One afternoon in the early '70's, before that road was gated, I climbed the fire tower and made this photo. Another shot from the tower shows the beast of burden that took me there.

A couple of years later some friends and I backpacked up from the normal entrance of the park and camped within sight of the prison. As we turned in the first night somebody from each tent yelled, "Good night, James Earl" and "Good night, Mary Ellen". The Waltons was big then on TV, you know and this was shortly before James Earl escaped.

What a trip! There was a spring near the summit where we had planned to camp. It was near that fire tower road and had a basin made from rocks and mortar. In times past the water had been very good. We had planned to refill canteens here but we found a dead dog floating in the pool. We had to ration the water we had carried in with us.

On a later hike to the same spot we were awakened shortly after retiring by the neighbor's six-year-old who had swallowed a coin and it seemed to be "stuck somewhere".

He had no physical signs of distress but was yelling his head off. We stripped a pack to make a frame so his dad could carry him the five or so miles out of the park and on to Oak Ridge Hospital's ER. He also carried everybody's spare stash of flashlight batteries.

We decided that we weren't meant to use Frozen Head State Park.

Wearybottom Associates

A few years ago, on our second trip to Frozen Head we made that "south entrance" mistake just using a regular state map.

Since we'd already been there once before and remembered driving past the Morgan County Correctional Facility, I kept thinking, "what the hell... there's the prison. Where's the park entrance?" We kept winding up around route 116 until we were carsick, then eventually turned back and drove farther up 62 toward Wartburg and found the actual entrance off Flat Fork Road.

It sure is a beautiful setting for a prison.

KR, great photos and stories.

Stick Thrower, We did the same thing, going up 116 a while then turning back. We did think it was odd when they Garmin Lady said turn right off of 62 at a sign that said "Brushy Mountain -->" just in sight of a sign up ahead on 62 that said "Frozen Head State Park 10 Miles". We thought maybe the Garmin Lady knew a short cut.

Then we were amazed to be driving by the other prison. Don't know if you've been up there in a while, but there is a LOT of construction going on and they are building a HUGE prison complex at the Morgan Co. facility.

Incarceration seems to be big (the only?) business up there.

(I have to say it was a little creepy in the woods because of all that. I should also mention this is probably not the best time of year to go. The streams were completely 100% dried up, so no waterfalls. It's a beautiful place, though.)

My dad was born less than a quarter-mile from the park and, when I was about twelve, he took me huckleberry picking on that mountain. I was almost bitten by a rattlesnake. Dad killed it with a large rock and cut off the rattle. I kept that thing for years.

I also had a cousin whose wife threatened to divorce him because of some rattlesnake meat he obtained near there and stored in their freezer.

He says it really does taste a bit like chicken, but he's such a bad cook, even his chicken doesn't taste like chicken.

Wearybottom Associates

...and this was shortly before James Earl escaped.

For James Earl, it was the entrance to Frozen Head.

I've been led astray on a few occasions by my Nuvi, but overall it's been great. Of course, when I've been led astray it's taken me to roads that don't exist, not to Brushy.

Frozen Head is a wonderful park though. I hate that the streams are dried up, but it's never very crowded and is a great place to camp or picnic. I'll keep the advise regarding snakes close to heart though.

sp

My college roommate's daughter got married at Frozen Head in June 2006. It was truely beautiful.

On the other hand, I have family all over Morgan County and, yeah, correction work is about all there is. But the beauty is wonderful.

Pam Strickland

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be." ~Kurt Vonnegut

I remember when James Earl escaped and there was a big story in Time magazine with a map of the area that highlighted the "rattlesnake infested" woods.

Hey, RKR, your old convertible bug looks like ours did, except ours was off white. Can't remember the interior color, for some reason. We also usually left off the top's cover. Too lazy to snap it on.

Then there's this:

(link...)

Several roads in Tennessee have more than one name, Clinton Hwy is also Lonas Chapman Hwy, the sign is just west of Merchants road.