Survival Of The
Horse Cove Poplar
How il o.seapod the logger's axe, and
may yet become* the National Cham¬
pion.
By JAMES R. PADGETT
About three miles east from the little
town of Highlands. North Carolina, in
Horse Cove, at the foot of Fodderstack
Mountain, stands a yellow poplar tree
— a species known in the botanical and
forestry professions by the melodious
scientific name Liriodendron lulipi-
/era. The species is also known as tulip
tree, or tulip poplar, because of its
large orange-and-grecn tulip-like flow¬
ers which appear in the spring. This
tree in Horse Cove is not. however, a
run-of-the-mill poplar tree, no ordi¬
nary tree by any standards. It is rather
a lonesome survivor of the woodsman's
axe and saw that felled the original
giant trees of the primeval forest found
by the first white man to enter Horse
Cove.
Locally known as the Horse Cove
Poplar, or by some as the Fodderstack
Poplar, both names natural results of
its location, this forest leviathan is on
national forest land, easily accessible
at the intersection of Bull Pen and Wil¬
son Gap roads. Keeping it company
are a couple of other unusually large
poplars and a few red oaks of excep¬
tional size, but these and all other trees
in the little stream-hollow community
are dwarfed by the one great poplar.
Despite its impressive size, the
Horse Cove Poplar is not the national
champion in the American Forestry
Association's register of big trees. The
national champion stands in Bedford
County. Virginia, measuring 30 feet. 3
inches circumference (measured at
Л'Л
feet above the ground). 124 feel tall,
and a crown spread of 122 feet. The
Horse Cove Poplar is IX feet. It) inches
circumference. 145 feet tall, and has a
crown spread of about 76 feet. If cut
down and sawed into lumber it would
produce about 5.500 board feet of
beautiful yellow boards.
Wasilik Also Larger
At least one other poplar, known as
the Wasilik Poplar, named after a
former national forest ranger, also out¬
strips the Horse Cove Poplar in overall
dimensions. This tree, measuring 25
feet. 3 inches circumference. 135 feet
tall, and a crown spread of 5 1 feet, was
national champion until the larger tree
TKe big popior it in Hone
Соте,
at the bote of Foddentock Mountain (Background, left) in mountainous
Mocon County, near Highlands.
Dworf mg rtt neighboring trees, the big poplar it over
18 feet in circumference, it 145 feet toll, ond con¬
tours over 5000 boord feet of potential lumber. For
mony yeort locol loggers hove presented good rco-
sons why it should be chopped down ond houled to
hungry sawmills.
was found in Virginia. The Wasilik
Poplar is on the north slopes of Stand¬
ing Indian Mountain, near Franklin.
North Carolina.
Anyone who has walked through
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, near
Robbinsville. North Carolina, has
been awed by the hundreds of giant
poplars, hemlocks and oaks which
were preserved in honor of the beloved
author of the poem Trees. Impressive
as the Joyce Kilmer poplars are. none
attain the overall dimensions of the one
in Horse Cove.
It is a remarkable fact in itself that
the big poplar in Horse Cove has es¬
caped the logger's axe over the years.
The Indians didn't cut trees into lum¬
ber. of course, and subsequent owners
of the land apparently spared the tree,
for unknown reasons, until it was sold
to the Forest Service. Then the series
of forest rangers who administered the
national forest land, including John
Wasilik. for whom the big poplar on
Standing Indian is named, simply re¬
fused to sell the big tree and its few
large companions for timber harvest.
Preservation of the big poplar over
THE STATE, APRIL 1982
19
