Colditz Cove State Natural Area

Colditz Cove is a 165-acre natural area located approximately two miles east of Allardt in Fentress County. Its most impressive feature is Northrup Falls. This is one of Tennessee’s most stunning waterfalls plunging more than 60 feet over a protruding rock ledge into a scenic, narrow, gorge along Big Branch Creek. The waterfall is named for the family who settled here and operated a mill above the falls in the . 1800s. These high cliffs and “rock houses” (cave-like overhangs) at the falls and along the creek gorge were once used by cliff-dwelling Woodland Indians over 3,000 years ago. They primarily used these shelters during hunting season.

The dry ridges above the falls support a mixed oak-hickory forest dominated by white oak with Virginia pine scattered throughout. On the more xeric southwest bluff, oaks, hemlock, Virginia and short leaf pine are common with a shrublayer of mountain laurel underneath. Below the falls, following Big Branch Creek, large hemlocks and white pines, believed to be over 200 years old prominently grow. Beneath these trees, thickets of rhododendron form along the creek, providing important habitat for riparian plant and animal species. The spray field from the falls creates a unique habitat on the rock ledges underneath and in the vicinity of the falls. Several species of ferns, sedges, rushes, and plants like grass-of-parnassus and alumroot are associated with this waterfall-gorge habitat.

Colditz Cove is also home to several, relatively rare animals including the Black Mountain dusky salamander (Desmognathus welteri), the woodland jumping mouse (Napaeozapus insignis), the smoky shrew (Sorex fumeus), the pygmy shrew (Sorex hoyi), and the southeastern shrew (Sorex longirostris).

See more at: http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/article/na-na-colditz-cove#sthash.CZFwqwnK.dpuf