Shady Valley is an
unincorporated community in
Johnson County in the northeastern corner of the
U.S. state of
Tennessee. It is just outside
Cherokee National Forest. Shady Valley is also the name of the
valley in which the town is located, between
Holston Mountain ""it is the twin city of Mountain City Tennessee, on the northwest, and the
Iron Mountains
The Iron Mountains are a mountain range, subrange of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains are located around the common meeting point of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.
A portion of the Appalachian Trail runs the crest of the Iron ...
to the southeast. At 2,785 feet, it is the
second-highest community in Tennessee.
Natural history
After the
Pleistocene ice ages, species and
ecosystems that had shifted southward often survived in local
refugia. As a result, cold-adapted ecosystems, such as
cranberry bog
A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg; a ...
s, remain in Shady Valley, far south of their usual range. Shady Valley once contained an estimated 10,000 acres (40 km) of
boreal
Boreal may refer to:
Climatology and geography
*Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch
*Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...
cranberry bogs.
Recreation
The roads that run in and around the town are popular among
motorcyclists since nearby mountains provide nearly 500 pigtail curves to navigate. The most popular road for motorcyclists is
US-421,
which offers many challenging curves.
Economy
Shady Valley has one small general store; a locally owned restaurant, the 'Raceway Grill'; a U.S. Post Office; and until 2020 the Shady Valley Elementary School, now closed.
The town holds its annual Cranberry Festival the second weekend in October with food, a parade and auctions.
Cranberry Festival
, Johnson County Chamber of Commerce website, accessed August 22, 2009
See also
* Appalachian bogs
Appalachian bogs are boreal or hemiboreal ecosystems, which occur in many places in the Appalachian Mountains, particularly the Allegheny and Blue Ridge subranges. Though popularly called bogs, many of them are technically fens.
Natural histo ...
* Holston Mountain
* Iron Mountains
The Iron Mountains are a mountain range, subrange of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These mountains are located around the common meeting point of Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina.
A portion of the Appalachian Trail runs the crest of the Iron ...
* Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee
Laurel Bloomery is an unincorporated community in Johnson County, 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 ...
References
External links
*
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Appalachian bogs
Unincorporated communities in Tennessee
Unincorporated communities in Johnson County, Tennessee