Smoke Hole Canyon

Smoke Hole Canyon
Coordinates	38°51′35″N 79°17′04″W

Live bluegrass music and dancing at Shreves Store

Smoke Hole Canyon — often called simply the Smoke Hole — is a rugged 20 miles (32 km) long gorge carved by the South Branch Potomac River in the Allegheny Mountains of eastern West Virginia, USA. Defined to the east by Cave Mountain and to the west by North Fork Mountain, the gorge has been part of the Monongahela National Forest's Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area since 1965, although some of it is still private land. The area is somewhat isolated and rugged with parts accessible only by boat.

Geography and description

Smoke Hole is situated in southern Grant and northern Pendleton Counties. It is defined by North Fork Mountain to the west and Cave Mountain to the east.

Narrow and winding secondary roads snake through the gorge. Two roads provide access into the Smoke Hole: Pendleton County Route 2 enters the Smoke Hole near Upper Tract a small community located 18 miles (29 km) southwest of Petersburg along US Route 220. CR 2 follows the river into the Canyon and parallels it downstream for about 8 miles (13 km). The first 5.5 miles (8.9 km) are paved but narrow.

At places the Canyon is over 1,000 feet (300 m) deep with nearly vertical walls. (The riverbed is at about 1,100 feet (340 m) above sea level and the summit of nearby Cave Mountain is 2,470 feet (750 m).) Spectacular views of the Canyon can be had along the 24-mile (39 km) long North Fork Mountain Trail to the west where sods and cedar barrens can be visited. Caves are common in the Canyon slopes. Some are home to the endangered Virginia big-eared bat and are therefore closed to visitors during critical nesting or hibernation periods.

History

Smoke Hole Canyon was settled in the years after the Revolution by war veteran Colonel William Eagle who is buried near the towering rock that bears his name.

The origin of the name “Smoke Hole” is uncertain. Popular (and plausible) explanations include the claim that Native Americans used the caves of the gorge for smoking meat (some old timers used to call the canyon the "Smoke Holes”). It has also been noted that a misty fog often lies along the river and ascends, thus evoking a "smoky hole". Another story is that the fires of moonshiner's stills gave the gorge its name.

During the Great Depression, many of the few people living in the Canyon left to find better jobs, and their homesteads were consolidated among a smaller number of landholders. The trend continued through World War II. The network of mountain roads formerly connecting homesteads and farms throughout the Canyon is now largely abandoned.

The Smoke Hole region has become a primary protection project of The Nature Conservancy, which purchased an 1,126-acre (456 ha) easement there in April 2004.^{[citation needed]}

Under the Monongahela National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan (2006), over 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in the Smoke Hole area were set aside for non-motorized, primitive recreation and remote wildlife habitat. The West Virginia Division of Forestry, in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy, acquired conservation easements to protect private woodlands near Smoke Hole in 2009.

• 

  Smoke Hole historical marker

• 

  St. George’s Church (Circa 1850)

• 

  Remnants of the Post Office, town of Ketterman (near Big Bend Campground)

Geology

Eagle Rock

The geology of the Smoke Holes is dominated by the Cave Mountain anticline. The stratigraphic column exposed in this region contains Lower Silurian to Middle Devonian sandstones, limestones, and shales. This package of rocks is bounded on the lower and upper ends by two fairly competent sandstones: the Silurian Tuscarora and the Devonian Oriskany (Ridgeley), respectively. The anticline trends N 34 degrees E, and is faulted along the southeast-dipping Cave Mountain thrust against the southeast limb of the Wills Mountain anticline (North Fork Mountain). The Cave Mountain anticline is asymmetric to the northwest with a slightly overturned northwest limb. Adjacent to this northwest limb is a highly folded and faulted zone that is representative of the designated Blue Rock synclinal "shear zone" complex of macroscale structures between the Cave Mountain and the Wills Mountain anticlines. Furthermore, the Cave Mountain anticline is a doubly plunging fold showing a culmination at the Lower Silurian strata level near Big Bend in the center of the Smoke Holes. The anticline appears to divide into several plunging folds upsection, at the Lower Devonian strata level, toward each end of the fold. Particularly noticeable are the numerous plunging anticlinal noses at the northeastern end of the Smoke Holes.

The Cave Mountain anticline consists of subparallel northeast-trending folds and southeast-dipping thrust faults with a maximum stratigraphic displacement of approximately 1900 feet, throwing Lower Silurian rocks against Lower Devonian rocks. The Cave Mountain anticline is further structurally bounded to the northeast and southwest by major cross-strike structural discontinuities: the nearly east-west trending Petersburg lineament and an extension of the northwest-southeast trending Parsons lineament, respectively.

Overall, this region reveals the interior of this thrusted anticlinal-synclinal structure and presents a phenomenal exposure of complex central Appalachian macroscale structures involving the Silurian-Devonian package of rocks. Geologically, the Smoke Holes are the most uniquely exposed region within the westernmost central Appalachians and they have served as a surface model for complex subsurface structures shown and/or suspected by seismic and exploratory drilling. Furthermore, this region provides detailed insight into the lowermost roof-sequence cover above the suspected duplex of Cambrian-Ordovician horse-blocks and blind-thrusts at depth.

• 

  Unnamed cliff along Smokehole road.

• 

  Exposed rock layers near Big Bend Campground

Ecology

Smoke Hole is a biologically diverse area classified as an upland limestone-based ecosystem. It is believed that the Canyon is the largest area of limestone forest left in this region of the country. Most of the forest soil in West Virginia is naturally acidic, only growing a certain range of plants. But limestone soil is not acidic and tends to be richer in certain nutrients than are other soils, thus supporting a different type of plant life. The plant species mix is unique: common Appalachian plants along with prairie species such as prairie rocket, Indian grass and little bluestem.

The dry, prairie-like areas along the upper knobs and ridges of the Canyon are home to a variety of typically western plants such as prairie flax and redroot. These plants are more commonly found west of the Mississippi River. Due to the protective effect of surrounding mountains, rainfall in Smoke Hole is unusually light — only about 30-32 inches per year. This relatively low precipitation permits a small haven for these unusual species.

About a dozen species of plants and animals in Smoke Hole Canyon are considered to be “globally rare”.

Flora

The prairie-like regions and associated cedar glades around the Smoke Hole Canyon are the largest groupings of such habitats in the Central Appalachians, and a number of unusual disjunct or regionally endemic plant species are known from the Smoke Hole.^{[citation needed]}

The Smoke Hole bergamot (Monarda fistulosa var. brevis), a member of the mint family, has some of its few worldwide occurrences within the Smoke Hole area.^{[citation needed]}

Virginia nailwort (Paronychia virginica var. virginica) is another rare plant known from the Smoke Hole. This species is so uncommon that the few small patches found among the rocks of the Canyon walls are thought to be the largest population in the world.^{[citation needed]}

The prairie flax (Linum lewisii) is a widespread western species quite rare in the east. Sometimes called "Lewis flax", it was originally discovered during the Lewis and Clark expedition, and not known wild east of the Great Plains until it was found in the Smoke Hole.^{[citation needed]}

Fauna

The Canyon is home to about 40 percent of the world's Virginia big-eared bat population and the largest single colony of Indiana bats, another endangered animal in the eastern US. The big-eared bat is highly sensitive and needs exacting conditions to hibernate. Its caves are therefore protected during critical months.

The Canyon is a prime area for neotropical migrants birds—those that spend their summers in the US but migrate to South America for the winter. Wood thrushes, scarlet tanagers and various warblers have all been in decline recently because of habitat loss on both continents, but can find sanctuary within the secluded Canyon. Bald eagles also nest in the surrounding mountainsides.

Rare species of butterfly (Columbine duskywing, cobweb skipper) live in the open, grassy, limestone habitats of the Canyon. A variety of tiger beetle lives in the sandy, cobblestone habitats along the banks of the South Branch.

The Canyon also has a significant black bear and bobcat population, and is known for its large number of timber rattlesnakes, a species now scarce elsewhere in the state. The Allegheny woodrat, which lives in rocky terrain in the Canyon, has been declining throughout much of its range due to an epidemic of roundworm infestation (acquired from raccoons), among other causes.

• 

  White-tailed deer

• 

  Juvenile Virginia Opossum

• 

  Crayfish in South Branch Potomac River

• 

  Mating grasshoppers

• 

  Pipevine swallowtail

• 

  Unidentified caterpillar

• 

  Monarch butterfly cattepilars

• 

  Tibicen cicada

Invasive species

An Asian grass known as Japanese stiltgrass was accidentally introduced into the U.S. during the last half of the 20th century and has become a major conservation nuisance nationwide. In recent years, the Canyon has been overwhelmed with this invasive species, first introduced into the state in 1980. The 1996 flood in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia spread the seed throughout Smoke Hole, and now it is the most abundantly growing plant in the area. When introduced into a new area, stiltgrass blankets the ground and suffocates other plant life that would ordinarily grow close to the ground. Unchecked, the plant can spread in a manner almost impossible to abate.

Another biological threat to the Canyon is the insect known as hemlock woolly adelgid. Also from Asia and just recently introduced into the Canyon ecosystem, it has been attacking the stands of eastern hemlock there. The bug coats and then kills the tree branches. The Forest Service and The Nature Conservancy are coordinating to find ways to stop the spread of both stiltgrass and the adelgid. A species of Asian beetle known to survive entirely by eating the adelgid is being considered for the Canyon, while a solution to the stiltgrass problem remains as yet unidentified.

Recreation

Climbing in Smoke Hole Canyon

Popular activities in Smoke Hole Canyon include fishing (rainbow and golden trout; largemouth and smallmouth bass), hunting (squirrel, grouse, turkey, deer, rabbit and bear), hiking, rock climbing, caving, canoeing and camping (Big Bend Campground). Kayaking and whitewater canoeing provide the best ways to see the Canyon, particularly the lower section where there are no roads or trails. (The entire Smoke Hole river run — from US 220 to Petersburg — is about 25 miles (40 km) long.)

Campgrounds

Big Bend Campground is located on a peninsula in the river and features 46 sites with water and flush toilets from April 15 to Oct. 1. Group camping is also available at the Jess Judy Camping Area along the river.

See also

• Smoke Hole Caverns, located just outside the Canyon

References

Other sources

• This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites and is in the public domain.
  • United States Department of Agriculture, Smoke Hole Area Guide: Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, Monongahela National Forest (SuDoc A 13.36/2:SM 7/2).
• Sites, Roy S. (2005), “The Smoke Hole Region of West Virginia” at the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey website.
• West Virginia Writers' Program (1940), Smoke Hole and Its People, Charleston, West Virginia: West Virginia Writers Project, State Department of Education.
• Local history:
  • Shreve, D. Bardon, with Estyl C. Shreve (1997), A Place Called Smoke Hole, Fredericksburg, Virginia: Fredericksburg Press.
  • Shreve, D. Bardon, with Estyl C. Shreve (2000), More About Smoke Hole, Fredericksburg, Virginia: Fredericksburg Press.

External links

• MNF Webpage on Smoke Hole Canyon
• Geology of Smoke Hole Region
• "Smoke Hole canyon is a West Virginia treasure" article on Smoke Hole recreation