What's New

Over 200 people attended the April 21 celebration of Plateau Properties' donation of 350 acres for the Cumberland Trail in Grassy Cove. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation hosted a great event with music, food, hikes, tours of Grassy Cove, and fitting tributes to the Harrison family and Bob Brown. The land donation is on Brady Mountain, where you can hike 8 miles of the CT along the ridge.

Joey Carlton, one of our Cumberland Trail rangers, resigned in May to pursue opening a business in Cumberland County. We welcome Stacy Dunn aboard as the new Cumberland Trail ranger. Stacy is from Newport, Tennessee. Congratulations to Kenny Mathews, CT ranger based in Crossville, who was named Ranger of the Year by his peers.

Exciting news! Negotiations are underway to acquire 400 acres at Devil's Step Hollow Cave on the Cumberland/Bledsoe County line. The property includes the cave with petroglyphs, mudglyphs, and pictographs which have been studied by the National Geographic Society and archaelogists worldwide, and the headwaters of the Sequatchie River as it emerges under Brady Mountain from Grassy Cove. If we are successful in acquiring this property, the Cumberland Trail will be rerouted off Brady Mountain to come into the property.

The Cumberland Trail has received a Tennessee Youth Conservation Corps (TYCC) team of four individuals to set up a cultural archival team at the Cumberland Trail park office in Caryville this summer. The team will transcribe oral histories, catalog and label audio and video recordings, burn CDs of field recordings, and organize newspaper clippings of historical and cultural events, people, and places along the Cumberland Trail corridor.

We've also gotten a team of 12 TYCC members to work this summer on trail maintenance and special projects along the CT, to assist the Cumberland Trail Conference.

Don't forget the Louie Bluie Music & Arts Festival on Saturday, June 9, 2007 at Cove Lake State Park in Caryville. The festival is free and includes music, craft booths, food vendors, storytelling, special presentation by the Carpetbag Theatre about Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong, folk life tent, jam sessions, educational area for children and more. The Friends of the Cumberland Trail are sponsoring a music stage from 10:30 am until 4:00 pm. The Campbell Culture Coalition is sponsoring the stage from 4:00-8:00 pm. We have a great lineup of local traditional musicians on the Cumberland Trail stage including Charlie Collins and Larry McNeely, the Woodson Gap Trio, a tribute to the old LaFollette Fiddlers Convention and Tennessee Jamboree, and a live broadcast by WDVX. The main stage will feature Hokum's Heroes, the Tennessee Sheiks, Maggie Longmire Band, Sparky and Rhonda Rucker.

Land Acquisition

Governor Phil Bredesen has announced the purchase of more than 12,500 acres on the Cumberland Plateau at a cost of $17.3 million dollars, including nearly 5,000 acres for the Cumberland Trail corridor in Cumberland, Rhea, and Hamilton Counties. The Cumberland Trail acquisitions include the Laurel-Snow Pocket Wilderness Areas in Rhea County, 1,025 acres in Cumberland County along Daddys Creek, and 1,670 acres in Hamilton County along North Chickamauga Creek.
Jewelweed "I'm extremely pleased we have been able to purchase these tracts, which represent a core group of the Bowater lands with the highest conservation value," said Gov. Bredesen. Bob Fulcher, Cumberland Trail Park Manager, comments, “Each of these additions to the Cumberland Trail is an essential link in our trail system, but they also add protection to the Obed National Wild and Scenic River system, and for two State Natural Areas – Laurel-Snow and North Chickamauga Creek Gorge. They, as well, provide for the development of backcountry campsites along sections of the trail otherwise restricted from that use.”

Plateau Properties Donates 315 Acres for Cumberland Trail

Plateau Properties, Inc. has just announced their decision to donate a large tract of land to Tennessee Parks & Greenways Foundation, a statewide nonprofit organization, in honor of Arthur Harrison and Bob Brown. The 315-acre tract is part of the Cumberland Trail on Brady Mountain in Grassy Cove in Cumberland County. In addition to the land donation for the trail, Plateau Properties will donate property on the southeast, or Grassy Cove, side of Brady Mountain. to preserve the mountain's most significant natural features, including Salt Peter Cave. Brady Mtn. is an eight-mile long ridge in the Cumberland Mountains with an elevation of 2,900 ft.

Plateau Properties co-founder Arthur Harrison (deceased) and well-known trail advocate Bob Brown (Nashville) worked together in October 1968 to determine the route of the Cumberland Trail, including the route along the crest of Brady Mountain. "My dad, Arthur, was a champion for the Cumberland Trail and was at the first meeting where the route was drawn on a map. Now, some 38 years later this gift will recognize his vision along with Tennessee's beloved trail advocate Bob Brown. We're making this gift in Bob's honor as well," said Robert Harrison, Plateau Properties' General Manager.

Music and Arts Festival

Louie Bluie Music and Arts Festival, June 9, 2007 at Cove Lake State Park The Festival is named for Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong who grew up in LaFollette. Just as Mr. Armstrong was a multi-talented artist (musician, singer, visual artist, writer, storyteller), the Festival will feature a broad array of the arts - music, instrument making, arts and craft show, and storytelling. On June 8 there will be the "Homecoming and Reunion" for 200+ members of the black community who lived in the LaFollette area and attended the Colored High School (where Howard Armstrong went to school) during the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. The Festival Committee is working with reunion organizer Mr. Lorenzo Preston Brown to collaborate on some of the Festival activities.

There will be two music stages set up on the grounds below the Pavilion: the Main Stage and the Cumberland Trail Stage. The Main Stage will have acts performing from 4 pm to 8 pm, and the Cumberland Trail Stage will feature string bands from communities in the shadow of the Cumberland Trail from 1 pm to 4 pm. We encourage people to bring instruments and join in with other musicians for impromptu jam sessions throughout the day.

The Festival will have arts and craft booths and food tents set up. We will have on display in the Pavilion the artwork and stories from the middle school students who participated in the Howard Armstrong Youth Arts and Music Project in the spring.

Another segment of the Festival will be a very special storytelling event located in the Pavilion. We want to videotape oral histories or the region. We especially want to afford this opportunity to the black community who sincerely wish to have their history known to others for they made wide-ranging contributions to the whole community.