Land clearing in Gordonsville, TN

Valley floor, Rim to the east

Gordonsville sits at 538 feet on low open ground, and it is limestone underneath. Smith County is transition country, flatter land west, the rugged Highland Rim east, and it stands up fast in that direction. Chestnut Mound, six miles east-northeast, is 971 feet, better than four hundred above town. Soil follows the same line. Out on the flats the rock comes close under, cover gets thin, and thin cover is where red cedar takes hold. Down along the creeks the dirt is deeper and there is more to work with.

When a field comes out of production

Smith County runs more pasture than cropland, close to forty-seven thousand acres against forty-four, with thirty thousand more in woodland. Cattle are near twenty-two thousand head. Hay is far and away the biggest crop. Tobacco is still in the mix, but only about five hundred acres of it countywide. Let a field like that sit, and cedar claims it fast. Once cedar is established, a bush hog won’t touch it.

Water on either side runs to the Caney Fork

West of town, New Middleton is drained by Mulherrin Creek. Southeast toward Center Hill Lake, Lancaster is drained by Smith Fork. Both feed the Caney Fork, which I-40 bridges five times in under four miles. Bottoms those creeks cut are a different job from the fields, privet and briars instead of cedar, box elder through it, all of it back quicker on deeper, damper dirt. Ground like that wants a dry stretch first. Mulch left on a bank holds the bare dirt down until grass gets a footing.

Out the Trousdale Ferry Pike

Twenty-two miles east of Lebanon. Take I-40 to Exit 258, or run out Trousdale Ferry Pike and stay on 141 through New Middleton. A cedar-choked field on thin rock and a damp creek bottom are two different jobs, and you cannot tell them apart from the road.