Теннесси штатындағы Frozen Head мемлекеттік паркі

State park in Tennessee, United States

Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area is a state park in Morgan County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. The park, situated in the Crab Orchard Mountains between the city of Wartburg and the community of Petros, contains some of the highest mountains in Tennessee west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Frozen Head State Park consists of approximately , all but of which is classified as a state natural area. The terrain varies between 1300 feet (396 m) to over 3000 feet (914 m) with 14 peaks at or over 3000 feet (914 m). Frozen Head, the park's namesake, is the highest peak at 3324 feet (1013 m). The mountain's name comes from its snow capped appearance in colder months. The park's highest elevations allow for unobstructed views of East Tennessee's three main physiographic features: the Cumberland Plateau, the Tennessee Valley, and across the valley, the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Crab Orchard Mountains rise along the Cumberland Plateau just west of the plateau's Walden Ridge escarpment, north of the Sequatchie Valley, and comprise the southern extreme of the greater Cumberland Mountain range. The mountains are generally composed of Paleozoic sandstones and shales of the Pennsylvanian period, formed roughly 300 million years ago. Although the rocks are much younger than the Precambrian igneous rocks of the Appalachian Mountains to the east, the two mountain systems were both formed during the Appalachian orogeny, when the North American and African plates collided. Frozen Head State Park is centered along the Flat Fork Valley, a bottomland between Bird Mountain and Old Mac Mountain. The valley's namesake, Flat Fork, rises on the southern slopes of Bird Mountain and follows the entire length of the mountain's southern base before emptying into Crooked Fork near Wartburg. Flat Fork, along with most streams in the park, is drained by the Emory River, the headwaters of which are located along Bird Mountain's northern slopes. Frozen Head, the park's highest mountain, rises near the center of the park. The mountain crowns a ridge that rises from State Highway 62 to the south, peaks at Frozen Head, and maintains a relatively high ridgeline before intersecting Fork Mountain in the northern section of the park. Most of the park's major mountains run perpendicular to this central ridge.

In 1988, the vast majority of Frozen Head State Park's acreage was classified as a state natural area. The non designated area consists of at the confluence of Flat Fork and Judge Branch where park offices and the campground are located. This designation, along with the park's previous designation as a state forest, have allowed a mature forest habitat to develop. The forest in Frozen Head's lower elevations consists of a mixed mesophytic forest, and includes species of hemlock, maple, tulip poplar, oak, and hickory. As elevation increases along mountain slopes, the mesophytic forest gives way to an oak forest consisting largely of white oak and tulip poplar. Chestnut oak and shortleaf pine are the dominant species along the higher ridge crests and mountain tops. Although businesses occasionally purchased the Frozen Head area for its natural resources throughout the 19th century, the area remained largely undisturbed until the state of Tennessee purchased it in 1894 for the location of Brushy Mountain State Prison. The state hoped to use convict labor to mine the Cumberlands' ample coal resources, with the heavy forest providing wood for construction of mine shafts. In 1911, the Emory River Lumber Company purchased the Frozen Head area and cut most of the forest's commercial timber. Major logging operations in the forest commenced in 1925. In 1933, Tennessee Governor Hill McAlister set aside a large part of Brushy Mountain State Prison's lands for the establishment of Morgan State Forest. A large part of Morgan State Forest burned in a forest fire in 1952, and the forestry division transferred the lands to the parks division 18 years later for the establishment of Frozen Head State Park. In 1988, most of park's acreage was classified as a state natural area, restricting development to a area around the confluence of Flat Fork and Judge Branch. As of 2024, only twenty competitors have ever finished the race.