Land clearing in Fairview, TN

Up on the Western Highland Rim

Fairview sits near 830 feet, on the last of the Western Highland Rim before the country drops east into the Central Basin. The ridgetops carry a silty cap a few feet deep over limestone, chert working up through it. Enough for oak and hickory, not much to spare. Three and a half miles southeast at Fernvale, in the South Harpeth River bottom, the ground is at 620 feet. Flat on top, steep on the sides.

Ground that won’t stay open

Half a million loblolly pines went into Bowie Nature Park to hold soil washing off at thirty tons a year, and the 722 acres came back. Those were planted, though. What comes on its own out here is Virginia pine, which takes worn-out fields freely, along with sweetgum and briars. A hayfield that goes uncut a few seasons quits being a hayfield. On ground with that erosion history, chips left lying beat bare dirt.

Property that runs mostly to woods

Twenty acres with two of them usable is a common enough shape on the Rim, and the 2020 census counted all 9,357 residents as rural. Land like that usually needs a lane to the back line, a firebreak, and woods open enough to walk or ride more than it needs a clean sweep. Rim soil complicates the timing. A couple of feet down there is often a hardpan water barely moves through, so a flat ridgetop stays soft well into spring.

Out at the county corner

Highways 100 and 96 run together through the middle of town, 96 heading west toward Dickson and east under the Natchez Trace bridge at Birdsong Hollow into Franklin. The Davidson County line is about a mile northeast, and a Fairview mailing address can just as easily sit in Cheatham or Dickson County. That is how far out this corner sits, still inside fifty miles of the Wilson County line. Shaun walks the property himself before anything gets quoted.