Black Rock in the Blue Ridge EarthCache

The Blue Ridge Mountains, like the rest of the Appalachians, were originally formed by the massive forces that resulted when the continental plates of Africa and North America collied some 250 million years ago. The amount of pressure and heat generated by these two continents crunching together was tremendous, and as the ancestral Blue Ridge region was uplifted skyward, layers of rock far beneath the surface became so hot that they melted. The uplifting, folding and faulting of the mountain building activities exposed the ancient metamorphosed Blue Ridge rocks, which are the core of the mountain range. The inner Piedmont closest to the Blue Ridge is also highly metamorphosed, having been nearly at the center of the continental collisions. The outer Piedmont is more variably metamorphosed. The border between the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces is often considered the Brevard Fault Zone. The only sedimentary rocks or sediments within the Blue Ridge and Piedmont region are modern (Quaternary age) deposits from rivers and streams, and rift basin deposits, which formed during the Triassic and Jurassic periods when the ancient supercontinent of Pangea split apart. Over time, as the collision forces slowley subsided, certain melted rocks cooled and crystallized to form granite. Volcanic and sedimentary rocks were transformed by the heat and pressure into different types of rock known as schists and gneiss (pronounced "nice") is two common forms of these metamorphic rocks. These rocks have tiny, black, shiny specks embeded in them. These specks are particles of Biotite, a black colored form of mica.

GNEISS QUARTZITE SCHIST SLATE

When these mountains were originally formed the height of the Blue Ridge range rose five to ten miles above the earths surface, towering over the present day Rockies and Himalayans. The rocks visible to you now were once hidden far below the earth's surface. The rounded and time-worn knobs of the Blue Ridge, along with the other ranges of the Appalachains, are some of the very oldest mountains in the world. Continuous erosion over millions of years has weathered away overlying layers until finally exposing the outcrops you see today. Other North American ranges are much younger, and they look like it. The Rocky Mountains, for instance, are only about 65 milloin years old. They're still quite high and they retain the sharp, jagged contours of a relatively young range. Slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains facing the coastal piedmont are generally steeper and more rugged than those facing the interior of the United States. Rocks from the eastern slope are among the oldest on earth, some exceeding 1.2 billion years and pre-dating the formation of the mountains. These mountains were formed in three major uplift phases, the first about a billion years ago, the second perhaps some 550 million years ago, and the final one about 300 million years ago. Other uplifts that were regional in nature occurred as well. Since that time water, wind, temperature and gravity have caused the fundamental erosion that created the Blue Ridge. Eventually, however, the Rockies. like the Appalachains, will succumb to the unrelenting effects of wind and water erosion. It's just a matter of time.

An interesting relationship exists between the forces of nature trying to further strip the soil and the mountains themselves. Water, in the form of rain, is the most effective agent of erosion. The five to eight feet of yearly rainfall the area sees would move much of the mountains to the plains of southeast Georgia. However, about 2 million years ago, thanks to the same rain that was so effectively washing the mountains to the sea, a forest arose. Holding the meager topsoil to the earth, the trees stopped the massive erosion and a balanced formed. Water that would erode the mountain now nourished the trees that protected the topsoil. Without the rainfall the forest would die. Without the forest, the mountains would die.

Geology:

A look at rocks exposed in today's Appalachian mountains reveals elongated belts of folded and thrust faulted marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks and slivers of ancient ocean floor, which provides strong evidence that these rocks were deformed during plate collision. The birth of the Appalachian ranges, some 480 million years ago, marks the first of several mountain building plate collisions that culminated in the construction of the supercontinent Pangaea with the Appalachians near the center. Because North America and Africa were connected, the Appalachians formed part of the same mountain chain as the Anti-Atlas in Morocco. This mountain range, known as the Central Pangean Mountains, extended into Scotland, from the North America/Europe collision.

During the middle Ordovician Period (about 496-440 million years ago), a change in plate motions set the stage for the first Paleozoic mountain building event (Taconic orogeny) in North America. The once-quiet Appalachian passive margin changed to a very active plate boundary when a neighboring oceanic plate, the Iapetus, collided with and began sinking beneath the North American craton. With the birth of this new subduction zone, the early Appalachians were born. Along the continental margin, volcanoes grew, coincident with the initiation of subduction. Thrust faulting uplifted and warped older sedimentary rock laid down on the passive margin. As mountains rose, erosion began to wear them down. Streams carried rock debris down slope to be deposited in nearby lowlands. The Taconic Orogeny was just the first of a series of mountain building plate collisions that contributed to the formation of the Appalachians, culminating in the collision of North America and Africa.

By the end of the Mesozoic era, the Appalachian Mountains had been eroded to an almost flat plain. It was not until the region was uplifted during the Cenozoic Era that the distinctive topography of the present formed. Uplift rejuvenated the streams, which rapidly responded by cutting downward into the ancient bedrock. Some streams flowed along weak layers that define the folds and faults created many millions of years earlier. Other streams downcut so rapidly that they cut right across the resistant folded rocks of the mountain core, carving canyons across rock layers and geologic structures.

Culture:

Part of the region we call "Appalachia," the Blue Ridge Mountains have a rich cultural heritage that it shares not with individual states, but with other mountain areas in the this country within a country. Today the individual culture of Appalachia no longer exists, but has become part of our society in the form of both country and bluegrass music, "southern" rock and roll and the many varieties of folk art.

In Georgia, Appalachia's cultural works include the Foxfire Books, bluegrass music, the rich folk art of the mountains, and poetry. Foxfire is both a magazine and series of books published by students from northeast Georgia that chronicle the lives of the people of Appalachia and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Black Rock Mountain State Park has a great exhibit in the visitors center well as the Foxfire Museum on the way into the park.

Bluegrass music, sometimes called "old-time music" is a unique sound that had its earliest roots in post-Civil War Appalachia. It features mostly acoustical instruments and combines elements of both traditional Scottish and Irish folk music. Song lyrics, if they are present, can run the gamut from Christian to stories about life in this mostly rural area.

By the 1880's, loose knit "fiddlers conventions" were held throughout the region, normally in a large town near the mountains. Fiddlers would compete for small prizes and bragging rights. With the advent of radio the musical genre went commercial, thanks to men like Georgian Fiddlin' John Carson, the first commercially successful country performer. Carson, who was born in Acworth, Georgia and grew up in Marietta, fabricated a birthplace of Blue Ridge, Georgia and a birth date of 1868, so that he would appear older and more rural to his core constituency. It is from performers like Fiddlin' John that modern country music evolved.

Traditional folk arts were also an important expression. Storytelling, folk dancing plus a wide range of handcrafting are additional outlets for creativity among the mountain folk. The poetry of the region includes Georgia's poet laureate, Byron Herbert Reece, who was born in Towns County, Georgia.

Regional History:

* Hernando deSoto was the first European to reach the Blue Ridge Mountains, visiting the Nachoochee Valley and a site near Carters Lake. The route he took between these locations is a hotly argued topic. Other Spanish explorers made it to Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains as well - as did some Spanish gold miners who knew of the wealth of the these mountains.

* First of many English explorers to enter the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains may have been Col. George Chicken in 1702 (or earlier). Working for South Carolina Governor James Moore, Chicken established relations with many of the Overhill villages in present-day Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee including the villages of Chote and Nachoochee on the northern end of the Chattahoochee River in the Nachoochee Valley of White County. Most famous of the early explorers was William Bartram, who walked through Georgia's Blue Ridge in 1775. He frequently referred to them as the Cherokee Mountains, because of the large number of Indian villages he found.

* England's King George III included the Blue Ridge Mountains as part of the American colonies when he defined the western extreme of British occupation in Southeast in 1763 (Proclamation of 1763). At the time, virtually the entire range in Georgia was considered to be Cherokee land. The Cherokee farmed the valleys and hunted in the mountains, and called it "The Enchanted Land." They would continue to live in the Blue Ridge Mountains until they were forced west on the tragedy known as the Trail Of Tears.

* Establishing a through route from Savannah to Knoxville was important to the coastal traders. From the navigable end of the Toccoa River (at Travelers Rest), the Unicoi Turnpike ran to Knoxville across the Blue Ridge. It was the first road to cross the mountains in Georgia. Others followed including the Union Turnpike (later called the Logan Turnpike) and the Georgia Road (called the Federal Highway after 1819).

* Georgia gave away land in the Blue Ridge Mountains in a series of land lotteries and the gold lottery. Much of the high mountain land was undesirable and winners sold it to settlers from other areas of Southern Appalachia. These men and women eagerly moved into north Georgia when the Cherokee left, and Georgia's Blue Ridge quickly became an extension of Appalachia. Settled mostly by poor Scottish and Irish immigrants, Southern Appalachia developed its own language, customs and music that differed from the culture developed in the United States as a whole.

* Sparsely populated at the start of The Civil War, the mountain communities tended to be pro-union until the outbreak of war. Once Georgia seceded, the mountain families remained loyal to their state, in spite of the fact that most did not own slaves. With fathers and older sons off fighting the war, near anarchy conditions made life difficult for those left behind to tend farms. Georgia Governor Joe Brown, who was born and raised in the Blue Ridge Mountains, would send troops on occasion to restore order.

* After the Civil War the agricultural economic base was extended with additional businesses. Mining, especially copper and carborundum was making money, thanks in part to new railroads running near and through these North Georgia's mountains. Travel to remote destinations became more popular, with Tallulah Gorge one of the major attractions. Another business popular in the mountains was distilling. Moonshine from the northern tier of counties found its way to the thirsty mouths of Atlanta from the 1880's on. Large-scale operations were found in the mountains into the 21st century.

* Beginning in 1900 large areas of the abundant North Georgia forests were stripped of trees. Major logging operations were centered near Ellijay, Helen and Dahlonega, with smaller saw mills pulling trees from almost the all of north Georgia. The federal government purchased the barren land, forming the Cherokee National Forest. In 1937 the national forests were organized along state boundaries, so the Georgia portion of the Cherokee National Forest was renamed the Chattahoochee National Forest.

* Power was essential to a growing city like Atlanta, and Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains were the perfect location for hydro-electric generation. In 1912 the first major power project got underway at Tallulah Gorge. All the power went to Atlanta; workers on the project went home to candles and wood-burning stoves. Electricity (and phones) did not become common in Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains until after World War II.

* Long distance rail carriers avoided the mountains prior to the 1880's -- they made it much more difficult to make a profit. Not that it hadn't been tried. In Warwoman Dell there are the graded remains of a railroad sometimes called the "Blue Ridge Railroad." The project entailed connecting existing lines from Knoxville to Cincinnati and Charleston to Andersonville with track across the Blue Ridge Mountains called the Cincinnati, Louisville, and Charleston Railroad. Work began in 1854. The state of Georgia proposed and chartered the "North Eastern Railway" connecting Athens, Georgia with the as yet unbuilt line. The Civil War interrupted construction and when it began again after the war money issues stopped it again. The first railroad to breach the Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains was the Marietta and North Georgia, from Marietta to Knoxville. To the east, the Tallulah Falls Railroad purchased an existing line between Cornelia and Tallulah Falls, extending it to Franklin, North Carolina.

* County, state and federal road building projects began in these mountain communities in the 1920's. County roads and most state roads remained gravel into the 1960's, but the federal government began to build paved "farm-to-market" roads like U. S. 76 in the 1930's. With the roads came a second wave of economic diversity that stabilized the agrarian economy. Gas stations, auto repair shops and in some towns, car dealers - mostly as an addition to the local hardware store - energized local economies. As the fingers of the interstate highway system reached towards the mountains in the early 1980's, Georgia built the Appalachian Development Highway (GA 515 or "the four-lane").