Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is an approximately 3,800-acre tract of publicly owned virgin forest in

Graham County, North Carolina Graham County (locally ) is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,030, making it the third-least populous county in North Carolina. Its county seat is Robbinsville. History The cou ...

, named in memory of poet

Joyce Kilmer Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection ''Trees and Other Poems'' in 1914. Though a prolific poet wh ...

(1886–1918), best known for his poem "Trees". One of the largest contiguous tracts of

old growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

in the Eastern United States, the area is administered by the U. S. Forest Service. The memorial forest is a popular family hiking destination and features an easy two-mile, figure-eight trail that includes a memorial plaque at the juncture of the two loops. In 1975 the memorial forest was joined with a much larger tract of the

Nantahala National Forest The Nantahala National Forest ( /ˌnæntəˈheɪlə/), is the largest of the four national forests in North Carolina, lying in the mountains and valleys of western North Carolina. The Nantahala is the second wettest region in the country, after the ...

to become part of the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness.

History

Beginning in 1915, the Babcock Lumber Company of Pittsburgh operated a standard gauge railroad in the area, logging out roughly two-thirds of the Slickrock Creek watershed before construction of

Calderwood Dam Calderwood Dam is a hydroelectric dam located along the Little Tennessee River in Blount and Monroe counties, in the U. S. state of Tennessee. Completed in 1930, the dam is owned and maintained by Tapoco, a subsidiary of the Aluminum Company of ...

threatened to flood the lower part of the railroad. A decline in the price of lumber during the Great Depression also encouraged preservation of the trees. In 1934 the Bozeman Bulger Post (New York) of the Veterans of Foreign Wars petitioned "that the government of the United States examine its millions of forested acres and set aside a fitting area of trees to stand for all time as a living memorial" to Kilmer, a poet and journalist killed during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, whose 1913 poem "Trees" had become a popular favorite. After considering forests throughout the country, the Forest Service decided on an uncut area along Little Santeetlah Creek, which was dedicated as the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest on July 30, 1936.

Importance

The memorial is a rare example of old growth

cove A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are often circular or oval, and are often situated within a larger bay. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are o ...

hardwood forest, a diverse type unique to 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 ...

. Dominant species are

yellow-poplar ''Liriodendron tulipifera''—known as the tulip tree, American tulip tree, tulipwood, tuliptree, tulip poplar, whitewood, fiddletree, and yellow-poplar—is the North American representative of the two-species genus ''Liriodendron'' (the other ...

, oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore. Some trees are over 400 years old, and the oldest yellow-poplars are more than in circumference and stand tall. Missing is the American chestnut, once the dominant tree of the forest, a victim of the chestnut blight accidentally introduced from Asia during the early twentieth century. Although the last of the Kilmer chestnuts had probably died by the late 1930s, their wood is so rot-resistant that remnants of the massive logs and stumps are still visible. Another more recent loss is that of the giant hemlocks due to an infestation of an exotic insect, the

hemlock woolly adelgid The hemlock woolly adelgid (; ''Adelges tsugae''), or HWA, is an insect of the order Hemiptera (true bugs) native to East Asia. It feeds by sucking sap from hemlock and spruce trees (''Tsuga'' spp.; ''Picea'' spp.). In its native range, HWA ...

. Concerned that a falling limb or tree might injure a visitor, Forest Service managers decided to bring down dead trees near the memorial trail in a way they believed would mimic natural

windthrow In forestry, windthrow refers to trees uprooted by wind. Breakage of the tree bole (trunk) instead of uprooting is called windsnap. Blowdown refers to both windthrow and windsnap. Causes Windthrow is common in all forested parts of the w ...

. In November 2010, the Forest Service blew up the trees with explosives, making the lower loop trail much lighter and drier, thereby changing the environment and creating a public relations challenge.''Smoky Mountain News'', November 24, 2010.Carolina Public Press, July 29, 2011
The lower trail vaguely resembles a battlefield—an ironic result at a memorial dedicated to a war casualty.

Images

Joyce kilmer forest map.jpg, Trail map Joyce kilmer plaque.jpg, Dedication plaque Joyce kilmer forest trail.jpg, Trail Joyce kilmer forest creek.jpg, Creek

References

{{Authority control Old-growth forests Wilderness areas of North Carolina Protected areas of Graham County, North Carolina Protected areas established in 1936 Nantahala National Forest