Science Hill High School - Wataugan Yearbook (Johnson City, TN)

Page 7 text:

D 66.61 fiom hir We, the Senior Class of '39, wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute to those hardy adventurers through whose struggles and hardships this section of our country was molded into what it is today. IOSEPH NEEDI-IAM and GABRIEL ARTHUR Traders who blazed the trail over the blue wall of the Appalachian Mountains to make trade relations with the Cherokees. DANIEL BOONE Trailblazerp greatest of the pathfinders and Indian fighters of the Westp gave pioneers and settlers courage to penetrate the wilderness. TIDENCE LANE Baptist preacher who founded the first church in Tennessee, the Buffalo Ridge Baptist Church. ANDREW IACKSON A lawyer in Ionesboro, the oldest town in Tennessee: Indian fighter, leader of the Tennessee Volunteers in the Battle of New Orleans: first United States president from west of the Appalachians. ELIHU EMBREE A native of Washington County, an abolitionist leader and publisher of the first abolitionist paper in the United States, The Manu-mission Intelligence , at Ionesboro. WILLIAM BEAN A home-builder who established the first frontier home on the Watauga River. His son, Russell, was the first white child born west of the Appalachians. IAMES ROBERTSON The father of East Tennesseef' co-author of the first constitution written by native Americans. IOHN SEVIER Hero of the Battle of Kings Mountaing governor of the State of Franklin: first governor of Tennessee, Indian fighter and state-builder. KATHERINE SHERRILL Bonnie Kate , a hardy and brave frontier woniang wife of Iohn Sevier, noted for her hospitality in her home on the banks of the Nolichucky. WILLIAM BLOUNT Early frontier statesman, governor of Southwest Terri- tory, first senator from Tennessee. SAMUEL DOAK Founder of the first school west of the Appalachiansg founder of Washington College, first college west of the Appalachians. HENRY IOHNSON A founder of Johnson City, for whom it is named. ANDREW IOHNSON Vice-president of the United States, second President from Tennessee, leader of the nation during the Recon- struction. BOB and ALF TAYLOR Brothers, and opponents in the War of Roseswg political leaders of the Democrat and Republican par- tiesg Governors of Tennessee.

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p'ZZf1C'Z ESTLED deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of East Ten- nessee lies the thriving community ot lohnson City. Gut- side that wall of mountains, few know about its natural resources, its progressive industries, or its scenic grandeur. Modern civilization has thoroughly penetrated this region, yet has not marred its rustic beauty. Industrial leaders are rapidly learning the advantages ot this southern mountain re- gion, and now one may see giant textile factories on the sites oi indian battlefields. Southern chivalry and mountain brusgue- ness meet in sharp contrast. With this as a background, We have built our lite at Science Hill. So, in presenting the WATAUGAN tor 1939, it is our aim not only to portray our senior year in school, but to portray as well, its environment-lite as it really exists in the southern moun- tain regions.

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cenic .Kearny of Me .Q+uz'Ae'Zn Mann Min eiion The scenic beauty of the southern mountain region is not surpassed by any other locality. It is not a freak of the works of nature that surprises one, but scenery of such exquisite nat- ural beauty as to strike the beholder with awe. Many factors make up this scenic paradise. Majestic mountains tower overhead, cloak- ed with green woodland. Lacy waterfalls leap from precipices, to fall into a churning tur- moil. Calm streams and rippling brooks are contrasted with racing, white rapids. From the limestone flow pure, icy springs, which are often surrounded by large green ferns. Al- most every wild flower of the temperate regions grows here abundantly, causing a riot of color during spring and summer. Aloft, on the very tips of our mountains, sixty-five hundred feet above the sea level, with clouds filming only a few feet overhead or spilling like foamy cataracts over the low gaps, one is wooed with a spell of contentment that is hard to shatter. Bridle paths and foot trails lead from this area through woodland of mixed hardwoods and evergreens with an undergrowth of rhododendron, azalea, dogwood, and other flowering shrubs. In the woodlands in February or March, one will find the hardwoods bursting into bud and acres of bluets cn the mountain slopes. In March, one finds the early violets, hepaticas, bloodroot, wood-sorrel, and other early wildflowers. In April a wealth of spring flowers await one-trailing arbutus, violets of many kinds, Solomon's seal and Solomon's plume. There is the rose tint of redbud, or Iudas tree, the white of service, of dogwoodg the fragrant blossoms of the honey locust, the mountain magnolia or cucumber tree. In May, the wildflowers have their grand festival. Not only do the flowering trees reach their greatest glory, but there is a wealth of wildflowers: gnat's beard, trilliums tseven kinds have been found, including the dainty painted trilliuml, bleeding heart, lack-in-the-pulpit, Dutchman's breeches, wild geranium, ladies' slippers and others as wild orchids, wild col- umbine and iris. No where is the beauty of wildflowers to be found in greater profusion and luxuriance than here along the trails and highways and up the mountain slopes. Iune is the month of rhododendrons. First comes the purple rhododendron of the moun- tain slopes, usually at its prime from the tenth to the twentieth of Iune. The rose-bay, a short shrub rarely waist high, is found in dense clusters of small rose-colored flowers which sometimes carpet an entire mountain slope. It is doubtful if in any equivalent area in eastern North America there can be found as many different kinds of plants, or that the sheer beauty provided by such profusion can be anywhere excelled.