Ragged Mountains

For other uses, see Ragged Mountain.

Ragged Mountain Natural Area, January 2011

The Ragged Mountains are a small chain of rugged hills—an offshoot of the Blue Ridge Mountains—southwest of Charlottesville, Virginia. 980 acres (4.0 km2) have been preserved as the Ragged Mountain Natural Area.[1][2]

The region provided the atmospheric setting for Edgar Allan Poe's short story, "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains", which described it as a "chain of wild and dreary hills."[3] Poe was familiar with the area from his days as a student at the University of Virginia.

The Ragged Mountain Natural Area was established in 1997 and opened to the public in 1999. It encompasses a reservoir for the city of Charlottesville and the surrounding watershed[4], forested primarily with oak and yellow poplar.

References

  1. ^ "Ragged Mountain Natural Area". charlottesville.gov. Retrieved March 28, 2025.
  2. ^ "Ragged Mountain Natural Area". dwr.virginia.gov. Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  3. ^ "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains". The Poe Museum. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  4. ^ Ball, Aaron (July 6, 2023). "Small Waters: Ragged Mountain Reservoir". Woods & Waters Magazine. Retrieved July 19, 2025.

38°02′N 78°34′W / 38.03°N 78.56°W / 38.03; -78.56


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.