Acquisition of 40-acre tract in Grundy County protects Stone Door view

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 10/1/15. Overlook from the Great Stone Door in the Savage Gulf State Natural Area on Thursday, October 1, 2015.
Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 10/1/15. Overlook from the Great Stone Door in the Savage Gulf State Natural Area on Thursday, October 1, 2015.

THE GREAT STONE DOOR

The Great Stone Door is an impressive cliff line overlooking the Savage Gulf on the Cumberland Plateau. It gets its name from a crack in the cliff that runs from the top to the bottom that looks like a door left slightly ajar. The crack has been improved for hikers with stone steps — about 150 of them — leading down to the bottom of the bluff where a set of wooden stairs leads the rest of the way down into the valley.

If you go

* Stone Door is part of the South Cumberland State Park system in Grundy, Franklin, Marion and Sequatchie counties. It comprises more than 23,000 acres in nine separate areas. * To get to Stone Door from Chattanooga, take Interstate 24 West to exit 135 for Monteagle and turn right at the end of the ramp. Take Dixie Lee Avenue to a right onto U.S. Highway 41 South/State Route 56 and continue toward Tracy City. In Tracy City, take a left at the traffic light onto State Route 56. Continue about 20 miles through Coalmont and Altamont to Beersheba Springs and watch for Stone Door Road on the right. Turn right onto Stone Door Road and follow the signs to the parking area. South Cumberland State Park’s visitors center is a quick stop on the right between Monteagle and Tracy City on Highway 41.

Celebration

An event to celebrate the acquisition to protect Stone Door’s view of Savage Gulf is set for Oct. 11. The Land Preservation Celebration is free and will begin with a hike to the Stone Door at 2 p.m. CDT followed by a gathering at the historic Beersheba Springs Hotel from 3-4 p.m. For more information or to find out how to help, visit friendsofscsra.org online.

BEERSHEBA SPRINGS, Tenn. - One of the southern Cumberland Plateau's most breathtaking views has been protected thanks to a deal struck between a local conservation group and a landowner who share a love of the Great Stone Door in Grundy County.

For Shirley Jones, the Great Stone Door - an enormous outcropping of stone that has a narrow, natural path leading down the bluff behind it - was part of the view from her property on the other side of the gulf.

Jones and the Friends of South Cumberland recently completed negotiations on the purchase of 40 acres along the cliff opposite the Stone Door, protecting the view from the top - a large flat area with views in all directions.

"They've been bothering me about five years," she laughed. Jones, who lives in Battle Creek, Mich., said she's glad to be a part of the preservation effort.

"They [the friends group and the state] own the property almost all the way around it and they own the valley itself," Jones said Friday of her decision to sell the tract. "And it adds to the park."

Past friends president Ty Burnette and South Cumberland interim park manager George Shinn agreed the acquisition was a long-term effort - about eight years - but said the payoff will benefit generations of visitors.

"This is a piece of property we've had our eye on for quite some time and even from the initial purchases for the park, this was a high-priority tract," Burnette said.

The friends group made the purchase with "revolving money," meaning the group will fund the purchase in hopes that the state will buy the land in the future, he said.

The friends consider Jones a "conservation hero," a title she quickly dismisses, but the group and park officials are still grateful.

Cleveland, Tenn., resident Robert McCaleb was vital to the purchase and to negotiations with Jones, maintaining a relationship with her over the years, Burnette and Shinn said.

"It's going to help protect the viewshed of Big Creek Gulf. That's what South Cumberland is excited about - we can rest assured that there won't be a house built along the bluff," Shinn said. The Jones tracts contain about 2,000 feet of bluff line.

Beside protecting the view, Shinn said, the newly acquired land will be a new access point to park property and Savage Gulf.

Stone Door was recognized for its beauty back in the 1970s when Savage Gulf was first preserved, he said. The Savage Gulf Preservation League - still very active and a forerunner of "friends groups" - helped then and continues to work in concert with other groups, Shinn said. Preservation of the Stone Door was part of the league's original vision, he said.

"They'll actually get to see that what they were fighting for is coming to fruition," Shinn said.

Current friends president Latham Davis said Jones joins a group of park visionaries like the families of Werner, Boyd, Whitson, Greeter and Ruehling, and others.

"Sometimes a small tract like this can be tremendously important because of the irrevocable damage to the view if houses were to be built along the bluff," he said.

Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.ben ton1 or 423-757-6569.

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