Geographical descriptions of the slides’ locations vary in quality, but one feature initially reported by Silas McDowell of Macon County proved easy to locate with the aid of lidar-derived slope-shade (an inverted black and white slope raster) imagery. The use of the word “shock” in the description of the Macon County slide shows it refers to the slide event itself and not to seismicity that caused the failure. The description of the Valley River Mountains slide as “partially filled in” suggests it was less dramatic in appearance even in Clingman’s day, so perhaps the somewhat muted feature visible today with lidar is indeed the slide in question.