An Old Timey Dance
While I was researching aboriginal use of dogs I came across some amazing (to me they are) photographs documenting hunting in the Cherokee National Forest in Eastern Tennessee. They are found at the Tennessee State Library Archives. Most that I found were taken on Tellico River and Citico Creek. The pictures range from Wild Boar, Bear, Deer to Turkey, as well as the Hunters and their Dogs. It's nostalgic and truly beautiful photography. You can view these absolutely great pictures here. They seem to range through a great deal of the pages (20th something and up, apparently they skip the War Years, 42-45). While, I fawn and lament over these pictures, they speak something. Obviously coming out of the depression years, there was an effort to attract people to guided hunts, I don't know if it was state sponsored photography or a private effort. The photography coming out of Appalachia during that time documents some form of industry, family history, the poverty, or Corn Liquor Stills. These pictures show another part of the history and culture that doesn't get put into modern literature.
Monday is the opening day of Bear Season. I'm forced to sit the week and the weekend out with both work and the Army Reserves. I am taking the next week of though. Most Bear/Hog Hunters layed low, resting their dogs up for the big week. But, I took mine out. They did strike a big track and I quickly decided not to "let loose". But, I rigged them around parts of Transylvania and Jackson Counties, scouting for future possibilities.
I went across Wolf Mountain over in Jackson County, the birth place of my "Paw Paw", my Maternal Grand Father. He was born there in 1901 and after a few years the family went to Copperhill Tennessee, where my Great Grand Father worked the mines. While there a younger boy that buddied around with him took to calling him "Chief", because of his being 1/4 Cherokee. The whole family had strong Cherokee facial features. The name stuck and throughout his life he was known as "Chief Galloway". When he was 14 the family had returned to Transylvania County and a man had a bull that only my Paw Paw could feed. One day that bull let loose catching him with a horn on the leg and hoof into his head. They shot the bull and that day a drunk Doctor placed a steel plate in my Paw Paw's head. He never gained the full use of his leg. I like to think that Paw Paw ate steak some time after that.
I drove by his and my Maw Maw's graves. They're buried at Shoal Creek Baptist Church in Balsam Grove. I've got several family members there. Later I crossed Rock House Creek on Davidson River where my Maw Maw grew up. Her father was a Ranger for Vanderbilt. The house they lived in sat on Rock House Creek near where Forest Service Road 475 (Gloucester Gap Rd to us locals) crosses it. This is close to the Davidson River Fish Hatchery that was a CCC Camp for some of those years. The house, now known as Black Forest Lodge is sitting on The Cradle Of Forestry exhibit. Before it was moved to it's new location a Lassie Movie was filmed out of it. I've never learned the name of that movie and I would love to see it. I would love to see the woods my Maw Maw walked through, up the Davidson River across Gloucester Gap and down Shoal Creek to attend Church. I've heard she talked of hearing the Panther cry while walking across there. A grave Yard sits off of the road a piece on the head of Davidson River. It's known as McCall Cemetery and a girl is buried there that was killed by a Panther. My Maw Maw died before I was born.
The Family has a picture of her Father standing with several men and the Bear they killed. Two hounds can be made out and they seem like they might be Plotts. Back in those years there was a line of the "Old Time Plotts" in Balsam Grove and it's possible that they are some of those Dogs. That was over a hundred years ago.
Monday starts the season when Hill Billy Adrenaline Freaks get in there with their Dogs and dance with the Bear. I end this post with The Ramones "Lets Dance".
"Any Ol' Dance That You Wanna Do"
The Appalachianist
posted by Hill Billy Rave | Sunday, October 12, 2008
43 Comments:
Wow..no city folk in your blood at all, is there? :-)
Love that cabin! It's neat to learn about your heritage. Doesn't Kephart talk about hunting in Our Southern Highlands (along with Moonshine and poverty)? I'll have to drag that book out again.
I wonder if the pictures taken during the Great Depression were taken by Works Progress Administration (WPA) or one of those administration agencies that put photographers in the field. I think that there was also an audio history group taking oral histories that went into the mountains. I am in awe of this post. I will need to re-read it with a pencil and notes and google the geography and notes and histories. It is important work, and you obviously love it. There was and is just so much more to the mountains than "ignorant" folk rocking their lives away on the porch or drinking moonshine. So much of their adaptation to the mountains required effort and intelligence. I am sorry my comments are so inadequate . . . a good post . . . and in your Army service thanks for "protecting" an old man like me. I was out at Fort Jackson yesterday walking the track in the pecan grove at the parade ground where I used tg run well into my fifties to pass the two mile run. At the time I was wearing my old zippered gray PT top with ARMY written in black across it. Young soldier returning to their quarters with those "camel packs" acknowledged me and smiled. They walked with the confidence of physically fit young men in the beginning of their lives . . . take care of them Sarge . . . Bill
Murf, I don't suppose I do have "City Folk" in my blood. They were country when country was all there was.
Sage, thanks. I'm glad you liked it. Kephart did write about Hunting, though I've never read it. I have read some qoutes. I should read it, I suppose. I was reffering to more modern literature. That seems to be realty brochures anymore. But, that is the house my Maw Maw grew up in.
Bill, it may have been. I'd heard of such things but I don't have any real knowledge of them. It's interesting though. Allot of these Hunts are obviously guided, but not all. Very interesting pictures.
As for Googling, that's allot of country. Wolf Mountain will be between Wolf Lake and Tannasee Creek Resevoir in Jackson County. Rock House Creek is 1/4 mile from the Davidson Fish Hatchery in Transylvania County.
Geez, A.I., you're talking like a country song. "They were country when country was all there was" is right up there with "Sleeping single in a double bed."
Sleeping double in a single bed, her snoring is really hurting my head...
Women never snore. :-)
Pretty amazing stuff...have you ever read the Foxfire books? Have I mentioned them before...midterms and papers have shot my memory...I'm sorry if this is a repeater.
You might find them interesting - its based down in Georgia, but high school kids and their teacher were going back into the Georgian Appalachians and collection stories and writing down how they did things - build a wagon, make soap, how to be a midwife. It's good to have it written down so its not lost completely.
one more thing - all the dogs in the boar hunting pic are hounds, except for the dog in the foreground facing the boar. He looks kind of shepherd-y or some breed with longer, thicker fur. Are non-hounds typically used in hunts?
Women do snore, Murf. Just listen.
Pipsqeak, I have a Great Grand Father in the Foxfire books, Harley Thomas. You will see him on the inside of Foxfire 4 holding a fiddle he made. He's my Paternal Grand Mother's Father. He was quite a wood worker. His old shop still stands off of 441 in Otto NC near Peeks Grocery and Calvary Church rd.
actually, if you look down my list of links, you will find Foxfire.
One of the guys I was in Iraq with Father taught at Nacoochee school.
It's not all hounds. Curs are common. It could be it's an Airedale. I did see one in one of the other photographs. They are fierce hunting dogs and had the respect of Von Plott. They were also used for Police Dogs in the early 1900's. A few months ago someone I know had a mixed Airedale/English Hound he wanted to let go of. He changed his mind later.
I figured you ad fell off in some excavation some where...
I have often stopped at the Cradle of Forestry exhibit. Once with a video camera and my young son in tow we walked among the houses in the exhibit. Hiram wondered what one of the little sheds beside one of the houses was all about. Knowingly, I filmed him as he slowly opened the door to the shed not noticing the curved moon carved on it. I will never forget the broad smile on his face as he, wiser and more experienced now, turned and smiled at me. You got it. I wish I had that video now, but your story and photo reminded me of that long time ago time. Thanks. Bill
I wish I've been lost in a dig somewhere, consequently if you want to hold a fundraiser to help a poor grad student go to the bone dig in Thailand this summer, that would be awesome ;)
No, I've been lost in midterms and papers - a lot less fun than playing with pottery. And also trying to find more South Appalachian Mississippian sites other than Town Creek, which don't seem to exist. And as I am coming to find out, mounds don't equal Mississippian culture...sad times for my thesis.
Pipsqeak, I hate it for ya. I'm right now reading Roy Dickens book, "Cherokee Prehistory" and it does have allot of dry archaeological data.
Thailand? Hmm...No, not all mounds are Mississippian. Allot of them started in the Woodland Period. I know that along the coast there are rings where they had threw refuse out and piled dirt over it. I had thought that once too, but, Pat told me different.
Bill, sound like it was fun. All of those houses were brought into that location and reconstructed. I wonder if they reconstructed the privy?
Great post. Those old black-and-white photos manage to stir up a lot of feelings. The Black Forest Lodge has always been one of my favorite buildings around here...your folks must have lived some great stories around that place. Did you ever hear about the Fawn Rearing Plant that the government ran there during the 1930s? If you haven't read some of Carl Schenck's books, they're worth tracking down (he started the forestry school there and sounded like quite a guy in his strict German manner).
Enjoy the bear hunt. Maybe it'll even feel a little more like fall next week. From what little I've been out tramping through the woods lately, it looks like the best mast we've had in a few years.
Gulahiyi, about the Fawn Rearing Station, I had heard mention of it whn I was a kid. I think my Grand father had said something. My Cousin's Husband knows some of it. He had heard tell of it. I was reminded by your post on "Lost Places". In 1938 there were plenty of Deer, but, not in 2008. The population is in severe decline. Of course, there was still some Chestnuts in our neck of Appalachia back then. I don't think they were all gone until mid WWII. The deer had plenty to eat.
That makes me wonder.
I've not read Carl Schenk. I'd love too and ought to. I'm sure my Great Grand Father, Dillard McCall, knew him quite well.
Do you know Farlow Gap off of Silver Mine Lead and Sassafras Knob? I was there a couple of weekends ago and the acorns were like gravel. You're right. We have great mast this year, good solid acorns, not brown inside.
Those are some neat old pictures.
Women snore? ;>) Bill
Why are deer in decline? Is it a lack of natural predation and disease is wiping them out or habitat loss? Do you think they will ever introduce some of the wolves from Alligator Island to the NC Smoky Mountains? It seems like a population could be sustained, what with the reintroduction of elk and other prey species.
AI, sorry. Been away a while. I do enjoy your take on politics and am glad that you lay the point out and move on. The only thing more tiring than politics and politicians is all the ranting and raving. There is a fork in the road where ranting and raving meet, and it leads us nowhere.
With that said, you are at your most eloquent when you chronicle your love of your mountian home, her culture, and her people. Not the first time I've said that, but it strikes me anew often. So I don't hunt, seldom slog through the creeks anymore, and now live where the only thing that grows wild are strip malls and Applebee's. But I still have enough rural NC left in me to get it.
Pipsqueak, my wife is from Thailand and I have stomped around there from the Muslim South around Hat Yai and Satun to the Laotian border area east of Chang Mai. Special emphasis on Bangkok metro, but that is where the shopping is and I HAVE A WIFE, so to coin a phrase, "Shopping is Job 1". If you have any questions or want to make a list of handy phrases let me know.
Ramblin' Ed, a list of helpful phrases would be amazing. My plan is to try to learn at least a little of the language before May. So far I know pod means noodle.
We will be flying into Bangkok - good news about the shopping : ) - but our field excavation will be in a slightly less populated area called Lopburi. In fact, our excavation area is beside a Buddhist monastery - we will be exhuming a Bronze Age cemetery. Pretty awesome stuff.
Pipsqueak,
Lopburi is not far from BKK. Of course, the new airport is wa-a-ay out in the boonies.
email me at ramblin_ed@earthlink.net so I can capture your address and we'll work on those translations.
Where might pipsqueak hail from, anyway? No wrong answer, I'll help you no matter. Just one of them that wonders those things.
I'll touch base with you about the basics...I appreciate your help.
No wrong answer? So I won't get blackballed if I turn out to be a Yankee? Good to know : ) Currently, I am going to school in NC, but I'm from WV - a little town on the edge of a river up in the northwest.
My only two experiences with West By God Virginia were a) spending a weekend in White Sulphur Springs and b)finding out that the Interstate I was on ceased to be Interstate all the way across your mountians, which is to say, all the way across the state.
I was headed to Lexington KY from the Fredricksburg VA area and WV was in my path. Must say, Lexington was a might underwhelming. But that's a whole 'nother story and a whole other lie.
Was gonna post my two-cents worth, but judging by the quietness of reply . . . and remembering a previous post, I think you are at drill. Have a good weekend. I am looking forward to your opinion of the deer gone missing. Bill
I'm just getting in from Drill, I did get a chance to read all of this last night, but, no chance to respond. I'll get with yuns. I'm hnting in the morning, I'm off to bed.
Pipsqeak, WV???? Never would have figured.
Yup West by God Virginia...they actually let us out, crazy I know.
I love that, "Yes, by God, Virginia!" Yahooooooooooo! I hadn't heard it in a while. Bill
OK...It's been a long one for me. I didn't get back in until 2230 last night and had to give Wiggly a shot of penicillin.
OK..Ladies first...
Pipsqeak, you might be from West Virginia, but at least you're from Appalachia...I knew there was something i liked about you...Still never would uh thunk it. What did you ask? Oh, Deer...I'm not sure what it is. Food is an issue, but, Bear are eating allot of the same stuff. Right now some Hunters believe that inbreeding is an issue. It may be given Bucks a low sperm count. The truth is Appalachia is getting so out of balance it could be several factors.
Bill, women do snore, even the pretty ones. Not as much as men, but they will make a little sawing noise. Don't listen to Murf. I was at Ft. Jackson this weekend. Oh, Sunday at Eastover was chilly! We shot Range 2 and 17. I had to go to Athens, then Jackson and back then home.
Ed, you've been a busy fellar. I ain't caught up with you yet, don't know where you've been. You didn't get confiscated at the border though. You may not hunt and slog through creeks anymore, but, some women grow wild where you live...I seen it on a video.
Now get this...I often intend to write about the army...Which would fall into the ranting raving arena, but, often I'm so busy after the fact I mess around and...Don't.
Oh, Pisqeak, one night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble...Woman in your case.
On night in Bangkok, App? That sounds like a story I'd like to hear. The good news is that I will be traveling with a bunch of archaeologists...who by profession, LOVE to drink. I keep hearing stories of long days excavating and long nights enjoying the local flavor - I personally can't wait, I already have my safety buddy picked out so I should be ok.
Pip,type that phrase in Google and see what you find.
Weird, so when you google that, it returns an '80s pop song and video of a coup...good times. I'll be sure to know where the embassy is just in case ; )
The song lyrics though remind me of an article I read on gender...part of the song says..."one night in Bangkok where you will be lucky if he's a she"...apparently there is a pretty significant minority of the population of men that see themselves as non-male or women, there is a term..loekys. They even have transgendered restrooms at the university for them. This sounds weird to Westerners, but transgender or third gender comes up in a lot of cultures - Greek, Indian, Native American, Pakistan, and even European countries since the 1700s - though its not really talked about much. It's so interesting that something a lot of people take for granted and set in stone - like gender - could actually be subject to change. Anthropologically, maybe its a mix of cultural perceptions as well as biology.
...where was I going with this...hmm..deer in the mountains, see sick populations need healthy carnivore populations to keep them healthy, I vote reintroduction of grey wolves.
App, what you said about the Appalachians being out of whack...I have read something on one of your readers' blogs about the loss of hemlock because of an asian bug that is killing them. Some of these problems were even mentioned in my environmental arch class. It sounds kind of similar to some of the stuff we have covered in class about reef systems - they are pretty delicate and some human changes can cause massive devastation, but they are working on reef revitalization. Maybe this same concept can be applied to the mountains.
Anyway...back to studying the developmental fields of the hand
I forgot the lyrics to that song...I was going to use it to tease Ed, but, he talks like it's a much better city than the song describes...After all, he has been there and his Wife is from there...Just didn't sound cool for a song. That may be more Siagon.
Yeah, if Men weren't to be Men among the Indians, they had to assume the role of a Woman. Or, so I read it was amongst the Natchez.
About devastation, one of the greatest that caused a chain reaction was, the Chestnut Blight, a blight brought in from China on Chinese Chestnuts. Now, looking off into Courthouse Valley you see allot of dead Hemlocks. It's sad.
That's how I feel when I travel back home to WV, you travel up the turnpike and from Bluefield to Charleston all you see are new mines opening up with the trees topped off the mountains and long dump truck tracks snaking up to the top. Breaks my heart to see so much man made destruction to some of the prettiest mountains you're ever going to find. Unfortunately, it's one of the few ways to still make money in that state.
I have the video of that song on my hard drive. It came out after my first round of trips through Bangkok and Pattaya. That song fully described my first dozen or more visits. It has only been in the last half decade or so that I have noticed the seaminess receding and the young, upwardly mobile taking over.
However....as a ocean hopping ex-squid, this much I have learned. The seaminess has not gone away, it has merely moved a small beach town or outlying suburb areat that I have not yet discovered.
oh seedy underbellies - some places they aren't even hidden - look at Amsterdam, you can walk along some nice looking streets and there are naked chicks in the windows trying to get your attention.
Well, I hope you survived the rain if you went hunting on Saturday. I read the Waynesville Mountaineer on line and they more or less said you'uns was gona be washed away. They cancelled the Friday night football games. Bill
Pipsqeak, naked chicks don't try to get your attention, they naturally succeed.
Ed, I was told a few years ago they cleaned up Victory Drive in Columbus GA. It probably just shifted.
Bill, it's been a week. Friday was the wash out, Saturday was a better day...And, now I have to go and find a silly little Walker Dog, cold, lost and alone in Macon County, and it's her own damn fault.
From Appalachia to Bangkok! Man we can travel!
Oh right, yeah, forgot I was looking at that from a girl's perspective ; )
Hope you find your girl - you think she's lost, but really she just decided to hunt without you for awhile : )
I got her back Pip. She spent a night in the Laurel Leaf Motel.
Are you Ok? Friday I had to take an old army cot to my son-in-law who was working a large smoker filled with Boston butts to make barbeque. Walking in the alley beside the church to the smoker I got all wet with cold wet socks and by Saturday morning was in bed with a deep cold that put me in bed all weekend. At any rate, I substitued Monday and had a good day and made some money. So, like you, it came out OK! The little Walker dog spent the night at the Laurel Leaf Motel huh? Uhmmmmm! Was she happy and in good shape when you found her . . . who was happier you or her? Did you give her a big dog biscuit and a hug or what? I can only smile and joke because you got your dog back. Bill
Glad you got her back : ) How is the little puppy working out?
Pipsqeak, that's something to get touched in my next post.
Bill, I had to spend the night on one the other night myself. But, in an ECW bag...in front of Twisters wood stove.
I ain't lit a fire yet.
Fascinating...
I thought I recognized the photograph you posted in reference to the dogs and the Russian Boar so I slipped into the link you had and sure enough, most of the Russian Boar Hunting that is there on the TN State Libary is of my great Uncles, Zeke, Zack & Ben Ellis, better known as famous hunting guides of Eastern Tennessee. These 3 men are my grandmother's brothers and they are true Southern boys.
Thank you for posting that, I have been sharing the rest of the hunting photographs with my cousins in Tellico Plains & the Coker Creek area of Monroe Co., TN in the last couple of weeks. My father was born there and I've just met the family of these 3 Ellis brothers. Their father, the Rev. John Allen Ellis was also known for his hunting skills. My father told me stories about them before he passed on.
Have a great day.
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