Tennis Anyone? High Knob Visit Holds Promise

To come to High Knob, at the dawn of the leaf-peeping season, seems both sad and promising.
It’s been nearly two years since the High Knob Tower of Wise County, Va., was lost to arsonists on Halloween in 2007.
Today, at the site of the former lookout, where the elevation reaches more than 4,100 feet, you can see many beautiful mountains on the horizon.
You can also hear bugs of all kinds making noises among flowers and weeds colored yellow, white, green, blue, purple – and aquamarine.
The area is mowed, where the tower once stood.
And there, too, is a slab of concrete – evidence of where the tower was bolted down.
Remaining still is an old bench, made with half a log.
Like the long-gone tower, that bench is etched with graffiti, just like as the tower held the notchings of wood-carving romantics proclaiming who-loves-you.
The old High Knob Tower, built in 1978, won’t always remain a memory, promised Steve Brooks, the director of the Clinch Coalition, a non-profit environmental group.
Brooks is now helping dozens of others raise money as part of the High Knob Enhancement Corporation.
This group – known as HKEC, for short – has helped steer about $400,000 towards the estimated $600,000 needed to put a new tower on High Knob.
“It’s going to try to look more like the tower that was there before, but probably with a ramp going up to it – maybe a spiral ramp going up to it,” Brooks said. “It will be different than the original tower because it has to be handicapped accessible.” 
Money has come from the donations of private citizens as well as government grants.
A fundraiser has also been launched, selling replicas of the old High Knob Tower for $15 each through the Wise County Chamber of Commerce.
This weekend, too, even more attention is being paid to High Knob – and not only the knob itself but the vast stretch of Jefferson National Forest land spanning the Scott-Wise border in Southwest Virginia.
Brooks is helping steer this weekend’s High Knob Naturalists Rally, held this weekend at Bark Camp Recreation Area, between Dungannon and Tacoma.
A series of seminars is slated, including a workshop by Wayne Browning, who has been studying High Knob for 20 years, Brooks said.
Brooks is also bringing his expertise to Bark Camp. A Snowflake, Va., resident, Brooks previously worked for 10 years with Virginia Forest Watch, a non-profit group that studies forest issues, both public and private.
As for the new tower, no one knows for sure when it might be built, Brooks said.
“But we’re hoping for sometime next year.”

—Programs at the High Knob Naturalists Rally are free. The event is being held Oct. 10, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A $3 parking fee is charged at Bark Camp. Call (276) 479-2176 for more information.