THESE BEAUTIFUL MOUNTAINS
Ann S. Brown c 2025
These beautiful mountains, if only they could talk. They would tell of a time long ago of how they were formed and how their mighty peaks were born. They would tell of forests so pristine and tall and of animals who lived there, the big and the small. They would tell of mountain streams and waterfalls and of great rivers that flowed from it all. They would tell of eagles flying up so high and then slowly drifting and floating down from the sky.
They would tell of explorers and mountain men, who came a mapping and a trapping and a chopping their way in. They blazed the trail for the first settlers to begin. They would tell of families, their wagons loaded down, with many things from home and some from the town. They would tell of horses, oxen and mules who pulled those wagons forward while the travelers searched for that special tract of land on which to homestead and make a stand. They would tell of some brave pioneers who lay buried in lonely graves scattered across the mountain terrain. Their footprints have faded with time and rain. They would tell of others who were not buried at all, but fell victim to the perils of the mountains.
There were blizzards and boulders and cliffs and wild animals and rain and snow melt swollen streams that were too dangerous to cross. Sometimes all was lost. They would tell of our ancestors and the struggles they had. Some days were good and some were bad. But if they had not come to these mountains and stayed, weathering all hardships and sorrows, we would not be here today in these beautiful Appalachian Mountains.