Prior to the 1700s, the land encompassed by the Nantahala National Forest was inhabited by the Cherokee people. Nantahala is a Cherokee word meaning “Land of the Noonday Sun,” a reference to the steep landscape where sunlight only reaches the valley floor at midday.
After European-Americans settled in the area, large-scale logging operations stripped vast areas of old-growth forest, and rail lines were built to extract the timber. Ecological damage was extensive. Much of the Forest’s acreage was purchased after the 1911 Weeks Act authorized the federal government to acquire land to protect watersheds, and the Nantahala was designated a national forest in 1920.
The Nantahala is the largest of the four national forests in North Carolina. It includes the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, approximately 3,800 acres of virgin forest named in memory of Joyce Kilmer, best known for his poem “Trees.” One of the largest stands of old-growth trees in the eastern United States, the Memorial Forest is a rare example of old-growth cove hardwood forest, unique to the Appalachian Mountains.
Dominant species are tulip tree/yellow poplar, oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore. Some trees are more than 400 years old, and the oldest tulip trees are more than 20 feet in circumference and 100 feet tall. The old-growth forest serves as a significant carbon sink and contains some of the densest biomass on earth.
Missing from the landscape is the American chestnut. Once the dominant tree of the forest, chestnuts were decimated by invasive chestnut blight, introduced when Asian chestnuts were imported in the early 20th century. In the Memorial Forest, massive rot-resistant chestnut logs and stumps endure today.
More recently, old-growth eastern hemlocks have fallen victim to the invasive woolly adelgid. Concerned that a falling tree might injure a visitor, Forest Service managers decided to blow up the trees with explosives in a way they believed would mimic natural windthrow. The action significantly altered the ecosystem.
Whitewater boating, hiking, and backpacking are popular recreation activities on the Nantahala, which contains three wilderness areas:
- Ellicott Rock (3,900 acres).
- Southern Nantahala (10,900 acres).
- Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock (13,100 acres).
At 5,800 feet above sea level, Lone Bald is the highest point in the Forest.
