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Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental
History of the Southern Appalachians
by Donald Edward Davis
Professor of Sociology, Dalton College
University of Georgia Press, 2000
Review by Tom Colkett : District Leader
Here’s a great look at the sociological and historical forces that shaped the modern southern Appalachians. The author, Donald Edward Davis, explores various stages of exploitation of the incredible wealth of these mountains, starting with the Mississippian culture, as "discovered" by Hernando de Soto in the 1500s. Davis then moves through the devastating influence of the Spanish on the Mississipians and then on to the Cherokee subsistence culture and its subsequent interaction with Europeans. Proceeding into the mountains from the coast, the fur trade, with the introduction of European crops and farm animals, and the settlement of the mountains inexorably drove the Cherokee out and then brought on the great devastation of iron ore mining and processing, copper mining and the total disaster of industrial logging.
Without giving away anything, this wasn’t good for the mountains, the flora or fauna or the people who lived there. The author dispassionately reveals the slow, irresistible "progress" of the encroachment of European exploitation. Davis describes the familiar-sounding slow response of the Federal government to the flooding and topsoil destruction that resulted from the clear cutting of the mountain forests. Once they noticed a connection between deforestation and flooding, legislation was debated, watered down and slowly put in place, but not before the level of tree removal actually increased for another 10 years before the legislation took hold.
From there we see the destruction of the cold, shallow, fast flowing rivers that supported incredible diversity of aquatic life, including mussel shoals that produced fresh water pearls and markets for them in New York, London and Paris. As the Tennessee Valley Authority dammed up the rivers, turning them into slack water impoundments, people were forced off the farms that were built on the best river bottom flood plains, forever lost. Around the same time, the U.S. Forest Service began acquiring land that had been decimated by the logging, further lining the pockets of the lumbermen who destroyed it and moving more people off the land. Davis also describes the impact of the loss of the Chestnut trees and the effect of the Great Depression, which forced more and more people to give up their land and move into the cities and towns to work in textile mills and tanneries.
The main title is part of a quote from a biographer of de Soto, "Where there are mountains, there are chestnuts," a reference to the incredible wealth of magnificent Chestnut trees that had been such a great source of hard mast for wildlife as well as farm animals. Before the logging and blight took their tolls, chestnuts were reported to cover the forest floor in layers up to 4 inches thick. The book includes photos of some pretty impressive Chestnut trees, including one showing a man on horseback standing completely inside the hollow bottom of one old giant.
Davis concludes with a sociological analysis, describing a core/periphery market model proffered by Johann von Thunen as early as 1820. The "Core" in this model is the European market system and the periphery is the ecological wealth of the Southern Appalachians. He states, "Implicit in this theory… is the idea that an unequal exchange of goods must always occur between the core and the periphery. The core, controlled by elite capitalists forever seeking surplus wealth, grows richer at the expense of a progressively impoverished peripheral population." This book clearly depicts the destruction of the Cherokee culture with its peripheral participation in this market and it is clear that the mountain region itself paid a dear price to satisfy this greed.
The book ends with a quote from Zell Miller, "Growing up, I experienced a way of life created by the forest of Appalachia. I believe that the future of Appalachia is inexorably tied to forests. How the story of the region ends depends simply and surely upon whether the trees of Appalachia are saved." Reading this book, I can’t help but be amazed at the incredible wealth of resources contained in these mountains and the sense of how well the earth provides for its inhabitants if allowed to develop naturally, and I imagine how things might be today if some discipline had been exerted over the greed of those who exploited these riches. Where There Are Mountains does a great job of relating the "story" of our interaction with the mountains and the author does a good job of "making it real" by tying the big story in with the lives of people who lived in those times. Overall, it’s well worth reading for anyone with an interest in the Southern Appalachians and clearly underlines the need to maintain oversight on the forces that would exploit this abundant wealth.
Sound interesting? Get the book from Amazon.com with this link.ForestWatch Book Review archive:
- The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring by Richard Preston
- Living on Wilderness Time: 200 Days Alone in America's Wild Places by Melissa Walker
- Birds of Heaven: Travels with Cranes by Peter Matthiessen & Robert Bateman
- Forests: The Shadow of Civilization by Robert Pogue Harrison
- The Enduring Wilderness by Doug Scott
- Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
- The Big Burn by Timothy Egan
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