Charlies Bunion, like most of the central crest of the Smokies, was fairly heavily forested until the 20th century. Large-scale logging operations in the Oconaluftee valley, however, left large piles of dry, dead brushwood scattered about the streambeds above Smokemont. In 1925, a massive forest fire, feeding off this dry foliage, raced up Kephart Prong, and quickly spread across the Sawteeth and over into Tennessee. The heat from the fire was so intense, it not only scorched every plant in its path, but it rendered the soil sterile. Then in 1929, a cloudburst dumped torrential rains on the Smokies, washing away the scalded soil from the western flank of the Sawteeth and giving it its current rocky appearance.