This small 116 acre preserve is owned the state of North Carolina and managed by NC Zoo staff. Margaret Nichols lived her entire life on the property. When she died, it was sold to the state in 2011.
It is the largest remaining stand of old growth Piedmont Longleaf Pine in the state. Longleaf Pine once dominated eastern North Carolina. The ecosystem requires an occasional fire to maintain itself. For the past 80 years, fires have been suppressed, so the forest is gradually changing to a mixed hardwood and pine forest. Since acquiring the property, the state has burned several times and is killing some of the hardwoods to try to restore the Longleaf ecosystem.
Evidence of a recent burn
The scar above is called a cat's eye. If you look at it from a distance, it does resemble the pupil of a cat. The slanted markings allowed the sap to flow from the scar into a cup. Sap from the cups was collected and heated in a kiln to produce products like varnish and turpentine. The turpentine operation here, may have lasted until the 1880s.
In the 1980s, AT&T laid a cable from Washington DC to Atlanta, going right through the property. Almost immediately after the cable was completed, the technology became obsolete. AT&T abandoned the cable but still has the right to come on the property to remove it.
Hardwoods are girdled to make way for Longleaf Pine
Cable right of way
The house Mrs Nichols lived in still stands on the property. A nephew tried to cover the house with quartz rock found on the property. It was almost completed and there is a pile of quartz in the yard.
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