montgomery through the gap (DeArmond's) in Walden Ridge, down the Little Emery to a point near the present Little Emory Church, thence along the Emery Road for about one mile to Clack's Gap."
When I plugged in "Montgomery, TN," Google maps points to a place in the Far North Anderson County mountains. However, if you Google "Montgomery, Morgan, TN," You get Montgomery Road West of Wartburg and East of Lansing. This looks much more like where Muir would have been, since he had just been in Jamestown. From that Montgomery, it would be a feasible (but still impressive) 25.9 miles to Kingston (see Google Maps walking route).
I'm old enough to remember the John Kennedy challenge saying Americans should be able to cover 50 miles in 20 hours. Fit men covered the distance in 8 hours, women in 16. Muir was well up to the task and carried his pack with his collected botanical samples as well. 26 miles is a reasonable day for a fit young man on a mission. Muir wrote that he made it in time to send his samples off to his brother before the Post Office closed. Perhaps this is the keystone event for the John Muir Days celebration that Roane County ought to have every year. (I'm lobbying, in case you hadn't noticed)
Most people would be hard-pressed to walk 50 miles through the woods and up and down ridges and across ravines, etc., in a day.
Tracking animals while walking cross-country on unimproved land used to be my hobby. It can take 30 minutes to go a third of a mile--the distance from my house to my mailbox--over hill and through rough woods, and that is when going at a good clip. It depends on the countryside.
-- OneTahiti
Muir was traveling roads and horse trails for most of his walk. Being a botanist, however, he was prone to getting side tracked. He seems to have been in a greater hurry north of us, where civilization had essentially broken down after the civil war.