The Cumberland Plateau

Coal Creek Farm is close to Knoxville, Nashville, and Chattanooga. Most of the farm lies at the northern junction of Walden Ridge and the Cumberland Mountains. It shares a 5-mile border on its Northwest side with Grassy Cove, a National Natural Landmark, and the largest sinkhole in North America (12.8 square miles). Much of it faces east, overlooking the Tennessee River Valley and the Smoky Mountains. Blessed with proximity to abundant wildlands, there are numerous trailheads for the Cumberland Trail State Scenic Trail; Piney Falls, Stinging Fork Falls, Ozone Falls State Natural Areas and Cumberland Mountain State Park.

The Natural Resource Defense Council lists the Cumberland Plateau in the top 12 most endangered natural areas in the Western Hemisphere.

Grassy Cove formed around 250 million years ago.

Piney Falls (two miles west of the farm), is a natural treasure that is, southwest of Coal Creek Farm. It has two large waterfalls, old-growth trees, and habitat hosting ecologically significant endangered species of plants and animals.

Cumberland Plateau’s ecoregion represents one of the most biologically diverse temperate forests in the world and is home to the most biologically diverse non-rainforest freshwater ecosystem on the planet.

Cumberland Homesteads was a community established by the New Deal-era Division of Subsistence Homesteads in 1934. Located just a few miles from Coal Creek Farm, many of the 251 original structures still exist.

The Cumberland Plateau, the world’s longest hardwood-forested plateau, is home to the highest concentration of endangered species in North America. -The Nature Conservancy

Carved by time and water, the Cumberland Plateau—the world’s longest expanse of hardwood-forested plateau—boasts varied elevations, topography, soils and microclimates. With portions remaining remote and rugged, the Cumberland Plateau is a global hotspot for amphibians, cave fauna and vascular plants, and some of our nation’s greatest variety of fish and mollusks, including laurel dace, purple bean and Cumberland pigtoe. Shortleaf pine and oak forests, interspersed with open woodlands and grasslands, welcome birds such as northern bobwhite, prairie warbler, brown-headed nuthatch and Bachman’s sparrow. 

Catoosa Wildlife Management Area is open year ‘round for hiking and there’s a lot to see. Abundant wildlife and varying habitat make it beautiful and interesting but there’s more. White water rafting and hunting, tracks for four-wheel exploration. Open sunrise to sunset, it’s a breathtaking experience.