Mingus Creek, GSMNP, NC   Jess Riddle   Apr 30, 2007 17:00 PDT  Ents, Mingus Creek drains the southeast slopes of Newton Bald (elevation ~5180') before bending abruptly to the east and paralleling the southern border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park for two miles to reach the Oconaluftee River (elevation 2052') just above Cherokee, NC. Four cemeteries within half a mile of the creek's mouth attest to the heavy historical usage of the stream's lower valley and adjacent flats on the Oconaluftee. To give visitors a better understanding of that historical life, the National Park Service maintains a reconstructed grist mill on the lower part of the creek. Modern activity on the stream also includes a small target range, a hiking trail along the creek that ties into the park's main trail network, and a spur trail to another cemetery near the bend in the creek. Unlike in some other sections of the park, the farming activity did not shift the focus of activity from logging on Mingus Creek. The watershed was thoroughly cleared for timber except for some upper south-facing slopes and ridges. Those driest forests tend to be dominated by scarlet oak with some black oak, chestnut oak, white oak, red maple, and in places pitch pine, and have a continuous understory of mountain laurel. Some of the thin soiled, steep, north facing ridges also support fairly dry communities, but they lack scarlet oak, white oak, and mountain laurel. Instead, chestnut oak forms the primary canopy over a layer of upright rhododendron. A more tangled layer of rhododendron lines most of the main stream and larger tributaries under the shade of red maple, tuliptree, black birch, and yellow birch but rarely hemlock. Tuliptree becomes much more dominant in the adjacent old fields where the species often forms pure stands, but may give way to mockernut hickory and black oak in drier areas. The most productive forests in the watershed often occur on moist sites adjacent to old farm fields either in rocky areas at the base of north facing slopes or in steeper north facing coves. On the cove sites, tuliptree typically forms pure stands that grade into more northern red oak dominated forests around the upper edges. Silverbell and buckeye often grow in the midstory, and boulderfields within the coves may also feature sugar maple and white ash. The moist boulderfields lower in the watershed have more diverse canopies that often include basswood and biltmore ash in addition to tuliptree. The cove forests typically have sparse understories although spicebush and saplings of sugar maple, buckeye, and silverbell are common in places. Given the tree species present, the herbs in the coves do not form nearly as thick a cover as might be expected, but still feature many rich site species. The herb layer in one cove with a tuliptree canopy around 150' high consists of false hellebore, chickweed, grape fern, blue cohosh, bloodroot, violets, geranium, may-apple, rue anemone, and black cohosh along with smaller numbers of several other species. Trees measured during two trips to the watershed this winter follow: Species                         Cbh      Height Ash, Biltmore               6'4"      134.5' Ash, Biltmore               8'0.5"   139.5' Ash, Biltmore               7'4"     148.6' Ash, White                   9'8"      135.8' Ash, White                   10'5"    141.9' Basswood                     3'1"      128.7' Basswood                     6'6.5" 132.3' Basswood                     NA       132.8' Basswood                     3'2.5"   137.9' Basswood                     4'10"    138.8' Basswood                     8'0"      144.0' Basswood                     5'1"      144.3' Basswood                     5'8"      146.6' Beech                           7'3.5"   130.1' Beech                           8'3"      132.8' Beech                           7'2.5"   142.6' Dogwood, Flowering   2'2"      51.3' Dogwood, Flowering   2'6"      52.0' Hickory, Pignut            4'3"     137.4' Locust, Black               6'6"      141.0' Locust, Black               5'9"      144.5' Magnolia, Cucumber   6'3"      136.1' Magnolia, Cucumber   6'7"      141.2' Magnolia, Cucumber   5'5.5"   143.8' Maple, Sugar                4'5.5"   126.1' Oak, Black                    9'3"     129.7' Oak, Northern Red       13'10" 129.5'+ Oak, Northern Red       8'4"     135.3' Oak, Northern Red       12'8"   136.6' Oak, Northern Red       10'3"   142.0' Oak, Northern Red       10'0"   144.3' Sumac, Winged            1'3.5" 38.7' Tuliptree                       4'5.5" 148.8' Tuliptree                       7'5"     161.0' Tuliptree                       6'11"   162.7' Tuliptree                       5'2.5" 164.0' Tuliptree                       7'11"   167.1' Tuliptree                       9'2.5" 168.5' Tuliptree                       7'11"   168.6' Tuliptree                       10'9.5" 168.9' Tuliptree                       8'5"      169.3' Tuliptree                       5'1"     170.2' Tuliptree                       8'0.5" 170.8' Tuliptree                       7'8"     171.4' In the Mingus Creek watershed, biltmore ash grows only on rich, north facing slopes below about 2500'. The 148.6' individual is the tallest known of the variety in the Smokies. The 3'2.5" x 137.9' basswood has a height to diameter ration of 135 to 1. The beech listed above are the three tallest known in the Smokies, although a dead one recently found in Cataloochee would also have been over 130'. The 142.6' individual is a new height record for North Carolina, and makes the 143.2' height record tree at Savage Gulf appear less of an anomaly. The 52.0' height may be a record for flowering dogwood in NC. The winged sumac establishes a height record for NC, but will likely be exceeded by trees growing in floodplains in the coastal plain. All of the sheltered, north-facing sites, around 3000' in elevation, that had not been farmed have tuliptrees over 160' tall. Many more tuliptrees of that height were seen, but not measured, and additional 170' trees may be present. The 5'1" x 170.2' tree is part of a coppice, and at 105:1 may have the greatest height to diameter ratio so far recorded for a tree over 160' tall in the east. The tallest tuliptree grows on a steep slope about 50' above the center of the cove and only about 20' below the top of the small ridge that separates the next cove, a surprisingly exposed position for such a tall tree. Rucker Index: 145.1' Tuliptree 171.4' Biltmore Ash 148.6' Basswood 146.6' Black Locust 144.5' Northern Red Oak 144.3' Cucumbertree 143.8' Beech 142.6' White Ash 141.9' Pignut Hickory 137.4' Black Oak 129.7' At least one buckeye exceeds 130', so the Rucker Index is a known underestimate. The Rucker Index for the Oconaluftee watershed now stands at 153.9', and includes five trees from Mingus Creek. Jess Riddle Re: Mingus Creek, GSMNP, NC   Edward Frank   Apr 30, 2007 17:41 PDT  Jess, Another excellent trip report as always. I am impressed by the tall trees of the Smokies. It seems that the climatic combination of sun and heavy rain in the area are ideal to achieve the maximum growth of many different species. This suggests to me that the large hemlocks and pines reach their great height not as a result of genetic predisposition or chance, but because of climatic conditions in the area. Ed   Home