CROWDER CEMETERY
CLASS II NATURAL-SCIENTIFIC STATE NATURAL AREA

NATURAL AREAS Natural Areas Map Auntney HollowBarnett's WoodsBays MountainBig Cypress Tree Bon Aqua WoodsBig Bone CaveBurgess FallsCampbell Bend Barrens Carroll Cabin Barrens Carter (Harry Lee)Cedars of LebanonChimneysColditz CoveCouchville Cedar Glade Crowder CemeteryDevil's BackboneDry BranchDuck River Complex Dunbar CaveElsie Quarterman Cedar... Fall Creek Falls Falling Water Falls Fate Sanders BarrensFlat Rock Cedar Glade... Frozen HeadGattingers Cedar Glade Ghost RiverGrundy ForestHampton Creek Cove Hawkins CoveHicks Gap Honey CreekHouse MountainHubbard's CaveLangford BranchLaurel-SnowLucius Burch Jr. Forest Manus Road Cedar Glade May Prairie Meeman-ShelbyMontgomery BellMorril's CaveMount View Glade Natural BridgeNorth Chickamauga Crk OverbridgeOzone Falls Piney Falls Powell RiverPogue Creek Radnor LakeReelfoot LakeRiverwoodsRoundtop Mountain Rugby Savage GulfSequatchie CaveShort MountainShort SpringsStillhouse Hollow Falls Stinging Fork Falls Stones River Cedar Glade Sunk LakeSunnybell Cedar Glade Taylor HollowTwin ArchesVesta Cedar GladeVine Cedar GladeVirgin FallsWalker BranchWalls of JerichoWalterhill Floodplain Washmorgan Hollow Watauga River Bluffs William B. ClarkWilliam L. Davenport

---

COUNTY:	Roane	ACREAGE:	15
7.5° QUADRANGLE:	Elverton	OWNERSHIP:	Private; State holds a conservation easement
PHYSIOGRAPHIC PROVINCE:	Ridge and Valley	YEAR DESIGNATED:	2006

DESCRIPTION:

Map to Crowder Cemetery Printer friendly version - pdf

Crowder Cemetery Barrens is a 15-acre natural area in the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province of East Tennessee. Crowder Cemetery Barrens is approximately one mile to the southwest of Campbell Bend Barrens. Both were once a part of a larger natural area complex (1,200 acres) that was included in the Oak Ridge Reservation (ORR), before ORR sold the land to Boeing in the mid-1980’s. It had been one of seven ORR Registered State Natural Areas and was recognized as the Campbell Bend/Crowder Cemetery Registered State Natural Area. The registry agreement was continued with Boeing Corporation until they sold the 1,200 acres to Rarity Ridge Development in the 1990’s. Rarity Ridge donated conservation easements to the State, which led to the designation of both natural areas.

The grassland occurs in a matrix of mixed oak-pine with eastern red cedar and other hardwoods scattered throughout the barrens. Crowder Cemetery has a similar plant community as Campbell Bend Barrens less than a mile to the northeast. Dominant grasses at both sites include little bluestem and side-oats gramma. Crowder Cemetery is named for a nearby cemetery and is in the immediate area of the Rarity Ridge Development that will eventually surround it.

The small barrens community is rare in the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province. Crowder Cemetery does share some similarities with the Silurian barrens of Decatur County in West Tennessee. The rare plants such as slender blazing star (Liatris cylindracea) and prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum), which are often found in the Midwest prairies, are both found in Decatur County barrens and at Crowder Cemetery. The dwarf chinquapin (Quercus prinoides), which is uncommon in Tennessee, also occurs here.

SITE MANAGEMENT:

Division of Natural Areas, 401 Church Street, 7th Floor L&C Annex, Nashville, TN 37243, (615) 532-0431; Division of Natural Areas – East TN office, 3711 Middlebrook Pike, Knoxville, TN 37921, (865) 594-5601.

PUBLIC ACCESS:

The property is privately owned and not open to the public at this time.

DIRECTIONS:

Directions are not provided until public access is completed. Click on the map link to view natural area’s location.