Wanderings And Ponderings

While making the return journey from Kentucky, I took a delightful detour to Cedars of Lebanon State Park, just south of Lebanon, Tennessee. Nestled in the heart of Middle Tennessee’s Central Basin, this 900-acre park lies within the larger 9,420-acre Cedars of Lebanon State Forest. The park is home to a unique ecosystem known as cedar glades—open, rocky expanses of thin soil dotted with Eastern red cedar trees, which are actually junipers. These enduring trees reminded early settlers of the famed cedar forests of ancient Lebanon, inspiring the park’s biblical name. Beneath your feet lies Ordovician-era limestone, dating back roughly 460 million years, creating a karst landscape pockmarked with sinkholes, caves, and underground streams. In the 1930s, a resettlement program and WPA-led restoration efforts transformed the battered cedar flats into a thriving forest and public recreational space. The area opened as Lebanon Cedar Forest in 1937, with the Tennessee government taking over tw...