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Tennessee Parks and Greenways News
Last update Monday June 30, 2008 15:57 -0500
News Past releases Contact us with your news Go inside Devilstep Hollow Cave	Read about our latest acquisition in Scott's Gulf! Knoxville News Sentinel http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jun/28/piece-by-piece-preservation/ Sparta Expositer http://www.spartaexpositor.com/articles/2008/06/30/news/doc48692e425c01a328414349.txt Herald-Citizen http://www.herald-citizen.com/index.cfm?event=news.view&id=D1719A9D-19B9-E2E2-67ABD5F5C5F6FE4D
	Photo by Alan Poizner (www.poizner.com)
	Foundation Vice President John Noel and Executive Director Kathleen Williams attended a Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) gathering at Emmylou Harris' house to review priorities in Tennessee which includes mountaintop removal. ef
	Meet our Regional Land Conservation Directors
	Robert McCaleb works in the South Cumberlands region. He is a graduate of Auburn University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering and a M.S. degree in Environmental Engineering. He is a licensed engineer in the States of Tennessee and Alabama, with over 25 years of experience in environmental remediation of hazardous waste sites and the manufacture of water treatment chemicals. Since 2001, Robert has been associated with the consulting firm ST Environmental Professionals.
	He and his wife, Patti, have three children: Laura, a senior at Covenant College; Leah, a freshman at Tennessee Tech; and Landon, a freshman in high school. Robert and his family are active in Westwood Baptist Church in Cleveland, Tennessee. Robert has volunteered extensively for various conservation groups and state agencies over the years. His hobbies are outdoor activities including hiking, camping, and cave exploring. ef
	Graydon Swisher II recently joined us the Regional Land Conservation Director for West Tennessee. A native of West Tennessee, he graduated from Munford High School in Tipton County and received a BBA from Memphis State University in Personnel and Industrial Relations. Graydon has been in industrial safety for over 30 year and was a hazardous material spill clean-up team member with FedEx. He is currently a Certified Playground Safety Inspector, an EMA Reservist, a Disaster Relief CISM Chaplain, and certified in cave rescue.
	As an avid outdoorsman and Mississippi River enthusiast, Graydon has traveled from Itasca State Park in Minnesota to Chalmette, Louisiana. He is a member of the Trail of Tears Association and West Tennessee Historical Society. Graydon and his wife, Phyllis, have six children (all grown) and five grandchildren. Including spouses, they have four teachers in the public school system, two Certified Personal Trainers, one professional outdoorsman, one geologist and one electrical apprentice. Welcome Graydon!!! ef
	Go inside Devilstep Hollow Cave LAND DEAL PROTECTS CAVE WITH ANCIENT DRAWINGS By Anne Paine • Staff Writer • February 26, 2008 CROSSVILLE, Tenn. — The green, 385-acre Devilstep Hollow has guarded a secret since prehistoric times. A cave lies underground with bird-man creatures and other mysterious images carved into the limestone or painted on the walls. This is one of only about 60 cave art sites documented in the Southeast, and 48 in Tennessee, according to Jan Simek, distinguished professor of science and interim chancellor of the University of Tennessee. The Devilstep cave art should survive modern times because the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation has acquired the land, and the state is buying it at cost, about $2.1 million, including surveying and fees. This will protect the natural area and spring that helps form the Sequatchie River, but the cave is its most unusual feature. People of the mound-building, culturally-rich Mississippian Era crawled on their bellies through the cave and left the artistic marks of their existence, probably about 1280-1300 A.D., Simek said. "These are spiritual places," he said. "They are very precious things, very delicate and fragile." The cave is gated and locked, and the property has a caretaker. The land above, however, will open to the public one day. The pastoral Devilstep Hollow, ringed with the Cumberland Mountains and graced with trees, a clear river and cabins, looks like a national park, said Kathleen Williams, head of the foundation. Williams foresees a hostel there and possibly a museum with a virtual reality cave tour. "Hopefully, this will be a place for hikers to stay along the cross-state Cumberland Trail State Park," she said, waving an arm towards the cabins. The land was bought at a half-million-dollar discount from private owners, and the state plans to pay for it with federal and state park and land acquisition funds. The foundation is one of the nonprofit groups that, through donations, can act quicker than the state when significant natural, historical or cultural locations come on the market. Adam Sherrill, a Revolutionary War veteran who scouted with Daniel Boone and whose sister was married to Tennessee's first governor, John Sevier, settled the land about 1790, according to the foundation. That's barely old compared with the era when cane torches of another people blackened parts of the cave underneath and they drew their art. "This is kind of a cross between a bird and a human," said Bill Lawrence, archaeologist with the Tennessee State Parks' Natural and Cultural Resource Management division. He was shining his flashlight on a falcon/warrior cut into the wall, a mythical figure with god-like status. "He's holding a mace … a kind of ceremonial axe." You see the wing feathers coming off the arms there?" Variety of art rare A sprinkling of bats clinging to the low ceiling ignored the five, dust-covered humans who had squeezed on their stomachs through a series of passageways to get there. Another picture showed a man transformed into an axe, with beaded forelocks typical of the era's art. A painting, with charcoal or other materials, of a dog or wolf could be found, as could mud impressions call "mud glyphs." "This is one of only two caves that I know of in the South that have all three of those art forms in them," Simek had said in a phone interview earlier. The designs are dated by what they depict and how they are made. Radiocarbon testing to determine the time has been done elsewhere on the torch black. COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE State archaeologists say this creature painted on the wall at Devilstep Hollow Cave is probably a fox or a wolf. The checker pattern is a scale that archaeologists use to size things. ####
	DEVILSTEP HOLLOW CAVE AND HEAD OF SEQUATCHIE SPRING By Kathleen Williams
		A thousand years before you were born, people played, worshipped and explored at Devilstep Hollow Cave and Head of Sequatchie Spring. Ancient cave drawings bear evidence. Two incised woodpeckers frame a gallery of 20 other drawings. Among these, a charcoal dog or wolf, a toothy mask, and an eagle-being with human legs and a weeping eye holding a mace in each hand. Imagine what strange and tribal urge caused the artists to belly crawl in blackness and leave this sign for God or for later man. The Cave entrance is massive and humbling
	and at its base is a blue green pool, with barely churning waters collected from the other side of the mountains. It percolates and drains underground again … and then gushes out of the ground. Like someone turned on a fire hose. And immediately you have a sizeable creek that quickly turns to river … the beautiful Sequatchie. Both these cosmic, tribal, awe-inspiring wonders are on one 393 acre parcel of land. Framed on all sides by Cumberland Mountains, the valley will surely soothe a world-weary soul. It has mine. The cave is a destination and so is the spring but the land around these wonders is “good for what ails you,” as my mama says. One of the most beautiful walks I’ve ever had was just a couple of weeks ago up Selby Creek, on this good land. Dorton’s Knob glowed red in the setting sun and the fields glowed gold with tendrils backlit and I felt blessed and healed. You’ll be able to visit and I bet you will get a blessing too. For more information about this or any other project, contact Kathleen Williams (615) 386-3171 or by email tenngreen@earthlink.net.
	2007 STATE PARK CONNECTIONS GRANT RECIPIENTS The following State Park Connections grants were awarded at our annual board meeting and reception on December 5^th. Funding for these grants are made possible through the generous support of Janie and Ric Finch in honor of Janie’s parents, Howard and Winnie Cooper; with additional funding provided by Bill and Rita Bruce, formerly of Smithville; The Boeing Company; and John Noel and Melinda Welton. *Thank you to our generous sponsors! You make these great projects possible!* § Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Natural Areas - Stinging Fork Falls State Natural Area, $2,110. Replace decayed stairs/wooden steps and maintain trail up to safety standards for visitors. Build and install interpretive kiosk and reblaze trail and install permanent trail signage to accessible waterfall spot from parking lot. Install boulder to block vehicle access. § Friends of the Cumberland Trail, $2,500. To produce 2,000 trail maps and 13 kiosk displays for three new sections of the Cumberland Trail State Park – North Chickamauga Creek, Laurel-Snow, and Piney River. § Pickett Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Memorial State Park, $2,500. To purchase an information/interpretive kiosk for visitors which would be located at Visitor's Center in the park. § City of Algood, $2,500. To purchase three 6-foot benches and concrete pads, install benches on sidewalk connecting city with Algood School for resting on walks and memorial in honor of Howard and Winnie Cooper longtime residents of Algood. § Henry Horton State Park, $1,500. To extend the Duck River Scenic Trail to loop back to campground through newly acquired land. Grant will purchase supplies and materials for trail construction and two bridges crossing over washout areas. § Tennessee Scenic Rivers Association, $1,000. To build safe river access on the Harpeth River within the Harpeth River State Park. This adds to the Harpeth River Blueway Trail. Native plantings will be used to help riverbank erosion. § Burgess Falls State Natural Area, $1961.40. To purchase materials to refurbish existing picnic tables and replace parts with recycled plastic lumber, thus reducing staff time in repainting or replacing wooden benches and tables located in the Native Butterfly Garden and Picnic Shelters. § Cumberland Trail Conference, $1,000. To cover materials cost and construction of ten mile section of trail in remote part of Campbell and Scott Counties on the Cumberland Trail at Cove Lake and Frozen Head State Park which includes building rock steps, retaining walls, and footbridges. § T.O. Fuller State Park, $2,500. To construct a new trail from Riverport Road to McKellar Lake providing scenic views of wildlife with bird watching area, plants and waterfront within Memphis city limits. Trail will be handicap accessible with plant/tree identification signs. § Greater Memphis Greenline, Inc., $1,000. To provide funding for preparation of Master Plan for proposed 13-mile multi-use urban park/trail. § Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency - Tumbleweed Wildlife Management Area, $2,500. To help with land acquisition costs of the Escanaba Tract at Tumbleweed WMA. ef Funding for this program is currently based on annual solicitations and grantwriting efforts. Our long-term goal is to establish a permanent partnership with a corporate sponsor that will enable the program to be self-sustaining. We have been successful in establishing strong collaborative partnerships across the state and would welcome a new joint venture partner. Corporate support of this program is a strategic investment in Tennessee, as well as in the local communities. For more information, please contact us at (615) 386-3171 or by email: developmenttpgf@earthlink.net.