The Tellico Creek Valley drains into the Little Tennessee River
some ten
miles south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While the
Forest
Service owns the upper half of the watershed and the Appalachian
Trail
follows the western rim, the lower part of the creek still flows
through
sections fields and open space. Century old homes and newer
homes stand
scattered along the road through the valley. Next to one old
home, stands
a single stemmed, 17’10” x 60.3’ silver maple.
Within site of that tree grows the Tellico Oak, which a friend
of mine
recently took me to see. When he told me about the tree, I was
expecting
another 15’ cbh open-grown oak, common around old home sites
in the
southeast. The white oak, said to be a Native American meeting
place, was
immediately identifiable as belonging to a different class. One
edge of
the massive crown extends over a rock wall to a patch of young
forest, bee
hives and isolated trees fringe another side, and open land with
some
recently planted fruit trees afford good views from the other
two sides.
The tree maintains a central stem most of the way through the
crown that
supports branches up to 78’ long. The tree grows at about
2200’
elevation, and is 20’10” x 108.4’ x 132’.
Jess Riddle
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