Tree Service in Rocky Top, TN

Tree Service in Rocky Top covers a town that has changed names three times. It began as Coal Creek, after the stream that still runs through it. In 1936 it became Lake City, after the Tennessee Valley Authority finished Norris Dam and created Norris Lake nearby. On June 26, 2014, the city officially renamed itself Rocky Top. It's a small place, about 1.6 square miles with 1,628 residents at the 2020 census, and it sits at the northern end of U.S. 441, with two I-75 exits and Knoxville 24 miles to the south.

Mining history in the hills

Rocky Top's past is coal. The Coal Creek War of 1891 was a miners' labor struggle that ended Tennessee's convict-leasing system, and the Fraterville Mine disaster happened nearby in 1902. Land that was mined or logged long ago often regrows with a dense stand of fast-growing trees: tulip poplar, red maple, black locust, Virginia pine. Those stands are now decades old and crowded, and a lot of trees in them are tall, thin and weak.

Trees in a creek valley

Coal Creek gives the town its low ground. Homes near the creek have damp soils and fast-growing trees: sycamores, box elders, willows. These shade well but drop limbs and can tip in saturated soil after heavy rain. Upslope, the ground gets steeper and rockier toward the surrounding hills. That combination means two kinds of problems:

Near the creek

• Brittle limbs over homes, roads and parked cars
• Trees leaning or undercut after high water
• Rot at the base of older bottomland trees

On the slopes

• Tall, thin trees uphill of houses
• Dead pines on dry, rocky ground
• Trees falling across steep driveways after storms

Getting trees off steep lots

When there's no flat place to drop a tree, we take it down in sections. A climber works from the top, cutting limbs and short trunk pieces and lowering them with ropes. It's slower than felling, but it keeps the house, the driveway and the neighbors safe. The estimate includes the rigging and how the wood will be moved.

Along the interstate

Many Rocky Top properties sit near I-75 or U.S. 25W. Trees along those corridors lean toward the open light over the road. If a tree on your land overhangs a public road, it's wise to keep it trimmed back and check it after storms. For trees in the road right-of-way, contact the agency that maintains the road.

Near Norris Lake

Some Rocky Top-area properties sit near Norris Lake, the reservoir TVA created with Norris Dam. Lake-side trees lean out over the water and often grow on steep banks. We prune them to keep weight off long limbs and remove only those that are failing, keeping wood and brush out of the lake.

Small town, straightforward process

Call (865) 401-8827 or send the form with your address and a short description. We'll come look, answer your questions and leave you a written estimate that spells out what we'll do and the price. You decide when to schedule. Get a free estimate