Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022 - 30

cient barns are a favorite refuge for shy
barn owls. Visitors can easily spend hours
strolling through the park's eight miles of
trails. Bird and flower walks are offered at
least three days a week spring through fall.
Banding and other research activities are
ongoing at the park, with assistance from
volunteers.
For paddlers and anglers, there is a
small canoe/kayak launch that provides
access to the French Broad River and its
islands. At least 50 species of fish, including
crappie, bluegill and several varieties
of bass swim in these waters.
Osceola Island, Bristol. Osceola Island
is smack dab in the middle of one
of the Southeast's best trout streams, the
South Fork of the Holston River. Fly fishermen
and -women travel hundreds of
miles to ply these waters. Located across
a footbridge a mile below South Holston
MADISON COUNTY, NC
Dam, the island is encircled by a 1.5-mile
wildlife trail. Picnic tables with grills dot
its perimeter, ready to broil fresh trout
pulled from the river.
The island is flanked by weir dams.
Deep-water releases from hydroelectric
dams provide the cold-water habitat favored
by trout, but often don't have
enough oxygen for fish to thrive. The
South Holston weir is a series of manmade
small waterfalls, forming air pockets
that burst into bubbles as they plunge
downstream. These bubbles permit oxygen
to penetrate the depths of the water,
allowing trout, especially wild brown
trout, to thrive. Water spills over the weir
dam area only when the dam is generating
electricity. If you'd like to visit when
the weir is bubbling, check the release
schedule at tva.gov/Environment/LakeLevels/South-Holston.
SOUTH
CAROLINA/GEORGIA
Cemetery Island on Lake Hartwell,
Seneca, South Carolina. Lake Hartwell,
meandering along the GeorgiaSouth
Carolina line, is the most popular
and largest Army Corps of Engineers lake
in the Southeast. Hartwell's blue waters
are dotted with so many uninhabited islands
that nobody has bothered to name
them all. One island, though, stands
out-Cemetery Island, which is generally
known as Ghost Island for its rumored supernatural
activity.
In the late 1700s, long before the
lake existed, a Revolutionary War veteran
named John Harris built Harrisburg
Plantation on a rise in the forest. In
1950, when the looming construction of
Hartwell Dam would soon submerge the
plantation, Harris descendant Eliza Brock
greeted contractors with her rifle. Eventually
she acquiesced and moved to the
mainland. But she refused to move the 59
graves in the family cemetery. The hilltop
graveyard on Cemetery Island is the only
remaining trace of Harrisburg Plantation.
Today the island is a spooky attraction for
intrepid campers who venture uphill to
GENERAL BURNSIDE ISLAND S.P.
DISCOVERBRISTOL
30 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
http://www.tva.gov/Environment/Lake-Levels/South-Holston http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2022

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