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A group of Tennessee birders, participating in a Tennessee Ornithological Society summer jamboree, June 15-20,1936, at Roan Mountain is likely the first state TOS activity held in Northeast Tennessee.

Bruce P. Tyler of Johnson City had been elected President of TOS and was helping host birders from across the state, along with his birding companion, Bob B. Lyle, also of Johnson City.


The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. John Bamberg, F. S. Carpenter, Alfred Clebach, Jr., Dr. Cynthis C. Counce, George Davis, Amy Deane, Albert F. Ganier, Robert B. Lyle, Evelyn Schneider, Mable Slack and Bruce P. Tyler. This photo, posed with an old beech, is only part of the group and the only person identified is Albert F. Gainer (wearing a tie).

Roan Mountain contains some of the most unique flora and fauna in the eastern United States. Much national attention has been directed to identifying and classifying these unique features as well as being recognized for its outstanding scenic qualities of high mountain balds, rhododendron gardens, and spruce-fir timber types. It contains more than 300 species of plants, some rare and endangered, and wildlife, some at their northern and southern limits. A yellow birch tree (Betula alleghaniensis) found in the hardwood forest was determined to be 385 years old.

Despite the fact there had been notable naturalist on Roan Mountain in the 1800s and early 1900s, TOS took note of the lack of specific information about distribution by elevation and sometimes almost nothing about whether birds were seen in the vicinity of Roan Mountain or on the mountain itself.

The group stayed in a lodge located at what was then called Toll House Gap near the site of the former Cloudland Hotel (6150 ft.); the lodge was at 6100 ft. The gap is located along the road from Carver's Gap up to the gardens and is where the first large parking lot is on the right as you get most of the way to the top.

Sketch of lodge by Lyle & Tyler

The mountain, from about 5000 ft. upward, is of the Canadian type in its fauna and flora. This was particularly evidenced by the presence, from Roan High Bluff to Roan High Knob, of an almost unbroken line, at or near the summits, of balsam fir and red spruce. The once splendid forests of fir and spruce had been cut out, nearly to the tops, thus damaging the scenic aspects and perhaps altering the bird life.

Albert F. Ganier of Nashville was the leader of the TOS group. He became known as the "Dean of Tennessee Ornithology" in the years to come. His first published paper was in 1899. He was one of five founders of the state society. In 1926 he was president of the Tennessee Academy of Science and was a past president of the famous Wilson Ornithological Society. He led the party to the very high elevation of Roan (6313 ft.) which is unsurpassed in the eastern United States, except for a few peaks in the Mount Mitchell group and in the Great Smokies.

The party of twelve bird students from TOS had as their purpose to make as complete a list as possible of the breeding birds to be found about the summits. They confined their observations to the area lying above the 5000 foot contour, which generally embraced the Canadian type habitat. They found a total of 32 species but doubtless a few others were not seen.

In the mid-1930s, Tyler was playing a very active role in TOS. He was the East Tennessee regional editor for THE MIGRANT, the state journal of ornithology. He was participating in TOS activities. Tyler had become a very good friend with Ganier and the two were beginning to focus on various aspects of the birdlife of Northeast Tennessee. He was also leading an annual Christmas Bird Count at Johnson City.

In the photo at the left, Tyler is shown doing daily chores at the ranger cabin which had been built along with a fire tower in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps program. The window at the top is a loft which had a ladder leading to another area which could be used for sleeping quarters. Below is a photo of the same cabin today. It is at the summit of Roan High Knob. The cabin was renovated in 1980 and now serves as the Roan High Knob Shelter of the Appalachian Trail. At 6285 ft.elevation it is the highest shelter on the AT. It sleeps 16 and it the largest shelter on the famous trail.

Look at the difference in forest growth about the cabin site since the photo above was made in June 1936. This alone gives us a different perspective about what the habitat was like in some areas of Roan Mountain then and today. It had been heavily cut over.

One of the prize discoveries in June 1936 was the nest of a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. It was found by John Bamberg on June 23, at 5900 ft., containing 5 nearly fresh eggs. It was built 9 feet above the ground and a foot below the top of a dead spruce stub 12 in. in diameter, on a cut-over slope. The tree was punky and the wood soft, so the nuthatch had excavated its own characteristic hole to a depth of 9 inches. As usual with this species, a small amount of gum had been brought and applied to the exterior about the entrance. A scanty pad of soft inner fibers of bark was beneath the eggs. The bird flushed readily when the tree was pounded on but later became harder to evict as a series of photos were being taken. A new nest cavity, partly finished, was found in the dead top of a small buckeye at Big Meadow and in a nearby spruce, old birds were watched at 10 feet, feeding young as large as themselves. By this it would seem that there was an early season nesting as with the White-breasted Nuthatch, Ganier concluded in his report.

Other species of interest included:

Duck. HAWK (PEREGRINE FALCON).—One flew low over the "Rhododendron Gardens" on June 22, with prey in its talons. A "Peregrine" was also observed around Roan High Point, by Tyler, on June 24. The cliffs at the High Bluff, which Ganier wrote " that he lacked time to examine closely," seemed well adapted to an eyrie, he thought.

PRAIRIE HORNED LARK —A pair and a young bird on the wing, were observed by "all of us on the summit of Little Roan (5800 ft.) just s.w. of Carver’s Gap." It was an extensive nearly bald summit; the grass on top was short and therefore suitable for this short-legged, ground walking bird. The presence of this species there, when it was doubtless nesting, was of particular interest. Tyler and Lyle had previously reported it there, on June 30, 1935.

NORTHERN RAVEN — Ganier considered this as perhaps the highlight of the trip when the sight of a flock of 7 or 8 of these birds were seen June 25, flying leisurely westward along the north side of Little Roan [evidently Round Bald as we know it today].They saw or heard one or more Ravens each day of their visit and at all points on the mountain.

VEERY.—Fairly common in the fir belt and down the slopes into the deciduous forest. In the edge of the latter, at Big Meadow (5500 ft.) a nest was found on June 24, with 3 early fresh eggs. It was built 2 feet above the ground in one of a patch of small beech sprouts in thick woods. The bulky nest was built on a foundation of beech leaves and was principally of weed stems and fibers. An old nest was found nearby on a low limb of a small spruce.

The TOS birding party at The Big Meadow (5200-5700 ft.)

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK —A male observed singing on the south side of Little Roan, near top at elev. 5700 ft., in deciduous growth.

EASTERN VESPER SPARROW -- Ganier was pleased, and a little surprised, to find one of these birds feeding on the grassy bald summit of Little Roan at elev. 5700 ft. It probably had a nest in the vicinity for conditions there were quite suitable, he wrote.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club and the pages of THE MIGRANT Photos from the Bob Lyle Collection left to Wallace Coffey.