60 Hikes Within 60 Miles by Johnny Molloy

Author:Johnny Molloy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781634043410
Publisher: Menasha Ridge Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

This log cabin replica commemorates the birthplace of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Eve Proper

THIS HIKE EXPLORES southwestern Montgomery Bell State Park, making a fine circuit. First, tread among old pits from an 1800s iron-ore mine. Then visit a historic cabin site where a church denomination was founded and a local cemetery is still in use. Next, you’ll admire the aquatic beauty at Hall Spring, Lake Woodhaven, and Creech Hollow Lake.

DESCRIPTION

This loop hike is an exemplary woodland walk. The terrain is never difficult, and plenty of places beckon hikers to stop, linger, and contemplate nature and history. Pack a lunch and make a full day of it. Start the hike on the Montgomery Bell (MB) Trail, which leaves the Church Hollow Picnic Area and crosses the road on which you came. The MB Trail is blazed in white, and the Ore Pit Trail is blazed in red. These trails run together for the first and very last portion of the hike.

Head up a hill into a forest of oak, maple, and tulip trees on an old wagon road. You’ll reach a trail junction at 0.2 mile and will immediately notice many holes in the ground. These holes, now rounded with time and grown over with trees, are the remains of pits that were dug to extract the area’s iron ore, which was fed into Laurel Furnace, located near the picnic area. Trees were cut and turned into charcoal to heat the ore, and waterpower was used to run a large bellows that blew oxygen into the fire. The molten iron was poured into molds known as sows, giving rise to the name pig iron. The discarded leftover material was slag. Most of these furnaces operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Can you imagine the heat of these furnaces in summer?

The MB Trail turns left at the junction. This path and park were named for Tennessee’s premier iron industrialist of the early 1800s, Montgomery Bell. He established furnaces all over the area. Look around as the path winds between these old pits. The woods, dotted with tall white oaks, display the enduring healing powers of nature. Head downhill and reach a trail junction at mile 1.0. Here, a side trail leads 75 yards up an old wagon road to the lone grave of Dorothy Lowe, the daughter of Sam and Jo Lowe. The girl lived just two years in the early 1900s. After the iron furnaces went cold, the Lowe family most likely farmed this area.

The trail continues downhill and soon reaches a clearing and a cabin. This structure is a replica of the residence of Rev. Samuel McAdow, a founder of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. The Second Great Awakening, a Protestant revival movement, was sweeping across rural America in the early 19th century. In 1810 McAdow, along with fellow clergymen Finis Ewing and Samuel King, broke with their church (the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America) over doctrinal disagreements, and in McAdow’s cabin the three of them created what would become a new denomination.

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