In 2019, Hoot Gibbs and I began assisting in a program of activities with the Graham County 4-H Club, to get young people outdoors more and off-the-couch, where much time was spent texting on their phones.
Along with Graham County Extension Service Director Randy Collins, we set up a schedule of visits to area waterfalls, including Yellow Creek Falls, Burgins Creek Falls, Wright Creek Falls, Falls Branch Falls – in Tennessee, off the Cherohala Skyway – and Sassafras Falls on Big Snowbird Creek.
Collins said that the 4-H members told him that the waterfall hikes was what they liked best of all activities that summer.
Then COVID struck and put an end to the hikes.
This year, the hikes resumed again. This time, we visited area balds – which are still somewhat a mystery as to what caused them, despite much research. We visited Oak Knob, Big Huckleberry, Joanna Bald, Wachacha Bald, Whig Meadows and Cheoah Bald, where we were caught in a soaking rain on the return trip.
Some of these trips required some steep climbing, especially to Cheoah Bald.
Since this was our last trip of the season, I told the young members that they were a privileged group, even though they might not feel like it after the strenuous climb to get up there. I told them that they were privileged because they had been places and seen areas that most people in their age group had no idea where they were located and would likely not ever be there.
I mentioned if they thought what they had been through was physically difficult – which it was – to think instead of how difficult it was on the early white settlers who came here and found forests so dense that they had to cut their way through them. Then there came the clearing of land for a cabin and crop land, using hand tools.
I mentioned how difficult it must have been to grub huge stumps out of the ground. I also mentioned that most – if not all of them – would likely marry, have children and grandchildren and to think of the stories they could tell them about their “mountain experiences.”
The learning was not all on their side though. Hoot and I got acquainted with a lot of young people and some of the parents that we likely would not have met otherwise. I got to meet 8-year-old Marshall Stewart, who I think is on his way to becoming a true mountain man. Then there is another 8-year-old – Arcadia Lovelace – who gave me many “nature lessons” on certain sticks, stones, leaves, mushroom and any other items that we might come upon.
How do you set the value on something like that? It reminded me of the Bible verse in Isaiah 11:6 which says – in part – “And a little child shall lead them.”
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.