An Environmental History of Linville Gorge
Scope
Comprising over 12,000 acres, the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area contains rugged cliff faces which drop thousands of feet to the sinuous Linville River. Often called the “Grand Canyon of the East,” the area is home to a plethora of unique rock formations, ancient Appalachian forests, and a variety of wildlife. Native Americans and white settlers left their mark on the area as well, and the gorge and the surrounding mountains have been the site of religious rituals, logging, agriculture, and modern-day recreation opportunities. Environmental history attempts to explore relationships between people and their environments, and to understand Linville Gorge or the people who have lived and traveled in the area, an understanding of these interrelationships is crucial.
Introduction
The following texts contain general information on the Linville Gorge area.
Frankenberg, Dirk. Exploring North Carolina's Natural Areas: Parks, Nature Preserves, and Hiking Trails. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. ASU MAIN STACKS QH76.5.N8 E86 2000.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Highly Relevant:
Human Ecology -- History
Human Ecology -- Appalachian Region, Southern -- History
Forests And Forestry -- Appalachian Region
National Parks And Reserves -- Appalachian Region, Southern -- Management
Nature Conservation -- North Carolina
North Carolina Rivers
Pisgah National Forest (N.C.)
Appalachian Region, Southern
Also Relevant:
Cherokee Indians -- North Carolina
Cherokee Indians -- Ethnobotany
Forestry And Community -- Blue Ridge Mountains -- History
Foresters -- Southern States -- History
Medicinal Plants -- Appalachian Region, Southern
National Parks And Reserves -- Government Policy -- United States
Nature Conservation -- Social Aspects -- United States
Nature Conservation -- United States
Nature Conservation -- United States -- History
Rock Climbing -- North Carolina -- Guidebooks
Stream Ecology -- North Carolina
More General:
Cycling -- Blue Ridge Mountains -- Guidebooks
Forestry -- Law And Legislation -- North Carolina
Forests And Forestry -- North Carolina
Hunting -- Indians
Hunting -- North Carolina
Hunting -- United States -- History
Land Use -- Rural -- Environmental Aspects -- United States -- History
Medicinal Plants -- Appalachian Region
Nature Conservation -- United States -- History
Nature Conservation -- Political Aspects -- United States
Nature Conservation -- Social Aspects -- United States
National Parks And Reserves
Stream Ecology
Water Quality -- North Carolina
Wild And Scenic Rivers
More information can be found in the Appalachian Collection Clippings File under the following subject headings:
Appalachia - History
Avery County, NC
Bears
Blue Ridge Mountains
Blue Ridge Parkway
Brown Mountain Lights
Burke County, NC
Camping
Cherokee Indians
Cherokee Indians – History
Climate
Climbing (Rock, Ice)
Endangered Species
Environment
Environment - Acid Rain
Folklore -- Cherokee Indians
Forest Fires
Forests and Trees
Geography – Appalachia
Hiking
Linville Gorge, NC
Linville, NC Literature – Appalachia
Mountains
Natural Resources
Outdoor Education
Outward Bound
Paddling
Pisgah National Forest
Recreation
Rescues
Rocks
Wilderness Areas
Wildflowers and Plants
Wildlife Conservation
LC Call Numbers
E98-E99
F216-217
GE150
GF13
GF 504
GV199
HD216
PS558
QH76
QH105
SB484
Frequently Mentioned Texts
Definitive sources on the subject are problematic. Knowledge is scattered in a disciplinary fashion, and different environmental aspects must be consulted in different sources. Ecological texts tend to ignore human action, and historical texts neglect biological factors. Furthermore, texts that are only fairly local in character must be adopted or general histories that don’t explicitly mention Linville Gorge must be mined for data.
Blake, Christopher, Ed. River of Cliffs: A Linville Gorge Reader. Boone, N.C.: Parkway Publishers, 2005. ASU APP COLL STACK PS558.N8 R58 2005.
Davis, Donald Edward. Where There are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. ASU APP COLL STACK GF504.A5 D38 1999.
Newell, Claire L. and Robert K. Peet. “Vegetation of Linville Gorge Wilderness, North Carolina.” Castanea > Vol. 63, No. 3 (Sep., 1998), pp. 275-322.
Silver, Tim. Mount Mitchell and the Black Mountains: An Environmental History of the Highest Peaks in Eastern America. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2003. ASU APP COLL QH105.N8 S55 2003.
Guides, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias
Abramson, Rudy, and Jean Haskell, Eds. “Linville Gorge Area, North Carolina.” The Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2006. 654-655. APP COLL F106 .E53 2006.
Fisher, Ron. Blue Ridge Range: The Gentle Mountains. Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society, 1992. ASU APP COLL STACK F217.B6 F57 1992. 12-15, 26-28, 44-49, 64, 68, 84.
Frankenberg, Dirk. Exploring North Carolina's Natural Areas: Parks, Nature Preserves, and Hiking Trails. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. ASU MAIN STACKS QH76.5.N8 E86 2000. 269, 281-290, 291, 293-295, 296, 326.
Lambert, Yon and Harrison Shull.Selected Climbs in North Carolina. Seattle, WA : Mountaineers Books, 2002. 1-16, 103-179. ASU APP COLL STACK GV199.42.N66 L36 2002.
Linville Gorge Wilderness. US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Region. 4 December 2007. <http://www.cs.unca.edu/nfsnc/recreation/linville.pdf>
Powell, William S., ed. “Linville Gorge.” Encyclopedia of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. 680-681.
Bibliographies
“A Selected Bibliography of Scholarship on Appalachia.” Appalachian Studies Association. 2000. http://www.appalachianstudies.org/resources/bibliographies/index.php
Appalachian Bibliography. Morganton, WV: West Virginia University Library, 1980. ASU APP COLL STACKS: Z 1251 .A7 A6 1980.
Bibliography of Southern Appalachia. Charlotte T. Ross, ed. Boone, NC: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1976. ASU APP COLL OVERSIZE: Z1251 .A7 B5x.
Appalachian Studies Selected Resources. Hutchins Library, Berea College. Berea, KY: Hutchins Library, 1982. ASU APP COLL STACK Z1251.A7 A754 1982
The Environment of Appalachia. Linda Phillips. Berea, KY: Berea College Appalachian Center, 1976. ASU APP COLL STACK Z5861 .P55 1976
“WorldCat.” Located at the Online Computer Research Center. Offers millions of catalogued items from libraries over the world. Dates back to 1000 AD. Ability to find much more specific sources because of its meta-database qualities. ASU WEB ACCESS.
Abstracts and Indices
Dissertation Abstracts Online. Located at the Online Computer Research Center. Updated monthly, contains Dissertation records dating to 1861 and Thesis abstracts dating to 1980. Two million plus records from North America and Europe. ASU WEB ACCESS.
GEOBASE. Located at the Online Computer Research Center.
1980-present, and updated monthly. GEOBASE contains citations, with abstracts from more than 2,100 international journals, books, theses, conference proceedings and reports in geography, geology, ecology, and related disciplines. ASU WEB ACCESS.
GeoRefS. Located at the Online Computer Research Center. Provides access to the Geoscience literature of the world. Updated semimonthly. Dates back to 1785 for North America. ASU WEB ACCESS.
JSTOR. Located at JSTOR.org. “JSTOR specializes in making available the back issues of academic journals in a wide variety of humanities and social science disciplines. Issues are available both as images and as text. Searching is possible within each title and across the whole database.” Updated monthly. ASU WEB ACCESS.
Relevant searches:
“Blue Ridge”
“Linville”
“Linville Gorge”
Journals
Appalachian Journal. Quarterly publication. Boone, NC: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1972 - present. ASU APP COLL F216.2.A66
Castanea: The Journal of the Southern Appalachian Society Club. Morgantown, WV: Published for the Club at West Virginia University, 1937-. Bound: v.10- 1945-. Web Access (1937-2003).(http://0-www.jstor.org.wncln.wncln.org/journals/00087475.html)
Wildlife in North Carolina. Raleigh, N.C., North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Bound: v.12, 1948-v.40, 1976; v.42- 1978-. ASU PERIODICALS .
Reviews
Gray, L.C. “The Social and Economic Implications of the National Land Program.” Journal of Farm Economics 18 (May): 257-273. Full Internet access for the Journal of Farm Economics is available through the ASU Library.
Newell, Claire L. Local and Regional Variation in the Vegetation of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Thesis (Ph. D.). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1997. ASU APP COLL MIC Micro- Fiche 257.
Compiled by:
Theo Saslow,
December 6, 2007
