Page 50 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 3 #4
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Although our family has been in North Department of Agriculture’s Web site, which
Carolina all our lives, we had never been provided the following introductory para-
to the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. graph:
Perhaps, this is because it is about as far west
in North Carolina as you can go. If you think This forest is one of the Nation’s most im-
of the state as being a shoe, with the heel on pressive remnants of old-growth forest.
the east and the toe on the west, Joyce Kilmer The forest contains magnificent examples
would be the toenail of the big toe, just before of more than 100 tree species, many over
the state line plummets south to the Georgia 400-years-old, and some more than 20
state line. feet in circumference and 100 feet tall.
Probably, you remember the line from This 3,800-acre forest was set aside in
Joyce Kilmer’s poem, “Trees.” 1936 as a memorial to the author of the
poem “Trees.” Joyce Kilmer was killed in
“I think that I shall never see action in France during World War I. This
a poem as lovely as a tree.” forest, part of the Joyce Kilmer-Slick Rock
Wilderness, is maintained in its primitive
Our family was on a vacation in the North state. The only way to see this forest is
Carolina mountains, so we decided to visit the on foot. A 2-mile trail leads to the Joyce
forest. “Googling” the forest led us to the US Kilmer Memorial and loops through giant
50 | Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
