The Wilson Creek area is in Pisgah National Forest, NC, just below Grandfather Mountain, and is known for its pristine forests, rugged terrain, and challenging whitewater. For the purposes of this website, the Wilson Creek area includes the land on the Blue Ridge Escarpment between the Blue Ridge Parkway, Hwy 321, and land just west of Hwy 181. Prominent rivers include Upper Creek, Harper’s Creek, Wilson’s Creek, John’s River, and Mulberry Creek. Although it is less well known than the nearby Linville Gorge, Wilson Creek offers many recreational opportunities for camping, horseback riding, hiking, climbing, and kayaking.
In 2000, Wilson Creek was designated a Wild and Scenic River by Congress under The National Wild and Scenic River Act (1968). The reports supporting this decision identified 26 distinct natural plant communities along Wilson Creek and identified this area as a major prehistoric route that connected the Piedmont to the Blue Ridge Mountains. This classification divided Wilson creek into three sections: the first 2.9 miles from the river’s headwaters in Grandfather Mountain are designated scenic, the next 4.9 miles received the most protective designation of wild, and the next 15.8 miles of Wilson Creek are designated as recreational river.
Overview of Geology:
The Wilson Creek area is primarily underlain by Wilson Creek gneiss, a metamorphic rock that formed in the Lower Cambrian or nearly 500 million years ago. The rivers and valleys are filled with more recent sediment. This sediment is made up of gravel, sand, and silt as well as large boulders and rocks. Alluvial deposits or sediment brought to the valley by the river are common as well as colluvial deposits or sediment brought to the valley by landslides. Alluvial deposits can be identified by their proximity to the floodplain of a river and colluvial deposits can be identified from their characteristic fan shape.
History of Wilson Creek:
When Europeans made it to Wilson Creek in the mid 1700s, smallpox and war had wreaked havoc on the Catawba and Cherokee people who both claimed the territory as their own. When European settlers began arriving in force (late 1700s), they pushed the remaining Native Americans further west and south, taking the Wilson Creek area as their own. Adam Wilson for whom Wilson Creek is named after moved into the area in 1775. Some of the land in the Wilson Creek area was given to soldiers who fought in the American Revolution as payment.
The Wilson Creek area remained an undeveloped area with few families until railroad technology evolved to carry lumber from steep slopes to lumber mills in the valley and beyond. Beginning in the early 1900s Wilson Creek was heavily logged for lumber and this economy created the logging towns of Mortimer and Edgemont. The biggest logging company was called W. M. Ritter Lumber, although many other smaller operations existed in the area. As the official mill town in the area, Mortimer’s population exploded in the first decade of the 1900s, rising to a population of 800. In its heyday, the Wilson Creek area shipped out 30 million board feet of lumber per year.
North Carolina Ghost Town
But then disaster struck. The summer of 1916 was already unusually wet, but a hurricane tracked right over the Blue Ridge Escarpment, pushing the saturated landscape into motion. Massive flooding occurred and the deforested landscape held little protection against landslides. The disaster took lives, destroyed homes, and washed away the railroad and road access to Mortimer. Repairs were made, but by 1917 the timber industry had exhausted the Wilson Creek area and the W. M. Ritter Lumber company left the area with the smaller lumber companies soon to follow.
Although many attempts were made to revitalize the area, several wildfires and subsequent floods (1925 and 1926), continued to destroy mills and take lives. Finally, in the late summer of 1940, another hurricane tracked its way through the Blue Ridge Escarpment. After nearly five days of rain, Wilson Creek flooded it’s banks again, destroying the new hosiery mill and sweeping much of Mortimer downriver. Landslides were particularly deadly and the towns in the Wilson Creek area never recovered.
Cites Consulted:
http://www.mtnlaurel.com/backroads/379-mortimer-and-edgemont-north-carolina-backroads-tour.html
http://www.tarheelpress.com/CNW5.html
https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_20814.htm
https://www.hikewnc.info/trailheads/wilson-creek/
https://pubs.usgs.gov/mf/1391-A/report.pdf
https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2018/08/north-carolina-ghost-town.html
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-carolina/68030-mortimer-nc.html
Hyde, A. (2017). The Linville Gorge and Wilson Creek Hiker’s Guide: An Introduction (3rd ed.). Published by author.