The environment in which the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail is nestled is at once representative of the Piedmont area of North Carolina and unique in its combination of water, soil, rocks, and vegetation. They represent millions of years of upheaval and change in the topography of the earth, as well as contributions made more recently by humans. These changes continue today, so that as you visit the trail over time, you'll see many of the same things around you, but you'll also notice new patterns, additions and disappearances.
Water
How Rain Becomes a River
When rain falls on the land, the soil absorbs as much as it can. Excess water can collect beneath the earth's surface in pores and crevices of rocks and soil. This is called groundwater. The layers of soil and rock that contain useable quantities of groundwater are called aquifers.
When the water moving underground finds an opening to the land surface and emerges, this is called a spring. Sometimes it’s just a trickle, maybe only after a rain, and sometimes it’s a continuous flow.
If the terrain is not flat, the water will flow downhill, creating a creek. Creeks continue to flow downhill until they merge to form larger streams and eventually rivers.
If the water encounters a bowl-shaped depression in the ground, it may fill the bowl (called a basin) and depending on how big the bowl is, it may become a pond or a lake.
Even if the lake is dammed, water may find a way to flow out and rejoin creeks or streams flowing downhill to rivers and eventually to oceans.
When the water moving underground finds an opening to the land surface and emerges, this is called a spring. Sometimes it’s just a trickle, maybe only after a rain, and sometimes it’s a continuous flow.
If the terrain is not flat, the water will flow downhill, creating a creek. Creeks continue to flow downhill until they merge to form larger streams and eventually rivers.
If the water encounters a bowl-shaped depression in the ground, it may fill the bowl (called a basin) and depending on how big the bowl is, it may become a pond or a lake.
Even if the lake is dammed, water may find a way to flow out and rejoin creeks or streams flowing downhill to rivers and eventually to oceans.
Water Flow Around the Chinqua-Penn Plantation
The land which made up the Chinqua-Penn Plantation is located in the Roanoke River Basin, the Upper Dan River Sub-Basin, and the Wolf Island Creek watershed. The stream that runs through this area is the Carroll Branch, a tributary of Wolf Island Creek. There are now three bodies of water in this area, all man-made: Turkey Pond, Lake Betsy, and Lake Hazel (on the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4H Center property).
But when Jeff Penn began to build the Chinqua-Penn Mansion in 1923, they needed water for the cattle and the extensive flower and vegetable gardens around the house. A number of wells were drilled at different locations on the plantation; some furnished water; others were a failure. Jeff solved his water problem by hiring a New York mason, Louis Ross, to construct a half-acre irrigation pond on the stream (now known as Carroll Creek) north of the mansion. Ross and his helpers built a rock dam 30 feet high, 12 feet wide and 157 feet long across a deep ravine. A cast iron pipe was placed under the dam for periodic draining. The rock for the dam was dug from a small quarry on a short distance below the dam site. (Note: this quarry is now mostly covered with bamboo. The larger quarry up the hill is where they mined the stone used to build the mansion and the outbuildings.) The irrigation pond was named “Lake Betsy.”
Visitors to the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail will see tiny Carroll Branch at various points along the trail. One section of Carroll Branch starts about a half mile due west of the trail, coming out of several ponds just north of Wentworth Street. It meanders north and east toward Lake Hazel at the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4H Center.
If you’re walking the trail clockwise from the kiosk, you’ll see a spring at the Spring House, which becomes another small branch that parallels the trail down to the south end of Turkey Pond. Sometimes the water collects in that area, waiting to drain into Turkey Pond, which is why a boardwalk was finally built there. Turkey Pond has a dam on the north side, which allows overflow from the pond, and that water rejoins the creek at bridge of the “Hurricane” boardwalk. It then flows under the Military Bridge and on into Little Niagara on its way into Lake Betsy.
The overflow from Lake Betsy cascades in a waterfall down from the dam to the Betsy-Jeff Penn4H Center, where it joins the other branch of Carroll Creek coming out of Lake Hazel. From there Carroll Creek continues east, passing under NC 14, where it joins Wolf Island Creek coming northeast from Reidsville, on its way up toward the Dan River in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
But when Jeff Penn began to build the Chinqua-Penn Mansion in 1923, they needed water for the cattle and the extensive flower and vegetable gardens around the house. A number of wells were drilled at different locations on the plantation; some furnished water; others were a failure. Jeff solved his water problem by hiring a New York mason, Louis Ross, to construct a half-acre irrigation pond on the stream (now known as Carroll Creek) north of the mansion. Ross and his helpers built a rock dam 30 feet high, 12 feet wide and 157 feet long across a deep ravine. A cast iron pipe was placed under the dam for periodic draining. The rock for the dam was dug from a small quarry on a short distance below the dam site. (Note: this quarry is now mostly covered with bamboo. The larger quarry up the hill is where they mined the stone used to build the mansion and the outbuildings.) The irrigation pond was named “Lake Betsy.”
Visitors to the Chinqua-Penn Walking Trail will see tiny Carroll Branch at various points along the trail. One section of Carroll Branch starts about a half mile due west of the trail, coming out of several ponds just north of Wentworth Street. It meanders north and east toward Lake Hazel at the Betsy-Jeff Penn 4H Center.
If you’re walking the trail clockwise from the kiosk, you’ll see a spring at the Spring House, which becomes another small branch that parallels the trail down to the south end of Turkey Pond. Sometimes the water collects in that area, waiting to drain into Turkey Pond, which is why a boardwalk was finally built there. Turkey Pond has a dam on the north side, which allows overflow from the pond, and that water rejoins the creek at bridge of the “Hurricane” boardwalk. It then flows under the Military Bridge and on into Little Niagara on its way into Lake Betsy.
The overflow from Lake Betsy cascades in a waterfall down from the dam to the Betsy-Jeff Penn4H Center, where it joins the other branch of Carroll Creek coming out of Lake Hazel. From there Carroll Creek continues east, passing under NC 14, where it joins Wolf Island Creek coming northeast from Reidsville, on its way up toward the Dan River in Pittsylvania County, Virginia.
Flowering Plants
You’ll see a variety of flowers blooming along the trail at different times of year, most of them wild flowers. There are two pollinator gardens at the trailhead where each spring we plant a diverse mix of flower seeds to support a diverse mix of pollinators. There are two butterfly bushes nearby as well.
The oldest flowers on the trail are likely those of the rhododendron, which Betsy and Jeff Penn planted some 100 years ago along the forested part of the Trail, between the quarry and the bull pastures. The Rhododendron maximum, also called Great Laurel, can be seen in bloom in June and July. This evergreen can reach 15 or more feet in height; the leaves are four to seven inches long. A smaller species of rhododendron, Rhododendron carolinianum or minus, with similar but smaller flowers, blooms on the trail from late May into June.
Honeysuckle, day lily, periwinkle, buttercup, daisy, moonflower, and hellebore bloom throughout the spring and summer, although the appearance of those and other flowers may depend on the weather from year to year. The pollinator gardens in particular are dependent upon plentiful rainfall.
We discourage visitors from picking the flowers, as all kinds of creatures depend on them for food. Photos are encouraged!
Photos by Lynn Monsees Carter unless otherwise indicated.
The oldest flowers on the trail are likely those of the rhododendron, which Betsy and Jeff Penn planted some 100 years ago along the forested part of the Trail, between the quarry and the bull pastures. The Rhododendron maximum, also called Great Laurel, can be seen in bloom in June and July. This evergreen can reach 15 or more feet in height; the leaves are four to seven inches long. A smaller species of rhododendron, Rhododendron carolinianum or minus, with similar but smaller flowers, blooms on the trail from late May into June.
Honeysuckle, day lily, periwinkle, buttercup, daisy, moonflower, and hellebore bloom throughout the spring and summer, although the appearance of those and other flowers may depend on the weather from year to year. The pollinator gardens in particular are dependent upon plentiful rainfall.
We discourage visitors from picking the flowers, as all kinds of creatures depend on them for food. Photos are encouraged!
Photos by Lynn Monsees Carter unless otherwise indicated.
