The appearance of the Southeastern landscape, specifically our state, prior to European settlement is something that has fascinated me for sometime now. I thought I would share this article I came across in case there were any of you like me with an interest in this, or maybe you’d never thought about it before. It would be a trip to go back in time and see what it looked like in person.

LINK

Something astonishing to see are the lands that make up what is now Talladega National Forest. When the United States bought those lands they were completely devastated by poor logging and poor farming techniques and most of that land looked like something out of the duct bowl in Oklahoma. Difficult to imagine looking at it now, but it was bad. The land was virtually worthless for anything.

Some other interesting pictures to search for is the landscape around Chattanooga after the "Battle Above the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain.

So cool!! Thanks!!

I have read several books that have included accounts of some of the earliest expeditions into the interior. One account of an expedition who got lost in a corn field for 2 days and couldn't find their way out until they sent out scouts who then had a difficult time even re-finding the expedition and finally they found the Indians. Thousands of them. That's a serious big corn field. They would clear huge expanses of land moving around constantly because the ground would become infertile after a couple growing seasons. Which we are all familiar with the reasons for that but their answer was to just move.

William Bartram's diaries about his travels through the Southeast are pretty cool to read.

Good thread.

I have often wondered , when finding an Alabama arrowhead, what did it look like when that point was formed and used. I'm sure it was not what the Europeans found and certainly not what it looks like today.

I did not know that what was once Alabama's largest waterfall is now submerged under Smith Lake.

Very interesting

I recommend everyone read that. A lot of the language in there was stolen by Coleridge when he wrote Kubla Khan. Europeans though Bartram was making it up... he wasnt.

I bought that book for a friend as a gift, but I haven't read it yet myself. I'm going to buy myself a copy.

Here are a couple pics from what our woods used to look like: https://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/compass/2017/09/21/reforesting-a-stumpscape/

Have not heard of this, I’ll be ordering it soon. Thanks!

Far less than 1% of virgin Bald Cypress trees survived the great logging age following the Civil War but they do exist and some of the still living trees are over 2500 years old. I know of one freakishly enormous tree deep in the Escambia River swamp that is in such a difficult place to get to that the loggers never got it. I would love to know how old that gigantic tree is.

Another interesting book about early Alabama is called Letters From Alabama. I can't recall the author but he was a British fellow that was hired to teach in Pleasant Hill before the Civil war. He took a steam ship up the Alabama River from Mobile to King's Landing, which is where I hunt to make it even more interesting to me. His descriptions of life, Alligators and other wildlife were really cool. He even described an outing in which they "jacklighted" deer. So there's a long, documented history of spotlighting in Dallas County.

Go by the Sawmill in Brent and see all the huge log pictures. I would have liked to see all the Chestnut trees before the blight killed them.

Love the Sawmeal!

Nah, that’s not right. The whole south was covered with virgin hardwood, with park like understory and every game species imaginable hiding behind every tree. Didn’t y’all know.

Batram's observations are interesting but academic. Fascinating to read and includes some great descriptions of what it looked like. You can find a map of his course through Alabama. Another good one is Pickett's "History of Alabama" published in 1851. Has observations and contemporary views of the state from the early periods.

When I was a kid, I remember visiting my grandparents in Greenville and my granddaddy and dad taking me to see the last old growth forest left in that area. It was being put to the saw and people were going to see it before it was cut. This was probably in the early 1980's and I was maybe 12. I remember walking along a creek and the pines and oaks were huge and the understory was open and you could see forever. To a young kid they looked like giant redwoods. The three of us couldn't link arms around most of the trees.

A tract we have leased for 30+ years next to our farm in Barbour County had a backwater off a creek that had probably a 200 acre cypress, tupelo, bay and water oak swamp. Never been cut. Cypress trees were enormous. Drought hit in the early 2000's and they could get equipment in there. The owner leveled it. Didn't need the money and was 80 years old but it was his property. 20 years later and it is almost impenetrable. It was amazing back then but didn't hold a lot of deer, The deer would travel along the high spots that bordered the swamp. Great place to hunt if you wanted to put in the work to get in there.