In this view–let’s say it’s the year 1491–we stand at a high point of what today is called the Shuffletown prairie remnant in Charlotte NC. Our view is to the west across the wooded lowlands along the Catawba River toward a continuum of prairies, savannas, and woodlands. Spencer Mountain, and beyond that Kings Mountain lie on the horizon. Like other large southeastern grasslands, thousands of years of frequent burning caused by lighting, and even more so by American Indians, have balanced this vast landscape in a beautiful state of suspended succession. Forests are restricted to fire-protected slopes and drainageways, while occasional oak groves hold out on rocky upland sites where there is little fuel to carry fire. Prairies and savannas cover everything else. This is one of many grasslands in the Southeast that have been forgotten, but in my imagination, and after about 10 hours of painting, it is now remembered as a sweeping September view with Schweinitz sunflower and other prairie flora lighting up the greensward.
It is hard to imagine this scene in today’s densely forested landscape, but in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, European explorers described vast grasslands in the upper Piedmont of Virginia and the Carolinas. Among them, 325 years ago, John Lawson wrote about the area south of Charlotte:
“We travell’d, this day, about 25 Miles, over pleasant Savanna Ground, high, and dry, having very few Trees upon it, and those standing at a great distance. The Land was very good, and free from Grubs or Underwood.”
This painting is based on such accounts as well as my recent visit to Shuffletown Prairie, a small, degraded prairie remnant on the northwest side of Charlotte. The remnant lies in a narrow corridor beneath high tension power lines with dense forest on either side. The soil on this hilltop site is thin and rocky. The exposed boulders appear to be of mafic or ultramafic origin, as I’ve seen elsewhere in the Carolina Slate Belt, so the soil chemistry is probably restrictive for plants. Useless for agriculture, I imagine this poor, rocky, grassland site was used for pasture in previous centuries. This would have kept shade trees at bay and allowed sun loving prairie plants to persist.
Amidst the tangle of blackberry and honeysuckle that cover much of the site, on my visit I recognized kidney leaf rosinweed, obedient plant, goats rue, flowering spurge, wild quinine, and other grassland plants. Two federally listed prairie plants; smooth coneflower, which I didn’t see, and Schweinitz sunflower, which I did see, are found in this “Natural Heritage Site of National Significance”. Schweinitz described this sunflower 200 years ago in a historically similar grasslands in New Salem, NC, another place I’d like to depict.
Shuffletown prairie is completely hemmed in by the suburbs of Charlotte and as far as I could tell, there’s no obvious point of public access. Like so many grasslands remnants, it’s badly fire-suppressed and under siege by invasive plants. It’s a miracle it exists at all. Thanks to it’s purchase by the Trust for Public Land and transfer of ownership to Mecklenburg county (info here) it is at least legally protected. While sweeping views of vast grasslands may never return to this neighborhood of Charlotte, a little love in the form of prescribed fire and invasive removal would go a long way to maintain this important connection to the region’s rich (and gorgeous) natural history.
Shuffletown Prairie remnant. August 2024.
