Topic: Land Between the Lakes

Where the elk and the bison roam …

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 29, 2008 |

Daytrips and Weekenders. As the summer months and the vacation/travel season approaches, we offer you, our readers, ideas for day trips and weekend excursions to places and events that can be done in a day, or maxed out over a weekend. Time and the high cost of gas fuel our efforts to find local entertainment and activities. This column will appear each Thursday through Labor Day.

Land Between the Lakes has a lot to offer, not the least of which a free roaming bison that, topping the scales at a ton (a very solid 2,000 pounds), leave no doubt as to who has the right of way on the roads in the prairie compound.

At up to 2000 pounds, adult bison can have the right of way ...

Discounting its paved road, the Elk and Bison Prairie is a step back in time to an age when these magnificent animals roamed free across the American landscape, the midwestern prairies. Though modern living and urban expansion has come perilously close to decimating native prairie landscape, many groups across the midwest are laboring intensively to save and/or restore these landscapes. It’s enviromentally sound and historically smart. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Education | No Comments

Tennessee Trails: Volunteers clean trails, remove litter from walking trails

By Debbie Boen | February 15, 2008 |

Not far from Clarksville are walking trails in parks and at nearby Land Between the Lakes. A great way to walk them is with the Tennessee Trails Association.

This last weekend our local Tennessee Trails Association did a litter pickup and debris removal in Rotary Park and on a north-south trail at Land Between the Lakes (LBL). The group removed several bag fulls of trash and moved many wind blown tree limbs off the trail. They left tired, but with a feeling of pride in knowing that they had left the trails in better shape than they found it.

James Arthur Neblett participated in the litter pickup hike this year and last year. He said that it beat staying inside no matter what the weather was, and he is anxious to participate in this endeavor in the future.

One of the local Tennessee Trails members is J. R. Tate (at left). Among other trails, he has walked the Appalachian Trail four times. It took him six months each time. During his 2006 walk, we got a glimpse of his adventure through diary passages he sent to the Leaf Chronicle. When I asked him his secret to success he said, “Hiking is a matter of moving your right foot, then your left foot. Repeat until you get from where you started to where you end up”. He found that the mental part of hiking is a lot more important than the physical part. He kept himself going sometimes on the simple thought of a warm sleeping bag or a great meal ahead. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure | No Comments

Lamentations: An artist’s view of land before and after the rivers

By Christine Anne Piesyk | September 15, 2007 |

Lamentations, an exhibit of work by artist Beverly Riggins Parker, will open Sunday, September 16, with a reception from 12-4 p.m. at the Stewart County Public Library in Dover, Tennessee.

Pictured above is Beech Roots, Bear Creek, from the collection.

Lamentations, a series of hand-painted Lith photographs is “a pictorial view of communities in Stewart County before and after the acquisition of land for Land Between the Rivers.” The exhibit runs through October 11.

Parker is native of Stewart County. The library is open M-T-Th-F from 8-8, Saturday from 9-3, and is usually closed on Wednesdays and Sundays. Directions: Turn left at the light in Dover, Tennessee (from highway 79) and go about one mile. The library is on the right.

Sections: Arts and Leisure | No Comments