October 21, 2020 Saving the Red Spruce Trees

At one time, the red spruce was one of the most dominant trees in the Southeast Appalachians. In the late 1800s, these trees were cut for use in the lumber and paper pulp industries. The red spruce tree, and one other along the Chattooga Ridge Trail, were the only known specimens on the High Hampton property. Since 2005, John and Marcia McCarley, local North Carolina horticulturists, have taken on the task of restoring the red spruce to High Hampton. To date, they have planted more than 600 red spruce trees on Rock Mountain and Chimney Top Mountain.

John and Marcia grew seedlings for five years to bring the red spruce back to Chimney Top. They carried more than 400 seedlings up the Chimney Top Trail over three or four weekends. They brought in the trees one backpack full at a time, planted them and started spreading the seedlings throughout the top of the mountains. When the red spruce were planted, they were roughly six inches in height. Now, they stand over seven feet tall! “Most likely, they’re the southernmost red spruce in existence—at least that we know of. We wanted them to be in Cashiers for posterity, so to speak. Together, we have six grandchildren, and we wanted them to enjoy the trees as we did when we were young visitors here,” said Marcia.

Today, you can find the red spruce located on the extreme Northeast corner of the lawn, reminding us of the beautiful work of the McCarleys to bring the species back to Cashiers.