User:Mattise135/draft Walls of Jericho (natural area)

The Walls of Jericho refers to Natural Areas in both Tennessee and Alabama. 750 acre in Tennessee and 13045 acre in Alabama are protected. The Walls of Jericho is also the name of a box canyon located there. Turkey Creek flows over the Falls of Jericho at the top of this canyon, and disappears in a pool. The water emerges from a cave several hundred feet down the canyon and flows across a large bowl shaped amphitheater. These features are in Tennessee but are only accessible from the lower portion of the canyon in Alabama.

Hurricane Creek

Paint Rock River

Geography/Geology
Cumberland Plateau

Early History
Legend says that Davy Crockett hunted in this area. He moved his wife and three children to Franklin County, Tennessee in 1813, after wild game became scarce in Moore County, Tennessee. He built a new settlement on Beans Creek named "Kentuck." He lived there until 1817 and hunted in the area. The Cherokee ceded the area (both Tennesse and Alabama) in Calhoun Treaty of February 1819

a circuit-riding minister www.jacksoncountychamber.com

The valley bottoms were farmed and inhabitants were buried in the Clark Cemetery. Texas oil magnate Harry Lee Carter acquired 60000 acre in the 1940s. The area was open to the public until his death in 1977.

Natural Area
The Walls of Jericho were initially nominated for purchase by the State of Alabama when Forever Wild (link) was formed in 1993, but the land owners were not interested in selling at the time.

In 2002, word came that the Mead Corporation was selling all of its land holdings in Tennessee and Alabama.


 * The Nature Conservancy 21,453, closed in December 2003 for $13,944,168, from walls-of-jericho.xml
 * Alabama 12,510, February 26, 2004
 * Tennessee, a 750-acre natural area that is within the 8,943-acre Bear Hollow Mountain Wildlife Management Area (WMA),
 * Alabama 537  May 28,2010
 * add 2,125 in Alabama

Activities
Camping and Hiking horse caving equestrian trails campground


 * Alabama Trailhead
 * Alabama to creek
 * Creek to WoJ
 * Bear Den Point Loop (4.7 miles) east of the hwy
 * Tennessee Trailhead
 * Tennessee Mill Creek Loop
 * Side trail to blowhole
 * 1 mile loop
 * South Rim Trail
 * Horse Trails
 * Alabama
 * Tennessee

Also See
The Nature Conservancy

Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency

Forever Wild (Alabama)