Clinch Mountain is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually highe ...

ridge in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

s of

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, lying in the ridge-and-valley section of the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

. From its southern terminus at Kitts Point, which lies at the intersection of Knox, Union and Grainger counties near

Blaine, Tennessee Blaine, formerly known as Blaine's Crossroads, is a city in Grainger County, Tennessee, United States, and a suburb of neighboring Knoxville. It is part of both the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Morristown Metropolitan Statis ...

, it runs in a generally east-northeasterly direction to Garden Mountain near Burke's Garden, Virginia. It separates the

Clinch River The Clinch River is a river that flows southwest for more than through the Great Appalachian Valley in the U.S. states of Virginia and Tennessee, gathering various tributaries, including the Powell River, before joining the Tennessee River in Ki ...

basin, to the north, and the

Holston River The Holston River is a river that flows from Kingsport, Tennessee, to Knoxville, Tennessee. Along with its three major forks (North Fork, Middle Fork and South Fork), it comprises a major river system that drains much of northeastern Tennessee, ...

basin, to the south.

Geography

Clinch Mountain is a long ridge, about in length. It runs generally southwest-northeast, with numerous curves. Its north-south extent is , and east-west . Due to its size it is sometimes called a mountain range or complex. The ridge includes the sub-range of Knob Mountain, as well as four summits above 4,000 feet ( Beartown Mountain, Flattop Mountain, Morris Knob, and Chimney Rock Peak). For its entire length, Clinch Mountain has only one true gap through which the ridge is completely sliced in half and continues as Clinch Mountain on either side, divided by Big Moccasin Creek. It is named Moccasin Gap and runs between Weber City and Gate City, Virginia. The Norfolk Southern Railway and U.S. Highways 23-58-421 utilize that gap because there is no elevation in the division of the mountain. Moccasin Gap is currently planned to undergo major mountain removal to accommodate a planned highway project. The natural appearance of the gap will be altered significantly. 30 miles northeast of Moccasin Gap, in Russell County, U.S. Highway 58 Alternate crosses Clinch Mountain at Brumley Mountain, between Hansonville and Abingdon. All other transportation crossings, as noted below, require an elevation climb to the top of the Clinch Mountain. When U.S. Highway 25E was realigned into a four-lane highway northwest of

Bean Station, Tennessee Bean Station is a town in Grainger and Hawkins counties in the state of Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,967. Established in 1776 as a frontier outpost by William Bean, it is considered one of the earlie ...

in the 1980s, it was necessary to cut a new gap into the top of Clinch Mountain, which lowered the original gap elevation by 200 feet. That realignment, along with the lowering of

Interstate 26 Interstate 26 (I-26) is a main route of the Interstate Highway System in the Southeastern United States. Nominally east–west, as indicated by its even number, I-26 runs from the junction of U.S. Route 11W (US 11W) and US 23 in K ...

- U.S. Highway 23 at

Sams Gap Sams or SAMS can refer to: As an acronym * Sadat Academy for Management Sciences * School of Advanced Military Studies * Scottish Association for Marine Science * South African Mathematical Society * South African Medical Service * South African ...

on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, are the only instances of a highway gap in Tennessee actually lowering an original gap where a state or federal highway was built through. (Sams Gap was lowered by 150 feet to accommodate the new Interstate 26 highway).

History

Clinch Mountain is named after the

, which was named after an 18th-century explorer. The earliest known reference to the name is in the 18th-century journal of Dr. Thomas Walker: "Clinch's River, from one Clinch a hunter" (Stewart, 1967:146). The Wilderness Road to the

Cumberland Gap The Cumberland Gap is a pass through the long ridge of the Cumberland Mountains, within the Appalachian Mountains, near the junction of the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It is famous in American colonial history for its r ...

crossed Clinch Mountain at

Moccasin Gap Moccasin Gap, also known as Big Moccasin Gap, is a pass in Clinch Mountain, a long ridge within the Appalachian Mountains, at Gate City, Virginia. This gap has a long history as a passageway through the mountain. It was used by the Cherokee and S ...

, which Moccasin Creek flows through to join the

to the south. Signal Point peak situated near Kitts Point, the southern terminus of Clinch Mountain, was used to signal troops during the Civil War. The mountains along the Clinch Mountain Ridge also played an important role in the

Battle of Bean's Station The Battle of Bean's Station (December 14, 1863) was a battle fought in Grainger County, Tennessee, during the Knoxville campaign of the American Civil War. The action saw Confederate forces commanded by Lieutenant General James Longstreet attac ...

. Apart from battles, the mountains in Grainger County, Tennessee had prominence in the late 1800s when the mineral springs in the area drew notable visitors from around the globe. Tate Springs, as the town and resort were named, included an enormous hotel, golf course and mineral baths. The seasonal resort even had its own spur on the railroad, so visitors could easily make the trip from all over the country. Notable guests included the Fords, Studebakers, Mellons, Firestones and Rockefellers. Because of a devastating fire and the Great Depression, only a few buildings survive today. In the 1970s through the 1980s, plans for a 75-mile-long hiking trail system known as the Trail of the Lonesome Pine were proposed to run along the ridgeline of Clinch Mountain from the Tennessee-Virginia state line in Hancock County to its terminus in the city of Blaine in Grainger County. The plans were met with extreme opposition from unwilling property owners, particularly those from Grainger County, as the project would be nearly complete in the Hawkins and Hancock portions of the trail system. With the unwillingness from Grainger County property owners, the trail system would be abandoned all-together in 1981 despite the completion of construction outside of Grainger County.

Music

"Way Up on Clinch Mountain," a folk song based on a 17th-century Scottish ballad, was recorded by Woody Guthrie as "Rye Whiskey," and is included in

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

's '' American Songbag''. The song is credited by him with inspiring the legion of "

Bang Bang Lulu "Bang Bang Lulu" is a traditional American song with many variations. It derives from older songs most commonly known as "Bang Bang Rosie" in Ireland, "Bang Away Lulu" in Appalachia,Cray, Ed. ''The Erotic Muse: American Bawdy Songs'' 2nd&nbs ...

" variants.Sandburg, Carl. ''American Songbag''
pp. 307 ff
1927. Accessed 13 Jan 2014. The

Carter Family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

immortalized the American mountain in their 1928 "My Clinch Mountain Home." A fiddle tune called "Clinch Mountain Backstep" (attributed to Ralph Stanley

is in the Appalachian folk repertoire.

Literature

Clinch Mountain is also the referenced home of one branch the

Sackett The Sackett family is a fictional American family featured in a number of western novels, short stories and historical novels by American writer Louis L'Amour. Background The novels trace much of the history of the family through individu ...

family tree, a fictional family that

Louis L'Amour Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; né LaMoore; March 22, 1908 – June 10, 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work "frontier stories"); however, he also wrote hi ...

made famous with a series of seventeen books.

Liberty University Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia ( Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Lib ...

in Lynchburg, Virginia produced an original work in 2018 based on several individuals and families from this area. ''Bloodroot: The Ballad of Clinch Mountain'', was created by the Women's Writing Project at Liberty. The play is based on actual events ranging from the 18th to the 20th century. Characters include

Mary Draper Ingles Mary Draper Ingles (1732 – February 1815), also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken ...

, Orelena Hawks Puckett, the

Carter family Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and 1956. Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. ...

, and several others of note.

Transportation crossings

The following crossings of Clinch Mountain can be made, from southwest to northeast: ;Tennessee * Joppa Mountain Road connects Joppa and Powder Springs via Powder Spring Gap. * U.S. Route 25E ( State Route 32) connects Tazewell and Bean Station via Bean Gap. * State Route 31 connects Spruce Pine and Treadway via Flat Gap. *

State Route 66 The following highways are numbered 66: Australia * Barkly Highway (Northern Territory) * Riddoch Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 66 * Highway 66 (Ontario) Finland * Kantatie 66 ( Orivesi — Lapua) France * A66 autoroute Germany * Bu ...

connects Klondike and Lee Valley via Big War Gap. * State Route 70 connects

Alumwell Alumwell is a suburb on the west side of Walsall, in the West Midlands of England. The area is home to Walsall Manor Hospital Walsall Manor Hospital is an acute general hospital in Walsall, West Midlands managed by the Walsall Healthcare NHS T ...

and Eidson via Little War Gap. ;Virginia * The

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

Kingsport Subdivision The Kingsport Subdivision (also KP Subdivision) is a 133.2-mile (214.4 km) railroad line owned and operated by CSX Transportation in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee. It was formerly part of the Huntington West Division. It bec ...

connects Kermit and Speers Ferry via the Clinch Mountain Tunnel. *

U.S. Route 23 } U.S. Route 23 or U.S. Highway 23 (US 23) is a major north–south U.S. Highway between Jacksonville, Florida, and Mackinaw City, Michigan. It is an original 1926 route which originally reached only as far south as Portsmouth, Ohio, and has sinc ...

/ U.S. Route 58/

U.S. Route 421 U.S. Route 421 (also U.S. Highway 421, US 421) is a diagonal northwest–southeast United States Numbered Highway in the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana. The highway runs for from Fort Fisher, North Caro ...

and the Norfolk Southern Railway

Appalachia Division Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

connect Weber City and Gate City via

. * State Route 612 connects Mendota and

Collinwood Collinwood is a historical area in the northeast part of Cleveland, Ohio. Originally a village in Euclid Township, it was annexed by the city in 1910. Collinwood grew around the rail yards of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway (now C ...

via Fugate Gap. *

U.S. Route 19 U.S. Route 19 (US 19) is a north–south U.S. Highway in the Eastern United States. Despite encroaching Interstate Highways, the route has remained a long-haul road, connecting the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Erie. The highway's southern ...

U.S. Route 58 Alternate U.S. Route 58 Alternate (US 58 Alt.) is a alternate route to US 58 in western Virginia. The route is a northern bypass to US 58 which stays closer to the Tennessee border and serves Gate City and Bristol. Route description Jonesville to Norto ...

connects Holston and Hansonville via Little Moccasin Gap. * State Route 80 connects the settlement of Hayters Gap and Rockdell via Hayters Gap. * State Route 91 connects Tannersville and

Maiden Spring Maiden Spring is a historic home and farm complex and national historic district located at Pounding Mill, Tazewell County, Virginia. The district encompasses eight contributing buildings, two contributing sites, and one contributing structure. ...

via an unnamed crossing. * State Route 16 connects Asberrys and Benbow via an unnamed crossing.

References