In October 1996, the Daniel Boone National Forest brought a team of paleoecologists, Dr. Paul A. Delcourt and Dr. Hazel R. Delcourt of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, to Cliff Palace Pond to study the history of fire and its effects on the forest. Their goal was to determine the long-term changes the forest had undergone as a result of changes in climate, forest disturbance regimes, and prehistoric human activities.
From a little over five feet of organic pond sediments, Cliff Palace Pond produced a nearly 10,000 year-long pollen record. This record clearly documents the influence prehistoric peoples had on the forest through their use of fire. The Cliff Palace Pond story challenges forever our view of the "virgin" forest primeval.
