The Great Eastern Hardwood Forest

The Great Eastern Hardwood Forest. . , (Marker #1) , The Great Eastern Hardwood Forest , Before Columbus, the world of the eastern Indian was one of a vast continuous forest stretching from Canada to the Gulf coast. A mature forest, it changed little over the centuries, and served as the home of many creatures, some now gone from the earth. , , (Drawing Captions) , Passenger pigeons by the millions darkened the skies overhead. They fed on the nuts and other fruits of the forest. The last survivor died in captivity in 1914. , , “A squirrel could travel from Maine to Texas without touching the ground.” It was by far the greatest hardwood forest in the world. , , The ivory-billed woodpecker needed large stands of mature trees to provide its insect food. As these have disappeared, so has the bird. It is now probably extinct. , , Even a woodland type of bison frequented this country. It, too, has disappeared. , , The Carolina parakeet, our only native parrot, was a common sight to early explorers. It also is gone forever. , , The wolf and mountain lion once roamed the forest paths of this area. , , (Marker #2) , The Indian Hunter , The white-tailed deer was a mainstay for prehistoric and recent hunters. It provided meat for their diet and buckskin for clothing. Antlers and bones were shaped into tools. , , Weapon points, tools to skin and scrape, and knives to butcher were made of antler, stone or bone. , , (Marker #3) , everything was useful ... , The Indian found in the plants and the earth around him all that he needed to supplement his hunter’s existence. , , (Drawing Captions) , Baldcypress and yellow-poplar logs, when hollowed, became dugout canoes. , , CLAY , ... became pipes, pottery, and plaster for dwellings and ceremonial structures. , Red acher, mixed with grease, became a body paint. , , STONE , Stone of many kinds was shaped into tools, utensils, and weapons. , , WOOD , Bows were made of osage orange or black locust. , Blackhaw viburnum and “red dogwood” provided arrow shafts. , It was used to frame bark-covered huts. (Pine, hickory, black locust.) , , PLANTS Corn, a staple, was cultivated in fields near the villages. , Walnuts supplied food as well as a dye widely used in basketry. , Cane was woven into mats and baskets. , Chickasaw plums were eaten fresh, or dried for winter use. , The bark and leaves of sassafras were used in medical concoctions. , Dried persimmons were made into cakes or bricks of “bread.” , , (Marker #4) , Retreat of the Forest , The settlers who followed the explorers cleared the forest and put the land to the plow. , , (Drawing Captions) , The early explorers and trappers adopted Indian ways for survival, utilizing the plants and wildlife of the primitive forest. , , (Marker #5) , The Farming Years , Some of the areas cleared for farming were unsuited to agriculture and others suffered from unwise use of the soil. Farming slowly deteriorated. , , (Photo Captions) , The major crops – corn, cotton and tobacco – grown year after year in the same field depleted the soil. , , Heavy erosion of the soil helped ruin many farms. , , As farms were abandoned, nature reached out eagerly to reclaim her own. , , (Marker #6) , Return of the Forest , Along the Trace today the forest is returning to certain areas where crops were once grown. You can see several stages of plant succession in the slow return to a climax forest. , , (Photo Captions) , First sassafras and sweetgum invade the grassy areas. , , Then the pines appear, with scattered oaks and black gums. , , As the soil improves, oaks and hickories invade the maturing evergreen forest, shading out all pine seedlings. Eventually, then, these trees dominate the eastern hardwood forest. , , The old fields are, for a while, havens for open-country wildlife, but as the trees reappear, these creatures give way to animals of the forest.