The Geology of Carl Sandburg Home: The Gneiss Beneath Connemara

The place

Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site lies in the southern Appalachian Mountains, about 64 km (40 mi) southeast of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and 32 km (20 mi) south of Asheville, in Henderson County, North Carolina. Established on October 27, 1972, its roughly 106 hectares (264 acres) honor Carl Sandburg — poet, writer and social activist, the "poet of the people," whose poems, journalism, biographies, novels and collection of folk songs recorded America's traditions, struggles and dreams.

The site preserves Connemara, the farm in Flat Rock where Sandburg and his family lived for the last 22 years of his life (1945–1967), with their belongings, furnishings, farm equipment, library and papers — a rare window on his way of life and thought.

The rock beneath

The site's bedrock is entirely Henderson Augen Gneiss, a Cambrian metamorphic rock transformed by the heat and pressure of the many collisions that raised the Appalachians. It typically forms domes and other high ground in the park.

• Glassy Mountain is named for light reflecting off its bare rock. The trail up gives a panoramic view of nearby Mount Pisgah and the Balsam Mountains.
• The estate's earlier owner, Ellison Smyth, named it Connemara because its rock outcrops reminded him of the rugged quartzite and schist country of Ireland's west coast.

A gneiss outcrop at Carl Sandburg Home. Image from the NPS's page.

Protected resources

• Fossils in national parks are protected by the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act of 2009.
• Abandoned mine lands can be valuable cultural resources and habitat, but many are dangerous and harm water, landscapes and wildlife — stay out and stay alive.

Regional setting

The site belongs to the Blue Ridge physiographic province and shares its geologic history with a region stretching far beyond the park.

Overview of the digital geologic data for Carl Sandburg Home, from the Geologic Resources Inventory. NPS figure.

Maps and reports

The Park Service's Geologic Resources Inventory produces digital geologic maps and reports for more than 270 natural resource parks. Its products include:

• scoping summaries — records of meetings where park staff and local geologists set the mapping plan and the report's contents;
• digital geologic maps — files for GIS software, with a user guide and supporting information, and in newer products Google Earth data and online map services;
• reports — the park's geologic setting and significance, notable features and processes, management issues and geologic history;
• posters — a printable view of the map data, newer ones with aerial imagery or shaded relief.

Carl Sandburg Home's products are on the NPS DataStore. The Park Service's Geodiversity Atlas, of which this entry is part, supports education, geoconservation and managing the living and non-living parts of park ecosystems together.

Sources

Based on "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, North Carolina," National Park Service, drawing on Thornberry-Ehrlich (2012); a work of the United States government in the public domain.