Formerly, the area was home to a scattered community of family homesteads, storied for their isolation, traditional lifestyles, and skilled production of the illicit liquor known as "moonshine".

Today, The Nature Conservancy considers Smoke Hole and the surrounding mountains to be "one of the most biologically rich places in the East", especially as regards its rare plant communities.

This likely developed through an intermediate stage during which the South Branch (or its precursor stream here, the lower Briggs Run) traversed the future Smoke Hole region underground.

He built a cabin near the (still standing) Palestine Church and his daughter Katie married another pioneer, George Full — the first wedding celebrated in the Canyon.

[10]) Another Revolutionary War veteran settled there in the years after the conflict, but he — Charles Bleachynden — had been one of the enemy: he was one of the Hessian soldiers (German mercenaries) surrendered at Yorktown in 1781 with Lord Cornwallis' forces.

[11] The earliest settler families — the Steeles, Fulls, Eagles, Coxes, Boars, Shreves, and Van Meters — were sustained by smallholder farming, supplemented by hunting and fishing.

Fruit orchards were also harvested, but — owing to the inaccessibility of the community — only very infrequently was local produce brought to market at nearby Petersburg or Franklin.

Longtime residents of the gorge have insisted that the Indian "smoke house" cave story is the only genuine one and the only explanation that pre-dates the ones on the local state historical highway markers.

This work was undertaken by the 46th Regiment Militia,[17] a Virginia State Unit based in Pendleton County, but Smoke Holers too old or too young to be drafted were coerced into doing the hard labor.

Descriptions of conditions prevailing in the Smoke Hole during the early 20th century were highlighted by wild tales of inaccessibility and the outmoded pioneer lifestyles of the inhabitants.

The more gullible travellers believed that Smoke Holers were so uncivilized and violent that it was dangerous to go there and that "revenuers" (federal law officers) frequently disappeared in the Canyon.

Under the 2006 Monongahela National Forest Land and Resource Management Plan,[26] over 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) in the Smoke Hole area were set aside for non-motorized, primitive recreation and remote wildlife habitat.

[28] The canyon offers excellent class II - III whitewater paddling for several months in the spring when the water levels are high enough.

This package of rocks is bounded on the lower and upper ends by two fairly competent sandstones: the Silurian Tuscarora and the Devonian Oriskany (Ridgeley), respectively.

Furthermore, the Cave Mountain anticline is a doubly plunging fold showing a culmination at the Lower Silurian strata level near Big Bend in the center of the Smoke Holes.

Geologically, the Smoke Holes are the most uniquely exposed region within the westernmost central Appalachians and they have served as a surface model for complex subsurface structures shown and/or suspected by seismic and exploratory drilling.

The dry, prairie-like areas along the upper knobs and ridges of the Canyon are home to a variety of typically western plants such as prairie flax.

Shrubs The understory of the Canyon woodland includes such low-lying, fruit-bearing vegetation as huckleberry, blackberry, raspberry, teaberry, and wild grape.

Other undergrowth includes crab-apple, witch hazel, rhododendron, sumac, pussy willow, spicewood, dog rose, sloe, chokecherry, haw, and honeysuckle.

[35] Herbs and wild flowers The biological richness of Smoke Hole's plant communities was demonstrated by a botanist in 1933 who documented 283 species of flora on the 4-acre Hermit Island alone.

Today the Canyon still has significant black bear and bobcat populations and is known for its large number of timber rattlesnakes, a species now scarce elsewhere in the state [citation needed].

Smaller game animals include red and grey foxes, raccoons, opossums, beavers, mink, wild turkey, cottontails, squirrels, and quail.

[37] The Allegheny woodrat, which lives in rocky terrain in the Canyon, has been declining throughout much of its range due to an epidemic of roundworm infestation (acquired from raccoons), among other causes.

Wood thrushes, scarlet tanagers and various warblers have all been in decline recently because of habitat loss on both continents, but can find sanctuary within the secluded Canyon.

Additional avifauna include bobwhites, robins, cardinals, kingfishers, turkey vultures, and various owls, hawks, hummingbirds, woodpeckers, swallows, and wrens.

A species of Asian beetle known to survive entirely by eating the adelgid is being considered for the Canyon, while a solution to the stiltgrass problem remains as yet unidentified.

Popular activities in Smoke Hole Canyon include fishing (rainbow and golden trout; largemouth and smallmouth bass), hunting (squirrel, grouse, turkey, deer, rabbit and bear), hiking, rock climbing, caving, canoeing and camping (Big Bend Campground).

Big Bend Campground is located on a peninsula in the river and features 46 sites with hot and cold water and flush toilets from April 15 to Oct. 1.

There are many opportunities for rock climbing in the canyon, from the walls just inside the Route 220 entrance, to soaring Eagle Rocks, to the shaded walls of Long Branch, the steep stiff routes of Sanctuary and the miles of cliffs lining the west face of North Fork Mountain which can be accessed from trailheads on the canyon rim.

Traveling with other campers and adventurous treasure seekers, the film takes the viewer through raging rapids, unexplored mountain caves, and encounters with wilderness and wildlife native to the region.