Chuck Sutherland

Edgar Evins State Park is tucked among the hills and hollars above Center Hill Dam and surrounding Center Hill Lake. It is a fine state park for those who enjoy fishing and lake access. There are several enjoyable hiking trails there as well. At Edgar Evins what I appreciate the most are the wildflowers. Spring, Summer, and Fall one finds a different assortment of flowers to enjoy and photograph. The most obvious trail, running behind the nature center, is perhaps the best for wildflowers. With so much lake frontage, especially in the Winter, one can also find plenty of Mississippian fossils along the shores of Center Hill Lake. As far as I know the park doesn't let you take fossils home, which is just as well since I have so very many rocks at home already. Many of the best fossils are found in-situ (in the bedrock) so it wouldn't be practical to try to take them home. Map Fullscreen map. Plants Fungi Center Hill Lake

Goldenrod crab spider ( Misumena vatia ) All photos by my beautiful wife, Kelli Lewis-Sutherland. My wife and her best friend, Laurel Abernathy have an annual tradition of visiting the Black Mountain segment of the Cumberland Trail yearly in late August or early September so that they can photograph crab spiders. Many years ago they discovered that the swaths of Maryland golden-aster ( Chrysopsis mariana ) growing alongside the trail there are also home to the adorable goldenrod crab spider ( Misumena vatia ). Approximately one in ten of the flowers has a little white or yellow spider hiding and waiting for its next meal. Ghost pipe ( Monotropa uniflora ) We were guaranteed to get our best photos yet, because we now have a Canon EF100mm f/2.8L macro lens and a ring flash. For a little less than a year, we've been experimenting and learning from this combination and have taken lots of pretty decent macros of tiny critters and flowers. We met up with Laurel and her daught...

Burgess Falls State Park is a beautiful place to visit, and I'm excited to tell you about it! The park is located in middle Tennessee, about 12 miles southwest of Cookeville. It's home to four waterfalls that cascade down over 250 feet in elevation through Missisippian, Devonian, and Ordovician rocks. The falls are surrounded by lush forests, abundant wildlife, and beautiful exposed geology in the form of riverscour and cliffs, making it a great place to go hiking, fishing, and camping. This is the kind of park that you can be comfortable bringing kids, or your grandma to. Fullscreen map. The final waterfall, Burgess Falls (proper) is only accessible from below. One has to take a boat from Center Hill Lake to get to the base of Burgess Falls. If you don't have a boat or kayak, do not worry. Several outfitters run trips there throughout the year, and especially so in the summer. In the late 19th century, a gristmill and sawmill were built on the Falling Water Ri...

Tennessee State Capitol Building The Tennessee State Capitol is a sight to behold, built in the Greek Revival style that was all the rage in the 19th century. It's one of the largest state capitol buildings in the country, and it's made of beautiful limestone that was quarried right here in Tennessee. Look carefully and you can even see Ordovician fossils in the stone! The capitol is home to a number of important historical artifacts, including the original cornerstone and the Speaker's chair that was used by Andrew Jackson. It's a popular tourist destination, and it's open to the public for tours. If you're ever in Nashville, be sure to stop by the Tennessee State Capitol and take a look around. The War Memorial Building The War Memorial Building is a beautiful and historic building that was built in 1925 as a memorial to the Tennessee soldiers who died in World War I. It's located in the heart of downtown Nashville, right across from the Tenn...

Every spring my photographic activity emerges from its winter slumber and I begin re-learning everything I once knew about wildflowers again. I love this time of year when I can start wearing shorts again, and see the familiar wildflowers return to our roadsides and hollers. While I thoroughly enjoy capturing the beauty of wildflowers, I also like to think about how they ended up in their current location. As a practitioner of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), I find this question particularly intriguing. I provide this not as an empirical study, but rather a casual conversation to introduce readers to GIS concepts as related to wildflowers. The locations where I find my favorite wildflowers share a few common traits: steep slopes facing different directions (known as "aspect" in GIS) and intermittent water sources resulting from nested water tables. By seeking out these characteristics, I am more likely to find ideal habitats for wildflowers. Usin...

Putnam County, Tennessee is located approximately equidistant between Nashville and Knoxville along Interstate 40. It's the hub of the Upper Cumberland region. Due to misinformation being proliferated on social media , I am providing this public dataset in a digestible format. Trends within the data show Tennessee Tech University (TTU) as having a very small per capita report crime rate, where Cookeville tends to have the highest crime rate. Small municipalities show broad variations in annual change, which is to be expected with smaller populations. Broadly, the crime rate has been decreasing for the last 20 years. The Tennessee line is a good broad estimate of what the larger regional trend is. The strong drop in Cookeville and Putnam's crime rate at 2020 likely shows the effects of the Coronavirus. The tables above show the data as it was provided from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's database, TIBRS.

Geography Window Cliffs State Natural Area is located on the Eastern Highland Rim of Tennessee . It is a few miles south of Cookeville, and within Putnam County. It is within the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee, and within Middle Tennessee. Cane Creek flows through the designated natural area before its confluence with the Falling Water River at Center Hill Lake. Botany In the valley alongside Cane Creek one can find abundant flowering patches of phacelia, phlox, and trilliums. Along the rocky ledges and cliffs watch for bright red flowers of columbine. In a few places you'll also see usnea clinging to dead trees and be reminded of Spanish moss. Geology Cliffs of Fort Payne Limestone atop steep slopes of Chattanooga Shale are the obvious geology throughout the park. The base of the valleys is Catheys-Leipers Limestone, but doesn't play a large roll in the story that one sees at the Window Cliffs. In the above recreation of a map made by Hugh Mill...