Editor's Note: In the mid-1880's the state geology department printed a description of trees growing along the rivers and streams of Breathitt County. This was in the days before big-scale lumber operations moved into our county and our old forests were among the finest in the world. Sadly, within fifty years of this report, our trees were gone, sent to all parts of the world, taking with them the wealth of a people who sold huge, beautiful trees for pennies or less. The report follows.

Timber in Breathitt County

For several miles beyond Beattyville, toward Jackson, no great changes in the forest occur, and the timbers are such as are usually met with on the lowlands. We follow the Kentucky river tolerably closely for a considerable distance. About three and one half miles from Beattyville, along the river bank, grow perfect thickets of pawpaws, which often reach a height of fifty feet. With them, and along the foothills, grow red and white elm, sycamore, black and blue ash, linden, big buckeyes, water and common beech, liriodendron, hemlock, swamp alder, pitch elder, red oak, ironwood, amelancher, sweet gum, golden alexander, red and black haw, and hawthorn. On the higher hills are post oak, black oak, red oak, scarlet oak, mountain oak, black locust, and the usual hill timbers. About five miles from Beattyville the forest of white oak are as fine, along the rich hillsides, as I ever saw. Hickories are splendid also, and walnut, liriodendron, chestnut (on sandstone formations), and linden are unsurpassed along all the ravines whose waters head in the rich woods below the brows of the high hills. The tops of the hills are crowned with black oak, scarlet oak, mountain chestnut oak, rock maple, scrub hickories, and pines.

The splendid timbers given above continue, with only local breaks, all along Lower and Upper Twin Creeks, and the hills through which they flow. The latter stream empties into middle fork of Kentucky River, within about twelve or thirteen miles of Jackson, Breathitt County. And at its mouth the road leaves the river and turns up it follows it to its head, crosses the divide at its head waters, and descends onto West Fork of Cane Creek, down which it follows toward North Fork of Kentucky River. The timbers all through these high, abrupt, and inaccessible hills, and deep, rich, ravine-like hollows, are scarcely surpassed in the State. A considerable amount of fine old forest walnut, black birch, and cherry still stands in these vastnesses, and gigantic liriodendrons (yellow poplar), white oaks, ashes, lindens, locusts, chestnuts, elms, buckeyes, magnolias, and maples have, so far, bid defiance to the axes that have laid these timbers waste in other parts of the State. Civilization has not yet penetrated into these forest wilds, and the grandeur of the trees and the silence of the woods make a striking impression upon one.

The tall, dark, rich-green oak spoken of heretofore, and which I have called rich red oak, flourishes all through these woods. It is probably the macrocarpa of the botanies. A few blackberries, considerable gray birch, some white pine and etc., are met with.

High up on Upper Twin Creek, about seven miles from Jackson, on a hill-side facing north and east, are a rich belt of black walnut trees encircle the hill. There are not many trees in the belts, but some of them are exceedingly fine. Beds of coal are found along the Upper Twin Creek, and the formation of coal-measure sand stone. All through the woods there is found, in great abundance, a hickory which I have called microcarpa, because it is evidently a variety of the "white hickory" of former reports in Kentucky timbers. It is a tall, clean-trunked, five bodied tree, branching high; bark comparatively thin, nearly smooth right at the base, where the shallow interspaces of the bark are nearly straight, or only slightly chipped, but considerably more chipped higher up the trunk; leaves linear, acute at base, lance-tipped, serrate and smooth, except slightly downy at base of veins.

From Jackson to the mouth of Troublesome Creek, seven miles out toward Hazard, we pass right along North Fork of Kentucky River, with the usual lowland timbers along the river, and no changes of moment on the hills. Our route now lay up Troublesome Creek to Lost Creek to its head waters, across the divide onto Lot's Creek and thence to Hazard. The hill timbers along this course are very similar to those already given on Twin Creek, and the forest are everywhere of the finest. The question of distribution, as affected by height above drainage, which is the most important one that presents itself in this part of the State, will be, as I have previously said, illustrated and discussed separately.

A list of the timbers noted in Troublesome Creek region includes: white, black, and pig hickory, white oak, holly, black and blue ash, white ash, black walnut, liriodendron, chestnut, black gum, black and gray birch, winged elm, white, rich black and mountain maple, redbud, mulberry, red oak, black oak, mountain chestnut oak, scarlet oak, beeches, black cherry, hawthorne, red haw, big buckeye, black locust, linden, water beech, silver popular, cucumber and umbrella trees, swamp chestnut oak, sycamore, bertram oak, scrub red oak, magnolia (Frazeri), pines, cedar, hemlock, elm (racemosa), American laurels (rhododendron and kalmia) , spicewood, papaw, pitch elder, willows, persimmon, dogwood (green and low cornel), black sumach, and swamp alder. The scrub red oak is probably the ilicifolia of the botanies. The great variety, and the richness in valuable timbers of these forests, I think, can scarcely be surpassed. The formation is coal-measure sandstone.