News

Sandburg Home reopens Little Glassy Trail

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 10, 2017

FLAT ROCK — The Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site has reopened Little Glassy Trail after extensive rehabilitation. Little Glassy Trail was considered by park staff to be in the poorest shape of any of the trails in the 5-mile network.

The trail was rerouted to a less severe grade that now follows the contours of the mountain instead of cutting into it.

“In some places the grade reached 18% which had resulted in severe erosion leaving only bedrock and tree roots along the route”, said Steven Kidd, Chief of Resources and Facilities at the park.

A crew from the American Conservation Experience worked for six weeks clearing brush, moving rocks, and excavating more than a half mile of tread along the new trail.
ACE supervisor Lindsay Donkin led the crew that did most of the work. Donkin, a New Jersey native, has spent the last 18 months working on various ACE projects in the southeast. The ACE crew, which varied in size from 12 to 21 interns, mostly used hand tools such as mattocks, picks and shovels to complete the trail work. Ken Gragg, a trail worker from Great Smoky Mountains National Park served as the technical expert during this project. Gragg constructed some of the locust structures such as steps, turnpikes, and drainage features with fellow Great Smoky Mountains trail worker Jeff Fraiser. “Without the knowledge of the Smoky’s employees and the hard work of the ACE crew the park would never have accomplished as much as we did this winter”, Sarah Perschall, Chief of Visitor Services at Carl Sandburg said.

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site is a unit of the National Park Service. The park is located three miles south of Hendersonville off U.S. 225 on Little River Road, and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., daily. For further information, please telephone 828-693-4178, or visit www.nps.gov/carl.