Like the nomadic Saura Indians who came after them, the Donnaha used fire to increase biodiversity and improve food sources for native animals. The Donnaha, a hunter-gather culture inhabiting the region 1,300 years ago, lived on these native species while growing maize and squash in the fertile bottomlands. Imagine a time when elk and mountain lions roamed the forests below, while flocks of passenger pigeons filled the skies. If you hike the 3-mile Grindstone Trail to Little Pinnacle Overlook, you get a close-up, eye-level view of Pilot’s knob. This monadnock, or mountain away from mountains, lies 20 miles south of the Blue Ridge and is more similar to the mountains of southwest Virginia than the land surrounding it. Its distinctive rocky knob rises 200 feet from a forested base. One of four peaks in the Saura Mountain range, Pilot’s pure quartzite capstone resists the eroding forces of wind and water to loom 1,400 feet above the valley floor. Adjacent to the park sits the 113-acre Horne Creek Farm, a historic site that’s like stepping back to 1910 when family farms dominated the landscape. From above, the 3,700-acre park resembles a jump rope, with mountain and river sections connected by a narrow corridor trail. An anticipated landmark of vacationers headed from the midwest to Myrtle Beach and coastal points south, Pilot has guided centuries of travelers, from nomadic Native American tribes seeking food and shelter along the Yadkin River to Moravian immigrants establishing a new home in the Carolina backcountry.Ī visit to Pilot Mountain State Park is a journey through the rich geologic and cultural history of the Piedmont Triad. Pilot Mountain rises boldly out of the gently rolling North Carolina hills, a rocky anomaly that appears to have lost its way when the Appalachians came into being.
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