Land clearing in Donelson, TN

Where the Stones meets the Cumberland

This is Central Basin ground. The Stones River comes down out of Percy Priest and meets the Cumberland at Two Rivers, off McGavock Pike, about 413 feet up. Back from the water the land climbs to around 538 feet, and up on that shelf the limestone sits close under the grass. Thin soil over rock grows cedar fast. Down in the bottom the dirt is deep and stays soft after a rain. Two different jobs inside one neighborhood.

Sixty years of pear and cedar

Donelson filled in with brick ranch houses on real lots. Bluefields, the historic district off Bluefield Avenue, was laid out in 1929, and its houses went up through the thirties and forties. Bradford pear came out of a USDA station in the early sixties and went into yards fast, before anybody knew it would seed itself. The wild ones are thorny, and they run down a fencerow or a drainage strip in a hurry. Cedar and briars fill in behind them, and the line a lot used to hold gets shorter every year.

Gates, driveways and close neighbors

A back lot here means a gate, a driveway and a neighbor close enough to hear the work. Donelson was platted for houses, not for equipment, so the way in matters as much as what’s growing. The airport sits next door at 599 feet and Briley Parkway cuts the neighborhood into pieces. Reaching the back of a place can take more sorting out than the clearing does.

Twenty-odd miles down US 70

US 70 runs out of Wilson County into Donelson, where it goes by Lebanon Pike. It’s a bit over twenty miles. The commuter train out of Lebanon makes the same run and stops here. Davidson is one of the fourteen counties on the territory list. Ground like this comes back in pieces. You can walk the rear third of a lot again, see down a fencerow, or find a low corner that stays wet under all that growth.