Lake Santeetlah reservoir is located in Graham County and surrounded by the Cheoah District of the Nantahala National Forest. While the lake surface and land below the high water level is owned and managed by Tapoco, Inc., almost 80 percent of shoreline is public land managed by the Forest Service. Santeetlah Lake has a wide variety of fish including smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and walleye. Formerly, Lake Santeetlah was the home of the state record largemouth and walleye. Santeetlah also has a good population of crappie, sunfish, and trout.

Access: From Robbinsville follow Hwy 129 North to Santeetlah Reservoir. Follow signs to boating and fishing access areas.

Cheoah Point is located approximately 7 miles from Robbinsville on Hwy 129 North. Turn left at sign and go 0.8 miles to Cheoah Point

Cheoah Point is open all year around and offers a swimming beach, tent and trailer campground with restrooms and water and picnic area. This campground is offered on a first come first serve basis and there is a fee required for overnight stay.

Lake Santeetlah reservoir is popular among a diverse group of anglers. Trout fisherman and bass fisherman enjoy the wide variety of fisheries within Santeetlah Reservoir.

For more information: Contact the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission for more information on local fishing regulations and license requirements. Trail and local topographic maps are available from:
Cheoah Ranger District
Route 1, Box 16A
Robbinsville, NC 28771

Fontana Lake is located in the western North Carolina. Appalachian Mountains of Graham County and Swain County. Fontana Lake is a 29-mile-long scenic mountain lake with more than 280 miles of shoreline and nearly 11,000 acres of water. The 480-foot-high Fontana Lake Dam on the Little Tennessee River is the tallest dam in the TVA system. The Appalachian Trail, which extends over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, crosses the top of Fontana Lake Dam.

With most of Fontana Lake's 280 miles of shoreline preserved by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and USFS Nantahala National Forest, Fontana Lake's breathtaking beauty remains unspoiled. Quiet secluded coves and inlets on Fontana Lake provide excellent opportunities for swimming, boating, fishing, or just relaxing and enjoying the view. From the spring's mountain laurel to the glorious colors of fall, Fontana Lake's engaging scenery can be enjoyed year round. Game fish in Fontana include smallmouth and largemouth bass, white bass, walleye, and crappie.

More information on Lake Fontana

JOYCE KILMER
165TH INFANTRY, RAINBOW
DIVISION, SOLDIER AND POET,
AUTHOR OF "TREES", BORN IN
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J., DECEMBER
6, 1886, KILLED IN ACTION IN
FRANCE JULY 30, 1918.

THIS MEMORIAL WAS INITIATED
BY BOZEMAN BULGER POST,
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS
AND WAS SELECTED BY THE
U. S. FOREST SERVICE.


This simple biography of Joyce Kilmer is engraved on a
bronze plaque in the heart of the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest.

Joyce Kilmer was educated at Rutgers College and Columbia University, where he graduated in 1908. He taught high school for a year, and then launched out on his writing career. He took up editorial and journalistic work in New York City, rising rapidly to prominence as an accomplished journalist. From 1913 to 1918, he served on the staff of the New York Times and contributed mean-while to many magazines.

It is as a poet, however, that Joyce Kilmer is chiefly remembered. His love of the common and beautiful things, especially in Nature, found a simple and delicate expression in verse.

Through most of Kilmer's poems and articles runs a strong religious thread. There is a deep, underlying sense of humility, and a worship of things simple and clean and eternal. He sensed the dignity and the God-given unity of all living things, whether man or tree.

TREES

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet' flowing breast.

A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair.

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

-Joyce Kilmer
From - Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer
Copyright 1914 by Doubleday and Company Inc.

The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest

This Forest is one of the most impressive remnants of our Nation's virgin wilderness. Here, where the headwaters of great rivers rise, immense trees grow in the natural set- ting that was theirs when this region was the unexplored hunting ground of the Cherokees.

Many of the huge trees are hundreds of years old. Some of them are twenty feet around the base and more than a hundred feet high. They include yellow poplar, hem- lock, sycamore, basswood, dogwood, beech, several species of oak, and many others.

In addition to the trees, there is an out- standing variety of shrubs, vines, ferns, mosses, lichens, liverworts, and herbaceous plants. In the spring wild flowers take ad vantage of sunlight which will not be avail able after the hardwood trees are covered with shade producing leaves.

Rhododendron, mountain laurel and azalea are to be found in bloom in the late spring and early summer.

Though this forest is undisturbed by man, it is ever-changing. Some trees die so others may live. Many species of vegetation would be eliminated without occasional openings in the treetops to admit sunlight. Insects and plant diseases take their toll At many places on the forest floor you will see remnants of massive American chestnut trees which, prior to 1925, composed a large part of the timber stand. The chestnut blight disease, accidentally introduced from Asia, has now killed all of the mature trees. Occasional sprouts may still be found.

The memorial tract is maintained in its primitive and natural state. No plants living or dead may be cut or removed.

JOYCE KILMER SLICKROCK WILDERNESS
The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest is part of the 14,000-acre Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness. This area lies in the watersheds of Little Santeetlah and Slickrock creeks, which are separated by the ridge between Stratton Bald and Haoe. There are more than 60 miles of hiking trails in this wilderness that follow ridge tops or cool mountain streams. Hunting and fishing are permitted in accordance with state laws.

The web site links below are listed as a convenience to our visitors. We take no responsibility and give no guarantees, warranties or representations, implied or otherwise, for the content or accuracy of these third-party sites.

Click for Topographic Maps of the Joyce Kilmer/Slickrock area from Topozone.com

More Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest information 1
More Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest information 2
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Hiking
Map of Joyce Kilmer Memorial Loops