Canebrake

This is native cane - specifically Arundinaria gigantea, a type of bamboo native to North America. What you see here is not bamboo, or sugar cane, or sorghum cane.

Prior to European colonization it was widespread across the Southeast and formed large colonies called “canebrakes” - part of the incredibly biodiverse grasslands and river ecosystems that dotted this region.

Early descriptions of Giles County mention that the first trails were cut into ridgelines because large swathes of cane “taller than a man’s head on horseback” carpeted the bottomlands. Although textbooks have long claimed that the eastern United States was a single unbroken forest before 1492, it has become increasingly clear that large grassy savannas and canebrakes predominated in much of the South.

Country music fans might be familiar with canebrakes from the song “Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis, specifically the lyrics: “I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion.”

A Lost World

The Carolina parakeet (Conuropsis carolensis) was a parrot native to the grasslands of the southern United States and parts of the Midwest.

Imagine flocks of these beautiful birds carpeting the bottom fields here at Wolf Gap. Habitat loss pushed it to extinction and the last known Carolina parakeet died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1918.

Conuropsis carolinensis (Carolina parakeet) 2 by James St. John CC BY 2.0

Thoughts:

Humans are constantly changing the world around them. Try to imagine the area around Wolf Gap as it was before European colonization. Describe what you think it looked like.

How do you think this land will look in 100 years? What type of buildings, animals, people, and plants might be here?