I reluctantly said goodbye to Robert and Lynn around 8:30 am and headed to Tishomingo State Park. Robert and Lynn really know how to make you feel at home. We had a great time catching up on old friends, dissing enemies, and generally having a good time.
I keep forgetting that there’s a new interstate between Birmingham and Tupelo – I-22. It certainly makes the trip go faster but there are some wonderful small towns you miss by not taking old US78.
In any case, I pulled into Tishomingo State Park (just north of Dennis, Mississippi and south of Tishomingo, Mississippi) around noon. After checking in, I pulled into campsite number 8 and realized I had forgotten how steep the area around the lake is. I found a somewhat level site to pitch the tent.
Campsite 8. There’s a very steep slope down to the lake. There’s a concrete pad at the top where most people park their camper but I didn’t intend to sleep on concrete tonight since the temperature is predicted to be 18F. Light snow is also predicted.
For those who don’t know, I did my graduate research for my BS in biology at Tishomingo State Park. It entailed 2 years of collecting vascular plants, pressing them, drying them, and then identifying them. I was at the park every other week from early spring, through summer, and into early fall.
The park personnel were great. George Gilpin was the manager at the time and he had a wonderful staff of good ole boys to help run the park. They gave me the run of the place and even put me up in a group cabin most nights (with a fireplace), a visitor cabin several nights (2 bedroom, fireplace, kitchen, and bath) and eventually, I was put up at the old manager’s home near the lodge.
During my first year, I was often put up in this group cabin. It had bunk beds, a shower with hot and cold water, and most importantly, a fire place. The park provided the firewood.My second summer at the park was spent in the rear stone apartment of this building. The front was used for storage. I loved it. It was on top of a cliff which overlooked the swinging bridge and swimming pool below. The good ole boys would collect me at night and take me out roaming around north Mississippi and Alabama. With drinks flowing freely, I got to see Mussel Shoals recording studio and more importantly, the Coon Dog Cemetery in north Alabama. There are some tombstones in New Orleans that were not as fancy and ornate as some of the graves of treasured coon dogs.
After getting my degree, I later returned to head up a contingent of the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) to renovate the nature center. In all, I spent four wonderful years in this park.
It was here in the nature center that the Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) and I renovated the facility. I think our renovation lasted a year and the park decided they needed the space for storage. It’s a great building. The concrete was so solid (from 1939) that you couldn’t drill into it.Well, experiencing erectile problem is a lowest prices for cialis minor problem and it can be experienced any man near you. viagra sans prescription Testosterone levels surely decline with age in one be it male or female. Inhibition of PDE5 allows the body to increase even more testosterone, do weight bearing compound exercises usa cheap viagra like squats and dead lifts. With improve blood supply, male online levitra prescription penile body and provides the organ capacity to perform during the love-game. The famous swinging bridge of Tishomingo State Park – originally built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1939. A sign says no more than five people at a time on the bridge. The bridge spans Bear Creek.Bear Creek. The water is pretty high right now. Charlie Cooper and Crag Knox and I used to frequently canoe this creek. It runs northwards and empties into the Tennessee River near Pickwick Lake. We’ve canoed it all the way to Pickwick.The rock formations in Tishomingo State Park are amazing. Winter is an excellent time to visit the park because the summer greenery hides much of the formations.This was probably the view that convinced me to do my graduate work at this park. I had been presented by my thesis director, Dr. Thomas Marion Pullen, two state park choices for the plant survey. Upon entering the park, it’s as though you have entered the Smokey Mountains. The reason is that Tishomingo County is considered the foothills of the Appalachians. I thought the scenery couldn’t be beat and I had a great chance to find interesting flora similar to the Smokey’s.There are three very rare ferns in the park: Purple cliffbrake, Cliff fern and walking fern. This is walking fern, Asplenium rhizophyllum. You find it growing among mosses on the surface of cliff faces. Where the end of the frond touches, it sprouts another fern vegetatively. To my sorrow, I checked all the places I remember collecting these ferns and this was the only one of the three species I found still growing in the park and the was the only one I found at all. Hopefully, the three are still found in other places in the park I didn’t check.You can just imagine this as some animal den.I always referred to this as the grotto. It’s across the swinging bridge and Bear Creek along a trail I walked more times than I can remember. I remember my excitement when I found freshwater planarians under the rocks of the stream.The 100 steps. Actually, there are only 98 but everyone calls it 100. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been up and down these from 1974-1977.My thesis direct, Dr. Pullen, asked me to be on the lookout for a plant commonly referred to as quillwort. It took me two years to find it growing along the edge of the CCC pond. I think he was more excited than I when Charlie Cooper and I brought it back to campus on a Sunday morning. He met us in my office and confirmed our find. I was able to get a scientific note out of this in the journal Castanea. It was the first reporting of this genus and species in the state of Mississippi.This is found at the front entrance to the park and it is similar to the color photograph of the wildflower book I wrote on the park. The Mississippi Park Commission and the Graduate School of the University of Mississippi published the book. You can see a copy of the book here. If you are really bored, you can see my thesis here.
Author: searcyf@mac.com
After 34 years in the classroom and lab teaching biology, I'm ready to get back to traveling and camping and hiking. It's been too long of a break. I miss the outdoors and you can follow my wanderings on this blog.
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