Fat Pine Torch
Our second day at the Alum Cave (and third one from home) was a remarkably cheerless one; for a regular snowstorm set in, mingled with hail, and, before we could reach our horses and descend the Smoky Mountain, some three or four inches of snow had fallen. We spent that night under the roof of our good friend and worthy man, the guide, and it was with difficulty that we could induce him to receive a quarter eagle for all his trouble in piloting us and treating us to his best fare. On that night we ate our supper at nine o’clock, and what rendered it somewhat peculiar was the fact that his two eldest daughters, and very pretty girls besides, waited upon us at table, holding above our heads a couple of torches made of the fat pine. That was the first time that I was ever waited upon in so regal a style, and more than once during the feast did I long to retire in a corner of the smoky and dingy cabin to take a sketch of the romantic scene. At sunrise on the following morning my companion and myself remounted our horses, and in three hours were eating our breakfast in Qualla Town.
— Letters From the Alleghany Mountains written by Charles Lanman 1849
I would love to have seen the view as the travelers made their descent through the snow. Just imagine the big timber!
The daughters holding torches of fat pine above the eating table reminded me of Pap.
We call the resin filled wood rich pine.
Pap said when he was a boy many people used rich pine torches to walk after dark and sometime they were used in the house.
Imagining a room lit by flickering flame with the scent of turpentine wafting around I asked Pap if they worked good. He laughed and said “They’d about smoke you out of the house!” Pap said oil lamps were the preferred lighting of his childhood here in the mountains of southern Appalachia before electricity.
Last night’s video: January in Appalachia & A Special Song from Pap & Granny.
Tipper Pressley
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Tipper, I really enjoyed hearing Pap and Granny sing the song praying, it was a Blessing to hear. I am praying for Granny and all of you.
I have wrote about this before. As a young boy, I worshipped the ground my Grandaddy Kirby walked on. I spent every minute I could with him. One of the joys of my young life spent with him would be in the fall of the year when he would take the sack he used when picking cotton, get his axe and we would take off through the woods looking for rich pine- lighter knots to us. He would carry some apples or some other snack with us and we would cup our hands to dip water out of the creek to drink. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea, I loved my Daddy and would spend my time with him as soon as he came home from work. We lived beside of my grandparents which allowed me to spend as much time as I did with my Grandaddy. I wish every kid could have a grandaddy like him and spend time with them. I expect some kids today don’t even know their grandparents.
Happy Friday Tipper!⭐️
When we moved to South Mississippi we had a pool installed and they dug a lot of “lighter knots” out. It was really a unique thing to us. We boxed it and kept it around for getting fires started. Hope Miss Louzine is having a peaceful and quiet day. Love to her and you all have a good day too. Love and blessings to everyone today, tomorrow and always.
Tipper, and family, My husband Bernard and I enjoy ALL your video’s. We have learned a lot.
You and your family have been a Blessing to us.
Thank you for all your Blind Pig posts and your youtube video’s. We have been praying for Granny.
The Qualla Town mentioned is the tale would have been at or near the present Reservation of the Eastern Band of the Cherokees. The exact location fails me. The Cherokee word Qualla was and to a lesser degree still is used in that area. The word was derived from the Cherokee word “kwalli” meaning “old woman”.
Yes I googled that last sentence.
And yes I have carried a rich pine knot for light in my youth. They are especially handy for finding and burning out hornet and yellow jacket nests. You let that sooty black smoke rise up inside their nests and they just fall out dead.
You can cook rich pine just enough that the resin bubbles out and gather that into a chunk and you have the stuff that makes a few pieces of wood and wire into a glorious sounding musical instrument.
Howdy, Cousin Ed.
I recall the term “Qualla Boundary”. Doesn’t that refer to the entire reservation for the Eastern Band of the Cherokee?
To my understanding it encompasses the entire reservation including non-contiguous parcels. Birdtown and the 3200 acre tract in Swain County are part of the Qualla Boundary. Sections of Graham and Cherokee Counties are set aside as part of the Qualla Boundary also but I can’t recall those place names at this time.
Parcels of land near Marble, Hiawassee, and Hanging Dog in Cherokee County and Stecoah and Snowbird in Graham County are considered part of the Qualla Boundary.
***Google helped me recall those place names!***
Prayers continue for Granny and for each of her family.
Daddy’s family called them pine knots.
I don’t recall Daddy or any of the family using one but they certainly had in their growing up years.
We always call rich pine, fat lightered. Interesting that we call it different names but regardless, it sure will burn. I have never known it to be used for torches but that makes perfect sense. I used to see daddy make kerosene torches to burn out the bagworms in our pecan trees. We didn’t have many trees but if he ever saw the first bag, he was on it trying to save the pecans.
I have everyone stays safe and warm whether you get snow or not. It’s brutally cold out there. I think our snow will be in the powder form so hopefully we won’t lose electricity. Prayers for all.
Hello Matt and Tipper and all the wonderful little acorns, I’ve never heard of ‘rich pine’ until I started following Celebrating Appalachia and the Blind Pig. Watching Matt start his wood stove it sure would be nice if we had it where we live in Canada.
I really enjoyed Matt’s video last night especially the creek, I love the sound of running water. Take care and be safe everyone, it’s heartbreaking to hear people have lost their lives in the extreme cold weather you’re getting. Tipper, you and your family have been on my heart and like everyone here we are praying for you!
I’m praying for Granny and your family! I know this is a tough time for you all. So glad that you have each other.
Tipper–A truly interesting choice for today’s blog. It is a hint that I need to go back and read Lanham’s book, one of the earliest to go into detail on the Smokies. I am a bit mystified by one thing and will probably turn to Br’er Don for clarification. He mentions being at the Alum cave and then the following material on staying with his guide at least implies that his home was quite close by. If that was so, however, Lanham had a mountain to climb to get to the main ridgeline of the Smokies in or close to the Sawteeth range before beginning the descent to Qualla town. If he is referring to today’s Alum Cave Bluff area, and if he also means the Qualla town area near today’s Cherokee, there’s simply no way the trip could be made in three hours on horseback. I’ll have to dig in to get a better sense of the geography, but my curiosity is raised.
Praying for Granny.
I don’t remember ever using fat pine to start fires as I grew up and I don’t remember any pine trees near our house. Daddy and his brothers built our house of pine logs in the 1930’s so maybe they cut most that were near the house. We used a lot of corn cobs to start fires for our fireplaces and wood stove.
Jeffrey, that is an interesting church in Ala that you shared. Thanks. I’m close to the Ala state line. It’s amazing that it’s almost 200 yrs old but shocking that people stole the floor boards and later the foundation stones. I doubt they were worried about St Peter letting them into the Pearly Gates!
Randy, enjoy your snow and I hope Tipper gets enough to sled. Hope everyone is safe and warm. It’s predicted not to reach me and from the ice and downed trees I saw this week not many miles from my house, I’m thankful I was spared. I have family and friends affected last week.
Tipper, I’m thinking of your family and your mother. One night as I was crocheting I listened to Paul’s music videos. The ones that include your mother singing with him are so very special.
I hope everyone stays safe and warm.
Rich wood. The first time I saw or heard of rich or “fat” wood was on a YouTube channel from Canada. Sean James used this wood to start fires when everything else was wet. All the years I heated with wood I have never used it or even heard of it. Matt did an outstanding job of filling in for you with his videos on the chickens and putting wood away. As he wad cutting a large log I was reminded of the last time I was in the woods cutting wood for my house. It wad late in the day and I had just dropped a good size tree. I was on the top of hill and when it fell it did not come unattached from its base. Near the base of the tree there wss about three feet of clearance. As I’m cutting off some of the branches the log rolled off of its base. It rolled toward me. I dropped to the ground and the log rolled over me. When I dropped my chain saw it automatically shut off. As the log passed over me I realized how blessed I was. I got up from the ground, brushed the leaves off of me, picked up my equipment, and went home never to return to that place. Some people said I was lucky. I refer to think that a band of angels kept that log off of me. It was a sign.
Speaking of signs years later while I wad an addictions counselor one of my residents was describing a terrible accident he had been in and got out without a cut. He said he needed a “sign” that there was a Higher Power to help him in recovery. I told him that if he wanted a bigger sign than surviving that accident with a scratch he would have to have a neon sign blinking in front of him as bright as the sun. The last I heard he was still looking for a sign. Send Granny our love and prayers from Diane and me.
Fat pine or rich pine was never used or heard tell of when I was growing up, and was heard for the first time in my life while reading about it on The Blind Pig blog. Cedar trees are everywhere in this area, but not a single pine is to be found. I’m so thankful I didn’t lose electricity during the last storm, as I usually do. I was without electricity for ten days during the 2009 ice storm, and unlike Charles Lanham, I found nothing romantic about dining with a hand-held light.
Tipper, I’m almost as excited as you are about the snow that’s headed your way. Can’t wait to hear about it! Praying for Granny and hoping she will enjoy the beauty of the fresh fallen snow. Don’t forget to make her some snowcream.
A few winters back I bought a small box of fat wood neatly cut into 6-inch “sticks.” I assumed this was the product of some enterprising individual or small company located somewhere here in the Southeast. Reading the label at home, I was surprised to see “Product of Brazil.”
Some of us called it “lighter” pine.
My Uncle Bill called it “ Lighter”
I’ve heard of it called lighter wood too. I’ve always been bad to drag home a “rich” pine stump or a knot of pine to help build a fire when I need one. I once found what looked like a war club. It is a pine limb with a knot the nearly the size of a softball on one end and the whole thing is practically heart pine. I found it underneath a bluff shelter towards the back. My wife kept it on the hearth for years. I think it’s still around here somewhere.
That was a way of “light” back in the early days before many people could afford or even obtain “coal oil” or a lantern in which burn it. There is an old log church about in the middle of the national forest near where I live called “Pine Torch”. It was built by early settlers around 1840. The name comes from early church goers burning heart-pine torches for light. The name stuck. Here is a link I found with a quick Google search.
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=153225
Well Randy, my brother in law did break his leg by falling on the ice about 10′ fro his front door. At church Wed. night our front steps and ramp were cordoned off with yellow “Do Not Cross” tape. They were both a solid sheet of ice and the other side ramp had to have the ice broke up from it.
Charles Lanman also made it down to northeast Georgia on that 1840’s trip. He wrote of a wildfire burning in the hills in the Tallulah Falls vicinity.
There would be some art to carrying a rich pine torch. Drops of ‘rosin’ would burn you, smoke would smudge you and any wind would make light fitful. Still, I can see how they would be quiet handy, kinda like a flashlight. Then to, I expect where and when they were used, folks were very familiar with the surroundings so a strong light wasn’t really needed just a light to ‘see by’ to avoid obstacles.
Ron, I am sorry your brother in law broke his leg. Tell him to look up Uncle Versies trial, I think he would get a laugh. Two or three people in my area have been found dead from falling and freezing to death after last weekend’s ice storm. I know I have been slipping and sliding when feeding our dog, he is half Walker hound and half Labrador, weighs 100 pounds and loves this cold weather. He will try to lick you to death when you scratch his ears. This is what I mean when I say “snow is not fun” for us older people. A lot of times when you are younger you don’t think about the dangers snow can cause. I was as guilty of this as anyone else when I was younger and could get out and play with my children when it snowed.
The video was great last night. Loved hearing your parents sing.I also enjoyed seeing Matt’s Rich Pine stash. Prayers for your family at thus time.
Hi Tipper, I think I have written this to you before, but living in Texas we burn mostly oak and mesquite wood in our wood stoves, fire pits etc. I got ahold of some pine a few years back, not really thinking about the resin (or rich part) of the wood. I chucked the whole stick into the fire thinking it would smell really good and man to mercy did I ever get a surprise. That wood flared up and black smoke was rolling off of it, and it smelled almost like oil burning and it was blazing hot. I finally realized what I had done and thank the Lord it was outside in the fire pit. Ha Ha Moral of the story…………..rich pine works great but use it sparingly.
I would choke to death if that was the method of light now. I’m thankful for electric light though I do still love to use our oil lamps
Continued prayers for all y’all!
May everyone be safe, warm, and fed on these brutal days.
Good morning Tipper, Matt and Acorns. I loved the video last night. TY. I could not imagine trying to light modern home with a torch or even candles or kerosene lamps. They are just too airtight. I loved seeing one of Matt’s Rich Pine stumps. There are lots forming here in the county since the tornadoes went thru in 2011. It also makes wildfire hazard levels go up on windy, dry days. Nature is so amazing. I loved your looking back video. I expect you to get at least 2 inches of snow this weekend! I keep everyone here and up Wilson Hollow in my prayers. I love y’all.
I have never knew any one to us a lightered pine knot for a torch. My family did not call it fat pine. Jerry Clower tells a funny story about using these torches- Aunt Pet and Uncle Versee had taught their coon dog Blue to be mean and jump on anything that fell out of the tree. One night Blue treed the coon in a moss covered tree, uncle Versee climbed the tree to knock out the coon and set the moss in the tree on fire, Blue was snapping and biting anything falling out of the tree. Uncle Versee hollering down to Aunt Pet and telling her to hold Blue.
Forecast calling for up to 8 inches of a “Yankee” snow for us, not very worried about power outages this go round. The snow is suppose to be dry like powder and not stick to the power lines, not like usual wet, icy southern style snows.
I think one member mentioned something about being afraid of breaking a leg yesterday while out in the ice and being shot like a horse with a broken leg. Google Jerry Clower and Uncle Versee’s trial.
Randy, I came back here to finish reading today’s comments. Since you are in SC and I am here in NC, have you ever heard the phrase, “tough as a lightered pine knot or tough as a lighter knot?” I thought about that when I read your comment. I do know I’m not tough as nothing in this cold weather, LOL.
Yes mam, many times and I am also feeling this years cold weather more than I ever did before. If I was not working, I would often hunt in this kind of weather, nowadays all I hunt is another blanket!