Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
Roan Mountain Highlands · By Dirk Frankenberg and Jennifer Godwin-Wyer
A creek at the base of Roan Highlands
Figure 17. At the bottom of the mountain, the creek can carry destructive force. (Photograph by Dirk Frankenberg. More about the photograph)
Figure 17 shows some of the downstream damage wrought by the January 1998 flood. I regret it is not easy to make out, but the creek is, at this low flow stage, the narrow water body flowing from upper left to lower right at the base of the steep bank from which the photo was taken. In the center of the photograph is an island of boulders deposited by the creek during the flood. To the right of the island and running horizontally to the left (look one quarter of the way up the oak limb running across the upper left corner of the image) is a fifteen-foot cliff formed by flood waters rushing downstream through the now almost dry channel on the right side of the photograph. We think of floods as associated with hurricanes and low-lying eastern parts of our state, but mountain floods can also be destructive. This one in 1998 destroyed many buildings, roads, and bridges between Roan Mountain and Bakersville.
