Land clearing in Statesville, TN

Where the Smith Fork starts

A mile southwest of town, Knight Creek and Sunset Creek come together and make the Smith Fork, with Cleaver Creek and Rocky Branch feeding in behind. The place was called Smith’s Fork before it was Statesville. Bottoms like those hold water late into spring, and wet ground grows privet and bush honeysuckle into a mat you can’t walk through. A mulching head suits that kind of tangle. It takes the stem off at the ground without digging, so the creek bank stays put.

Oak, hickory and what follows

This is Outer Nashville Basin ground. Phosphate limestone lies underneath it, chert sits up on the knobs, and oak and hickory on the ridges are still in timber. The town sits at 720 feet with higher ground standing over it. What takes a field around here once it goes out of production is eastern redcedar. It likes limestone soil and it doesn’t wait long. A field left alone a few summers is headed for cedar, not back to grass, and cedar is harder to get back than it looks from the road.

Pasture and standing timber

Close to half of Wilson County is still in farms. Around Statesville that means big mixed tracts on dead-end roads, sixty acres, a hundred and seventy-five, part pasture, part mature timber, with a creek somewhere in the middle. Ground like that seldom needs opening end to end. Grazeable ground back in grass. A fencerow taken back to the fence. A lane cut to the far corner. It goes in sections, and the trees worth keeping stay standing.

Getting to it

Statesville sits southeast of Lebanon, out US 70 to Watertown, then six-odd miles of winding asphalt. Statesville Road, SR 267 on a map, runs two lanes through town and on to SR 96 at Prosperity. The roads off it are older and narrower. Main Street is half a mile long and posted twenty-five the whole way. Access is worth walking before a trailer ever turns off the highway.