History is Complicated

I shivered more than ever before. Clutching a drenched sleeping bag. Lying in soggy clothes, next to three trembling men. The wind howled like a locomotive, swirled around our tent, and pounded on the vinyl walls. I drifted through several states, none of which were sleep. It was last October. I was a junior at the University of Georgia. The wind belonged to the Smoky Mountains, or they belonged to it.

At over four thousand feet above the Atlantic Ocean, the Smoky Mountains were unwelcoming to our caravan of undergraduates. The field trip was planned for near-perfect weather. Some of us wore shorts. Some brought Wal-Mart’s entire stock of camping supplies. Some brought nothing but the clothes they wore. My supplies fell somewhere between. I carried my borrowed sleeping bag packed tightly into a plastic grocery bag. I tied it to the straps of a fifteen-year-old Jansport backpack. The pack was not weather-proof.

Unseasonably barely describes the rain we met. The ecologist we traveled with did not plan on rain. He did not plan on the wind, he never thought about temperatures dropping from 75 F to 25 F. With each step, the temperature dropped, rain grew heavier, and winds increased. Once atop, some exhausted, some dehydrated, plenty of us regretted paying the fifty dollars for the “experience.” We huddled our soaked bodies in tents or under tarps. And we begged for relief that would not come until morning.

This was my worst experience in the Smoky Mountains, and it made me love them more. I realized I had only begun to know the Appalachians. If history, my chosen profession, is complicated, the Appalachians are infinitely more so.

Environmental History is a perfect blend of two of my loves. I am a senior with plans to graduate this December. The title of this page, “Ramble in a Field,” refers not only to Donald Worster but also serves as a metaphor for my attempt at becoming a historian. The environment is my primary focus. Yet I will take an ecological approach to my work, defined by the interconnection between humans and the environment. I love the Smoky Mountains, but I will write about many ecosystems and a variety of associated subjects.

This is practice. If an audience forms, so be it. I will write regardless, because I believe I will learn this way. My brightest hope is that my audience will learn as well. Welcome.