The first question you may ask youself is just what the heck is “rock harvesting” anyway?

Rock harvesting is the practice of removing native stone, in this instance Tennessee mountain stone, to feed the ever growing demand for the attractive stone’s use in buildings, walls, walkways, and landscaping.

No problem so far……but, the issue begins when rock harvesters began harvesting stone from public lands like the Justin P. Wilson Cumberland Trail State Park which is located about 50 miles north of Knoxville and along the Cumberland Trail itself.

The Cumberland Trail is the centerpiece of a state linear park with the 300 mile long Trail running from Signal Mountain near Chattanooga north to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. Cumberland Gap was the first gateway to the western lands during Indian and pioneer days.

cumberland trail from Chattanooga, through Knoxville, to Cumberland Gap Kentucky

Imagine hiking through this pristine wilderness and rounding a bend to come across the photo below! In some instances the rock harvesters are working above the trail and huge boulders and debris falls downhill across the trail.

cumberland trail rock harvesting

Rock harvesting with heavy equipment along the enviromentally sensitive Cumberland Trail. 

Not surprisingly rock harvesting, like strip mining, is not enviromentally friendly since the rocks are mostly below ground level. Heavy equipment is used to dig them up and remove them leaving huge scars on the landscape.

To further exacerbate this pillaging of the land it seems the State of Tennessee neglected to buy the mineral rights when it acquired a lot state park lands and some of the lands along the long planned Cumberland Trail. Tennessee is in litigation to determine if mountain is actually a mineral and covered under the state’s mineral rights laws.

Whatever the outcome this practice is bringing horrible results to formerly pristine mountain lands, state parks, and the Cumberland Trail.

devil's racetrack north of Knoxville tn

The Devil’s Racetrack natural stone formation. This is visible from Interstate 75 north of Caryville, Tennessee and a part of the Cumberland Trail system.

watch for falling rocks along the cumberlant trail

If this is as big a concern to you as it is to me I urge you to join with us to put a stop to this practive before scenic beauty like the natural stone formations above are destroyed forever and lost to future generations.