Land clearing in Goodlettsville, TN

Basin floor, limestone close up

Goodlettsville sits at about 479 feet on the floor of the Outer Nashville Basin, and the Ordovician limestone under it doesn’t lie deep. On the rises the soil is thin over rock. That’s why a field here goes to cedar once it stops being cut. Cedar holds on ground that won’t feed much else. Cedar mulches clean. It’s what fills in around it, briars and privet and a wall of saplings, that makes a tract slow.

Mansker Creek and the bottoms

Mansker Creek runs through the middle of town and on down to the Cumberland. Slaters Creek comes down from the north and empties into Mansker. Both bottoms hold water after a rain. Privet and honeysuckle take those banks first and root deep in wet ground. Bottomland like that wants a dry spell and a light touch, or you spend the day cutting ruts instead of cutting brush.

Deep lots off the two pikes

US 31W leaves the middle of town heading north for Millersville and White House, and Long Hollow Pike breaks off northeast through Shackle Island toward Gallatin. Behind the houses on both are deep lots, an acre or three that came with the timber still standing. The town had about 3,000 people when it incorporated in 1958 and near 17,800 by 2020. Plenty of that back ground just grew up and stayed that way.

Two counties, one town

The city line splits between counties. The north half sits in Sumner, the south half in Davidson, and the ground changes as you go that way too. A few miles northeast it starts to roll, so the flat lots give way to slopes, and what looks like the same brush works differently on a grade. The drive from Lebanon is about thirty-three miles, three quarters of an hour, and both counties are on Shaun’s list. Walk it with him and he’ll tell you what the tract needs.