Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve
Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve | |
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North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation | |
Website | Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve |
Weymouth Woods-Sandhills Nature Preserve is a North Carolina state park in Moore County, North Carolina in the United States. Located near Southern Pines, North Carolina, it covers 915 acres (3.70 km2)[1] in the Sandhills region of the state.
Geology
The unconsolidated sand of the Carolina Sandhills is mapped as the Quaternary Pinehurst Formation, and is interpreted as eolian (wind-blown) sand sheets and dunes that were mobilized episodically from approximately 75,000 to 6,000 years ago.[2]
Human History
In the mid-18th century, when
By 1850, North Carolina's pine forests were producing one-third of the world's supply of naval stores. Resin collected from elongated, inverted V-shaped cuts in the tree trunks was distilled into turpentine. Turpentine was used as a solvent and illuminant. Tar, pitch and rosin were used for sealing the hulls, decks, masts, ropes and riggings of sailing vessels.
When railroads arrived in the Sandhills in the 1870s, large-scale logging and lumbering began. As a result of logging and naval stores operations, most of the virgin growth of longleaf pines had disappeared from the Sandhills by 1900. Many of the older trees that survive today bear prominent scars of this human exploitation.
Early in the 20th century, the grandfather of
Ecology
James Creek, which bisects the preserve, is home to the rare mud sunfish and the sandhills chub, a fish native only to the Sandhills region. The creek is also home to brown bullhead, bluegill, and is nearly at the northernmost terminus for the dollar sunfish. The creek here, like most creeks in the region is described as a blackwater creek, a special environment characteristic of dark, tannin-stained water as well as high acidity, allowing a range of unique species to flourish.
Weymouth Woods Sandhills Nature Preserve Museum
The preserve's exhibit hall focuses on the
References
- ^ a b "Size of the North Carolina State Parks System" (XLS). North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation. January 1, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
- ^ Swezey, C.S., Fitzwater, B.A., Whittecar, G.R., Mahan, S.A., Garrity, C.P., Aleman Gonzalez, W.B., and Dobbs, K.M., 2016, "The Carolina Sandhills: Quaternary eolian sand sheets and dunes along the updip margin of the Atlantic Coastal Plain province, southeastern United States": Quaternary Research, v. 86, p. 271-286; www.cambridge.org/core/journals/quaternary-research
- ^ http://www.ncparks.gov/Visit/parks/wewo/activities.php Activities