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Friday, July 17, 2015

Great Smokey Mountains National Park - Cades Cove

Yesterday we took a day off from the farm and drove to  Great Smokey Mountains National Park which is located about an hour from us.  I have been wanting to visit the Great Smokey Mountains National Park (GSMNP)  since we have moved here but just never found the time to do so.  Well, we finally took the day to do so.  It was the July "Date In The Box".  The Great Smokey Mountains National Park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smokey Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, that are part of the Appalachian Mountain chain.  The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park.  GSMNP is the most visited national park in the U.S. The Appalachian Trail that runs from Maine to Georgia also passes through the center of the park.  The park was chartered by the U.S. Congress in 1934 and was officially dedicated by President Franklin D  Roosevelt in 1940.  The park is 522,419 acres making it one of the largest protected areas in the eastern U.S.  The main park entrances are located on U.S. Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road) at the towns of Gatlinburg, TN and Cherokee, NC.  It is the major tourist attraction in the area and is visited by over 9 million tourists and 11 million non-recreational visitors.  That is twice as many visitors that visit the Grand Canyon, the second most visited national park.  The two main visitor centers are Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg and Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee.  The park has a number of historical attractions.  The most well-preserved of these is Cades Cove,  which is the single most frequented destination in GSMNP.  The others are Roaring Fork, Cataloochee, Elkmont and Oconaluftee.  The park also has several trials, creeks and streams which offer an abundance of outdoor recreational activities.
We visited Cades Cove which is a valley located in the Tennessee section of GSMNP.  The valley was home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park.  It has well preserved homesteads, scenic mountain views and an abundant display of wildlife. Through out the 18th century the Cherokee used two main trails to cross the Smokies from NC to TN.  By 1797 and earlier the Cherokee had established a settlement (a seasonal hunting camp) in the flats of Cove Creek.  Henry Timberlake, an early explorer in Eastern Tennessee reported that the streams in the area were well stocked by otters but were extinct in the cove by the time the first European settlers arrived.  It was known as "Tsiya'hi" or "Otter Place".  Cades Cove was named after Tsiya'hi leader known as Chief Kade.  The Treaty of Calhoun (1819) ended all the Cherokee claims to the Smokies and Tsiya'hi was abandoned shortly thereafter.  The Cherokee would linger in the surrounding forests and would occasionally attack the settlers that were moving into the area until 1838 when they were removed to the Oklahoma Territory (the Trail of Tears).   John Oliver, a veteran of the War of 1812, and his wife Lucretia Frazier were the first permanent European settlers to Cades Cove in 1818.  They struggled over their first winter subsisting on dried pumpkin given to them by friendly  Cherokees.  In the Spring of 1819 Joshua Jobe, who convinced Oliver and his wife to settled their returned to the area.  He left for the winter but rewarded the Olivers with two milk cows to ease their complaints.  In 1821 William "Fighting Billy" Tipton, a veteran of the American Revolution and son of State Of Franklin opponent John Tipton bought up large tracts of Cades Cove which in turn sold to his sons and relatives which began the boom.  In the 1820s Peter Cable, a farmer of German descent, arrived in the cove and designed an elaborate system of dykes and sluices that helped drain the swampy lands in the western part of the cove.  Between 1820 and 1850 the population of Cades Cove grew to 671. The size of the cove farms averaged between 150 to 300 acres.  Cades Cove was a thriving community until the Civil War where its population was down and did not return until 1900.  Cades Cove residents put up the most resistance for the formation of  the Great Smokey Mountains National Park but were assured their land would not be incorporated into the park but that changed in 1927 when the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill approving money to buy the land. 
To visit Cades Cove there is an 11 mile one way loop road, with several stops to see the historical buildings and farms.  It is a great way to see what life was like during the 1800s in the Smokies.  The mountain views are amazing but we did not see much wild life during our visit.  In the summer months it can take over 4 hours to drive the 11 mile road due to the visitors and the drive can be bumper to bumper.  It was slow going in spots for us but it was worth the wait.  We will be returning to Cades Cove in the fall to hike some of the trails and to enjoy the area when it will hopefully be a little less crowded.  There is a lot to do at Great Smokey Mountains National Park so we will now be visiting a little more often.  Plan a visit to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  It is a great place to see and hang out.

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