Lone Mountain State Forest is a state forest in Morgan County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. The forest consists of managed by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Lone Mountain is a detached ridge-like mountain rising to an elevation of in the southern half of Morgan County. Although the mountain's altitude isn't particularly notable, its isolation makes it one of the 25 most prominent mountains in the state of Tennessee.

Geographical setting

Lone Mountain is located on the western fringe of the

Crab Orchard Mountains The Crab Orchard Mountains are a rugged, detached range of the southern Cumberland Mountains. They are situated in East Tennessee atop the Cumberland Plateau just west of the plateau's eastern escarpment, and comprise parts of Morgan, Anderso ...

, the southern tip of the Cumberland Mountains which rise atop the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Alle ...

just west of the plateau's

Walden Ridge Walden Ridge (or Walden's Ridge) is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running gen ...

escarpment. The mountain's western base is formed by the

Emory River The Emory River is a river draining a portion of Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau. It flows for just over from its source near Frozen Head State Park to its mouth along the Clinch River at Kingston, Tennessee. Hydrography The Emory River rises on ...

, which flows down from its source near the summit of Bird Mountain to the northeast and winds around the base of the range before descending the plateau and emptying into the

Watts Bar Lake Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee River created by Watts Bar Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system. Geography Located in the U.S. state of Tennessee about midway between the cities of Chattanooga and Knoxville, the l ...

impoundment of the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, ...

. Lone Mountain's northern base is formed by Crooked Fork, a tributary of the Emory. Bitter Creek, which flows roughly parallel to the Emory, slices a substantial valley along Lone Mountain's eastern base, splitting the mountain off from the rest of the Crab Orchard range. Lone Mountain spans much of the stretch of

U.S. Route 27 U.S. Route 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Highway in the southern and midwestern United States. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I-69) in Fort Wayne, Indiana. F ...

between Harriman and

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the p ...

. The community of Mossy Grove is situated at the mountain's eastern base in the Bitter Creek valley.

History

Lone Mountain State Forest was created from a land donation by the Lone Mountain Land Company in 1938 and a large land purchase by the Morgan County Chancery Court the following year. Lone Mountain was managed as part of Morgan State Forest until 1970, when it became an independent state forest. The State Forestry Division managed Lone Mountain with a "hands-off" approach to allow the forest to recover from damage caused by the Lone Mountain Land Company. Timber harvests within the forest are therefore relatively rare. In 2002, a tornado swept across Morgan County, devastating the community of Mossy Grove and wiping out some of trees in Lone Mountain State Forest. The tornado caused the closure of the Carl Black Spur trail which remains closed as of 2008. Forestry officials plan to have the Carl Black Spur trail open for the public again soon. The tornado opened up the opportunity for a new trail aptly named Twister Pass which runs from the South West trail up to Todds Landing.

Southern pine beetle ''Dendroctonus frontalis'', the Southern Pine Beetle (also known as SPB), is a species of bark beetle native to the forests of southern United States, Mexico and Central America. The Southern Pine Beetle reddish brown to black exoskeleton and me ...

infestations in the 1970s and 1990s killed off a large number of the forest's pine trees, leaving mostly hardwoods.The Tennessee Department of Agriculture,
Lone Mountain State Forest
" Retrieved: 11 January 2008.

Features

Lone Mountain has approximately of trails, the most popular of which leads to Coyote Point, an overlook just below the summit on the south slope of the mountain. The trails were developed in the late 1980s for horseback riding, and are well-equipped with watering holes and hitching posts. The trails are also open to hikers and mountain bikers. The trailhead is located just west of US-27 along Clayton Howard Road.

References

External links

*
Lone Mountain State Forest Trail Map
— provided by TennesseeOutdoorsman.com

— contains trail information and trail maps {{Mountains of Tennessee Protected areas of Morgan County, Tennessee Mountains of Tennessee Tennessee state forests State forests of the Appalachians