The landscape at Nuttallburg has changed repeatedly over the past 150 years. Native Americans and settlers in the early 1800s saw solid forest, but in the late 1800s mining companies cut much of the timber. Mine leases often included rights to the surface timber above the mine, and mine owners built sawmills and cut lumber for houses, mine structures, railroad ties, and timbers to support mine roofs, leaving mine sites in the gorge typically free of vegetation. After the Nuttallburg mine closed in 1958, nature returned, but non-native plants invaded instead of native species. Kudzu, an Asian vine, became the primary invasive plant at Nuttallburg, and removing it required a monumental effort. As workers cleared the kudzu and other unwanted species, they uncovered foundations and other remnants of Nuttallburg, and native plants such as wingstem and jewelweed were restored in keeping with National Park Service efforts to remove non-native plants and maintain landscapes as they might have appeared in historic times.