Heavy forests extending down the hills from Watch Mountain overshadow the highway. Today, these hills are mostly logged off. In the surrounding hills backwoods people from Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee have settled. Their nasal drawl and old-fashioned Anglicisms, their primitive shacks, and packs of hounds, their wild abandon at Saturday night dances in the valley, and fervent evangelistic sermons on Sundays, give the region a strong frontier flavor.

Money never being too plentiful, the members of the community church pay their tithes by working “a spell” on the pastor’s farm. “Gatherins” are held about the valley at regular intervals, where gossip and commodities are traded with God’s blessings.

The mountain was named by pioneer J. T. Chilcoat, for a large watch which he lost on the peak. It is reported to have once been the only timepiece in Randle.