Lone Mountain State Forest
NOTE: This state forest is closed from Friday (9/27) through Sunday (9/29) due to severe weather in the eastern half of the state caused by Hurricane Helene . It will reopen Monday (9/30) morning.
Size: 3,572 acres / 1,446 ha.
Land for Lone Mountain State Forest was acquired by the state through a tax delinquency sale by the Morgan County Chancery Court in 1929 and through a deed transfer by the Lone Mountain Land Company in 1938. The Forest was known as the Lone Mountain Section of Morgan State Forest until 1970 when Morgan State Forest became part of the Division of State Parks and Lone Mountain became a separate State Forest.
It is located on the Cumberland Plateau in east-central Tennessee, in Morgan County, about 4 miles south of Wartburg, just west of U.S. Highway 27. It is approximately 15 miles north of the Tennessee River and Watts Bar Lake, and 35 miles west of Knoxville.
The land was heavily cutover and abused by the Lone Mountain Land Company during their ownership. As a result, a hands-off management strategy was employed on the forest to allow it to recover and regenerate. Between 1939 and 2002 there was almost no no timber harvesting, with the exception of several small timber sales from “day lighting” roads, a group selection demonstration harvest in 1994, and small salvage harvests in the mid-1970s and in 1999-2000 due to tree mortality caused by the southern pine beetle.
On November 10, 2002, a devastating tornado swept through Morgan County. In addition to loss of lives and homes, the storm blew down about 500 acres of timber on the southwest side of the forest. A timber salvage operation to harvest and regenerate about 300 damaged acres was completed in 2004.
In 1957, major forest types consisted of 55% upland hardwoods, 24% of mixed hardwood-pine, and 21% of pine. Following southern pine beetle infestation in the 1970s and late 1990s, the forest is now predominately upland hardwoods with scattered shortleaf and Virginia pine. Near streams on the cooler, lower slopes of the property, several areas of cove hardwoods with eastern white pine and eastern hemlock can be found.
Approximately 52 acres of the forest are being used for seed orchards and genetic studies.
Visitors can enjoy 15 miles of trails, including an interpretive nature trail. Recreational uses include hiking, hunting, horseback riding, and mountain biking.
Lone Mountain State Forest Road Use Map
Lone Mountain State Forest Recreation Map
Lone Mountain State Forest Firewood Collection Map
For More Information
Danny Johnson, Area Forester
4314 Roane State Hwy, Rockwood, TN 37854
(865) 354-0258