Boars

The wild boar came to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park uninvited in the early 1920s. While its population remained small, the boar was not thought a menace. Since the 1960s however, it has become obvious that the boar constitutes an ecological disaster of great proportions. In feeding, the animals move together and root up the ground or a stream bed with unbelievable thoroughness.After boars have tackled a stretch of trout stream, it looks as though a bulldozer had churned it up. Presumably they seek aquatic insects, salamanders, and even a few small fish. Salamanders are among the park’s chief biological treasures, so the boars have not endeared themselves to those who are responsible for managing wildlife here in the park.Another biological prize in these mountains is the grass bald habitat. These energetic porkers were not slow to find balds a food source, ravenously digging for June beetle larvae. The grass bald survives only by the turf’s resistance to tree invasions, so the boar and its plowing threatens the existence of these unique, and as yet incompletely understood, grass balds that are both prizes and puzzles.Over the years it has been suggested that diverse species are directly threatened by the expanding boar population. These include ground-nesting birds, yellow adder’s-tongue and other wildflowers, and possibly deer and bear.Studies are underway to determine the extent of the boar’s damage, and hence the real threat they pose. But we have no good comparative figures on the populations of other species for the years before boars arrived. Despite this lack, it has not been difficult to brand the boar a villain. But to control them has not been so easy. In good years they thrive—and gobble up more park resources.There is a food preference relationship between turkeys, deer, bear, and boars in their mutual dependence on annual acorn and hickory nut crops. The widespread chestnut blight wiped out this dependable annual crop of nuts on which bears, deer, turkeys, and other animals fed in preparation for winter before the boars arrived. Now all these species compete—and the prolific boar is a lusty competitor—for a more uncertain acorn/hickory crop.Some would cast the boar as pure villain. Others would say that people are at fault for introducing the boar into this region as an exotic species. The sport of hunting was anticipated with relish but the consequences were not considered at all. The boars have now bred with domestic pigs to such an extent that the markings vary from animal to animal. Some show definite spots, others few or none at all. Wildlife artist George Founds, who drew the boars and bear on these pages, was once a guide in this region.The woodlands rooting of the boars is impossible to miss at trailside. A person could not do as well with ax and hoe—or power tiller!The wild boar is winning the contest with park efforts to control it. Fewer than 200 are trapped or killed in a year, and even these are soon replaced by the boar’s high reproductive capabilities.Piglets are born nearly naked, so the mother builds a nest for their first week of life.

After boars have tackled a stretch of trout stream, it looks as though a bulldozer had churned it up. Presumably they seek aquatic insects, salamanders, and even a few small fish. Salamanders are among the park’s chief biological treasures, so the boars have not endeared themselves to those who are responsible for managing wildlife here in the park.

Another biological prize in these mountains is the grass bald habitat. These energetic porkers were not slow to find balds a food source, ravenously digging for June beetle larvae. The grass bald survives only by the turf’s resistance to tree invasions, so the boar and its plowing threatens the existence of these unique, and as yet incompletely understood, grass balds that are both prizes and puzzles.

Over the years it has been suggested that diverse species are directly threatened by the expanding boar population. These include ground-nesting birds, yellow adder’s-tongue and other wildflowers, and possibly deer and bear.

Studies are underway to determine the extent of the boar’s damage, and hence the real threat they pose. But we have no good comparative figures on the populations of other species for the years before boars arrived. Despite this lack, it has not been difficult to brand the boar a villain. But to control them has not been so easy. In good years they thrive—and gobble up more park resources.

There is a food preference relationship between turkeys, deer, bear, and boars in their mutual dependence on annual acorn and hickory nut crops. The widespread chestnut blight wiped out this dependable annual crop of nuts on which bears, deer, turkeys, and other animals fed in preparation for winter before the boars arrived. Now all these species compete—and the prolific boar is a lusty competitor—for a more uncertain acorn/hickory crop.

Some would cast the boar as pure villain. Others would say that people are at fault for introducing the boar into this region as an exotic species. The sport of hunting was anticipated with relish but the consequences were not considered at all. The boars have now bred with domestic pigs to such an extent that the markings vary from animal to animal. Some show definite spots, others few or none at all. Wildlife artist George Founds, who drew the boars and bear on these pages, was once a guide in this region.

The woodlands rooting of the boars is impossible to miss at trailside. A person could not do as well with ax and hoe—or power tiller!

The wild boar is winning the contest with park efforts to control it. Fewer than 200 are trapped or killed in a year, and even these are soon replaced by the boar’s high reproductive capabilities.

Piglets are born nearly naked, so the mother builds a nest for their first week of life.

Bear

Many admire the bear above all other park animals, associating it intimately with wilderness scenery. Not seeing a bear can be a disappointment. But bears are shy and secretive; about 95 percent never come near the roads here. You might be surprised that bears, classed as carnivores, are about 80 percent vegetarian. But they will eat almost anything.The sow will usually have two cubs every two years. They are born blind and hairless, no bigger than a young rabbit. In two months they will leave the den under the watchful, if indulgent, eye of a fiercely protective mother who is a stern disciplinarian. It is good training, for bears live by stealth and cunning as much as brute strength. (Scientists think bears may be almost as bright as primates.) Bears feed in summer on berries. In autumn they forage on hickory nuts and acorns to build fat reserves for the long winter they spend in the den.Bears are tree climbers (seenote on denningbelow), especially if climbing brings food within reach. Bears have been observed bending small trees double. Many they will break to get at the fruit. They may climb out on branches to get at fruit, or break the branches off and consume the fruit on the ground.The relationship of a mother bear and her cubs can be fascinating to watch. Even hard-nosed biologists must quell the urge to describe this relationship in purely human terms! The relationship is best watched at a distance, however, because the mother is fiercely protective of her young. That protective instinct can prove dangerous for the unwary hiker or backpacker. Generally, however, bears will sense you first and avoid you entirely.Cubs develop their strength and coordination in tumbling games of tag and wrestling. A cub is full grown at age 4. A bear is old by age 12. The park’s bear population varies from about 400 to 600.A few years ago it was discovered here in the Smokies that bear denning sites are frequently in hollow trees 6 to 15 meters (20 to 50 feet) above the ground. Holes near the ground (photo) are not commonly used.The intelligence of bears is often underrated. They seem to walk awkwardly, because their hindquarters are longer than their forelimbs, but they are agile and move rapidly.

The sow will usually have two cubs every two years. They are born blind and hairless, no bigger than a young rabbit. In two months they will leave the den under the watchful, if indulgent, eye of a fiercely protective mother who is a stern disciplinarian. It is good training, for bears live by stealth and cunning as much as brute strength. (Scientists think bears may be almost as bright as primates.) Bears feed in summer on berries. In autumn they forage on hickory nuts and acorns to build fat reserves for the long winter they spend in the den.

Bears are tree climbers (seenote on denningbelow), especially if climbing brings food within reach. Bears have been observed bending small trees double. Many they will break to get at the fruit. They may climb out on branches to get at fruit, or break the branches off and consume the fruit on the ground.

The relationship of a mother bear and her cubs can be fascinating to watch. Even hard-nosed biologists must quell the urge to describe this relationship in purely human terms! The relationship is best watched at a distance, however, because the mother is fiercely protective of her young. That protective instinct can prove dangerous for the unwary hiker or backpacker. Generally, however, bears will sense you first and avoid you entirely.

Cubs develop their strength and coordination in tumbling games of tag and wrestling. A cub is full grown at age 4. A bear is old by age 12. The park’s bear population varies from about 400 to 600.

A few years ago it was discovered here in the Smokies that bear denning sites are frequently in hollow trees 6 to 15 meters (20 to 50 feet) above the ground. Holes near the ground (photo) are not commonly used.

The intelligence of bears is often underrated. They seem to walk awkwardly, because their hindquarters are longer than their forelimbs, but they are agile and move rapidly.

Imagine hewing your own home out of the surrounding woodlands with just a few hand tools. Such was the life of Smokies pioneers. Today you can peer into the past at the Pioneer Farmstead beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

Rocks rose out of the sea and became mountains. Plants clothed them and animals lived among the plants, all evolving and changing over the millions of years. A few thousand years ago, a dense green mantle of giant trees covered the Smokies. Bears roamed the forest and bison followed their ages-old trails across the mountains. Beavers built dams across lowland streams, and meadows followed when the beavers moved on. Elk and deer came out of the forest to feed in the meadows and cougars and wolves hunted the elk and deer. It might have gone on this way for even more thousands of years.

But then people came. First Indians, then settlers, then the lumber companies. What was the impact of this new element, this two-legged animal? How did the forest and its life change? Is it now returning to its former state? In trying to answer these questions we may learn something about the ecological role of people not only in the Smokies but also in much of eastern North America, most of which resembled the Smokies in its forest cover when people first arrived on the scene.

For at least several thousand years groups of humans have lived in the lowlands around the Great Smokies. Use of the highlands themselves by these earlier groups was probably limited, however. Our history of peoples in the mountains begins with reports of explorers who visited the Cherokees in the late 17th and 18th centuries. They found this tribe, which is thought to have left the ancestral Iroquoian territory and moved southward about the year 1000, dispersed in small villages along foothill streams in a great arc around the Southern Appalachians. Primarily an agricultural people, the Cherokees tended fields of corn, squash, beans, melons, and tobacco around their thatched log cabins. But they also hunted and fished, and gathered wild plant materials for both food and trade. Although the mountains harbored spirits that were not entirely friendly, the Cherokees camped in coves and gaps to hunt bear and deer, to gather nuts and berries, and to gather stone for implements. Early reports from the Smokies noted the large numbers of deer, bear, and beaver skins being traded by the Cherokees. Quite possibly, they set fire to attract game and promote the growth of berry bushes, thus creating some of the mysteriousgrass balds atop the Smokies. For purposes of trade and warfare they established trails through the mountains. Such a trail across Indian Gap remained the principal cross-mountain route until early this century.

What effect did all this have on the tapestry of life in the mountains? Undoubtedly the Cherokees increased the area of open land, although some of their cropland might have been established on old beaver meadows. They may also have reduced the numbers of game and fur animals, although 18th-century travelers in the region still could be amazed at the abundance of deer, bison, beaver, cougars, and other animals. No species except the bison is known to have disappeared during the years the Cherokees had sole dominion over the land, and they may have contributed in some way to this one loss. With relatively small numbers in the Smokies, and a lack of highly destructive implements, especially guns, the Cherokees apparently changed the ecological picture only slightly in the days before contact with Europeans.

In the 1790s settlers, legally or illegally, began taking over former Cherokee land in the Smokies, beginning with two of the broader lowland valleys, the Oconaluftee and Cades Cove. As the Cherokees yielded more and more land, by treaty or to theft, settlement by the new Americans proceeded up other valleys, until by 1826 almost every watershed was occupied by at least a few families. Clearing and occupation of land continued through the 19th century, the largest concentrations developing in the Sugarlands (along the West Prong of Little Pigeon River), Greenbrier Cove, and Cataloochee, in addition to the earliest areas of settlement. In 1926, when land buying for the newly authorized park began, there were 1,200 farms and 7,300 people within the park boundaries. By this time, however, farming in the Smokies had passed its peak.

By contrast with earlier Indian inhabitants, the farmers had considerable impact on the land. Most obvious was the removal of forest to make homesites, cropland, and pastures. By 1902, eight percent of the land on the Tennessee side of the Smokies and seven percent on the North Carolina side had been cleared. As settlement proceeded up a hollow farmers were confronted with steeper and steeper slopes. The inevitable results of trying to raise corn on the sides of mountains were rapid loss of fertility and then of the soil itself, as the heavy rains leached out nutrients and washed away first the humus and then the mineral soil beneath. In this wildernesswhere virgin land was still abundant, many mountaineers simply cleared a new patch when the old one gave out. Horace Kephart, a midwesterner who lived among such farmers on the North Carolina side early in the 20th century, recorded their approach to cultivation. They would clear land and get out two or three crops of corn.

“When corn won’t grow no more I can turn the field into grass a couple of years,” Kephart’s informant says.

“Then you’ll rotate, and grow corn again?” Kephart asks, a bit ingenuously.

“La, no! By that time the land will be so poor hit wouldn’t raise a cuss-fight.”

“But then you must move, and begin all over again.” Kephart counters. “This continual moving must be a great nuisance.”

Kephart overstates the case, however, because most stayed in one house for two to three generations, or about 50 to 75 years.

Clearing and the erosion that sometimes followed were relatively local and distinct effects of settlement. Uses of uncleared forest land had widespread, but more subtle, effects. Selected white pines and yellow-poplars were cut for lumber; oaks for shingles; and hickories mostly for firewood. Other species were put to less important, miscellaneous uses. Many plants were collected for food and dyes or for medicinal purposes. Ginseng, which has a forked root highly prized in China for its supposed medicinal and aphrodisiac values, was nearly eliminated by eager “sang” diggers who sold the roots for export. Probably even more pervasive was the influence of livestock. Hogs, and sometimes cattle and sheep, were allowed to roam the forests, grazing, browsing, and rooting for a living. Mast—acorns, chestnuts, and beechnuts—formed an important part of the diet of hogs, but these omnivorous creatures ate all sorts of plants and small animals. As anyone knows who has observed a grazed woodlot, livestock can quickly impoverish the ground and shrub layers of a forest. Grazing and browsing, along with use of fire, prevented the return of forest to the grass balds. All these uses of the forest undoubtedly changed the proportions of many tree and lesser plant species in the total forest composition. Precisely how much they did so cannot now be determined.

The impact of settlement on certain wildlife species is more easily seen. Elk disappeared about the time theearliest pioneers moved in. The beaver, an easily trapped animal, was nearly gone by the end of the 19th century. Wolves and cougars, hunted because they sometimes killed livestock—and uncomfortable in the presence of people—followed soon after. Deer, bear, and turkey persisted but in much-reduced numbers, with the bears retreating to rough, wild country in the central heights. Smaller animals fared better, although such hunted species as raccoon, opossum, and gray squirrel perhaps suffered some reduction.

About 1900 a new era began, bringing the greatest shock yet to Great Smokies ecosystems. Large lumber companies, having logged off the big timber of New England and the Great lakes states, turned their attention to the virgin stands of the Southern Appalachians. Setting up sawmills at the fringes of the mountains, they rapidly worked their way up the coves, just as Cherokees and settlers had done before them. Railroads, built to carry logs to the mills, were extended upstream as cutting progressed. In some watersheds, such as those of the Little River, Big Creek, and the Oconaluftee, nearly all species of trees were taken. In others, such as Abrams Creek, West Prong of the Little Pigeon, and Cataloochee, cutting was selective. By the late 1920s, logging, added to settlement practices, had at least partially cleared more than 60 percent of the land in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Though for a time it proved an economic boon, logging was easily the most destructive form of land use the region was ever subjected to. The removal of forest cover and the skidding of logs down steep mountainsides caused widespread erosion. This weakened the foundation for regrowth and clogged streams with sediment, thereby reducing their quality for sustaining aquatic life. In the wake of logging came forest fires, probably the worst these mountains have seen. Heaps of dried branches trimmed from logs made perfect tinder for fires started by engine sparks, careless matches, or lightning strikes. In the 1920s disastrous fires roared up the East Prong of Little River, up Forney Creek to Clingmans Dome, and over the slopes around Charlies Bunion. Scars from some of these fires have still not healed today.

What was the net biological effect of the presence of people in the mountains in 1926, the year Congress authorized Great Smoky Mountains National Park? Broadly speaking, the forest and its animals had been diminished but the plants and animals of grassland andbrush had increased. The gray wolf was gone but the meadowlark had arrived. In 1930 the American people inherited lands that were still about 40 percent virgin forest, the largest such chunk of forest left in the East. The rest of the park was a patchwork of uncut forest, young second growth, and openings dotted with houses and barns and fringed with stone walls and fences. The park therefore preserved much of the primeval splendor of the Smokies, but the activities of people would long remain visible in it, and some of these would deliberately be maintained as part of the region’s historical heritage.

Today most of the former fields, except those such as Cades Cove that are purposely kept open, have returned to forest. But it is still easy to recognize these grown-over fields by the types of trees on them. Many bear a nearly solid stand of straight-stemmed yellow-poplars. Others are marked by a dense growth of pines. Dr. Randolph Shields, who grew up in Cades Cove and became chairman of the biology department at nearby Maryville College, has watched the plant succession on old fields in the Cove since about 1930. He has found there that pines usually are the first trees to spring up among the grasses, herbs, and blackberries and other shrubs that follow field abandonment. On moist ground, yellow-poplars usually come up under the pines, but sometimes hemlock and white pine form a second tree stage under the pioneering Virginia or pitch pines. Where yellow-poplars come in, they usually shade out the light-loving pines in about 40 years. Gradually the many species of the cove forest become established under the yellow-poplars, presaging the mixed stand of big trees that will complete the cycle initiated by clearing the land. On the drier slopes it may take about 100 years for the pines to be shaded out by the red maples, oaks, and hickories that eventually become dominant in such areas.

As you might expect, animal life changes with the progression of plant succession. Meadowlarks, bobwhites, woodchucks, and cottontails are replaced by red-eyed vireos, wood thrushes, chipmunks, and white-footed mice as grassland and shrubs give way to forest. With age and woodpecker activity, tree cavities develop in the forest, providing homes for an additional complement of animals such as screech owls, flying squirrels, raccoons, bears, and opossums.

Under the protection accorded by its designation as a national park several animals have made a dramatic comeback in the Smokies. Bears once again roam theentire mountain area. Turkeys are frequently seen in such places as Cades Cove, where openings break the mantle of forest. In recent years sporadic beaver activity has been noted in the park. Even cougars are occasionally reported, although their presence has not been conclusively established. But wolves, elk, and bison—animals that symbolize the Indian’s America—probably cannot be brought back.

Nature again reigns supreme in the Smokies. We may never see here the numbers of wildlife that surprised the first explorers, but we can see remnants of the giant-treed forests that greeted them, and we can marvel at the undulating expanse of green, a beautiful suggestion of the vast hardwood forest that once cloaked eastern America.

Milas Messer dresses or curries a hide in the drying shed at his farm on Cove Creek.

A great part of the Great Smokies story is the story of men and women making their homes in these wooded eastern mountains. With few tools and even fewer manufactured fixtures and fasteners, pioneers settled in and became mountaineers.Industry—hard work, that is—and ingenuity came in handy. Many aspects of these traits are illustrated in this section through historic photographs of men and women going about their business in the Smokies. It was not all hard work, but even the play often exhibited these folk’s ingenuity in turning the things of field and forest into implements of recreation.For more insight into the lives of Smokies people, see the National Park Service book,Highland Homeland: The People of the Great Smokies, by Wilma Dykeman and Jim Stokely. It is sold in the park visitor centers and by mail (see “Armchair Explorations” onpage 125).Fitting barrel to stockChiseling a tub mill wheelCooperingInterior of a millHauling woodBeekeepingRolling sorghum caneRepairing a hauling sledSplitting shinglesHog butcheringScrubbing a hideShaving barrel stavesGunsmithingBasket weavingBlacksmithingMountain laundryChurning butterCarding woolWeaving yarn into clothGinning cottonMaking basketsWash day

Industry—hard work, that is—and ingenuity came in handy. Many aspects of these traits are illustrated in this section through historic photographs of men and women going about their business in the Smokies. It was not all hard work, but even the play often exhibited these folk’s ingenuity in turning the things of field and forest into implements of recreation.

For more insight into the lives of Smokies people, see the National Park Service book,Highland Homeland: The People of the Great Smokies, by Wilma Dykeman and Jim Stokely. It is sold in the park visitor centers and by mail (see “Armchair Explorations” onpage 125).

Fitting barrel to stock

Chiseling a tub mill wheel

Coopering

Interior of a mill

Hauling wood

Beekeeping

Rolling sorghum cane

Repairing a hauling sled

Splitting shingles

Hog butchering

Scrubbing a hide

Shaving barrel staves

Gunsmithing

Basket weaving

Blacksmithing

Mountain laundry

Churning butter

Carding wool

Weaving yarn into cloth

Ginning cotton

Making baskets

Wash day

Pioneer Farmstead

What kind of people were the Smokies pioneers? Part of the answer awaits you at the Pioneer Farmstead next to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the North Carolina side of the park. The farmstead buildings suggest an independent people who were hardworking, laboring spring, summer, and fall to prepare for the coming winter.This is a typical Southern Appalachian pioneer farm. The life style of earlier years is demonstrated by people in period dress here from May through October. A few animals roam the farm-yard and the garden produces traditional crops. In the fall sorghum cane may be pressed to make sorghum molasses. Inside the cabin—you can poke your head through its open doors and windows—traditional breads may be baking, or a quilt be patching, or wool a-spinning. And don’t forget to notice the fieldstone chimneys, the squared logs’ careful notchings, and the handsplit wooden “shakes” up on the roof.Field workJust up the road is Mingus Mill, an excellent example of a turbine-powered gristmill. Amiller is often on hand May through October to answer your questions about how waterpower was used to produce cornmeal and flour. You might even be able to purchase some of the cornmeal or the flour ground right at the mill. Wheat is harder than corn and requires harder stone to grind it. Millstones for grinding wheat in this area were imported from France. The stones used for grinding corn were cut domestically.WheelwrightChickenA commercial mill the size of Mingus Mill would generally be built by a specially skilled carpenter known as a millwright, a term which has taken broader meaning today.

This is a typical Southern Appalachian pioneer farm. The life style of earlier years is demonstrated by people in period dress here from May through October. A few animals roam the farm-yard and the garden produces traditional crops. In the fall sorghum cane may be pressed to make sorghum molasses. Inside the cabin—you can poke your head through its open doors and windows—traditional breads may be baking, or a quilt be patching, or wool a-spinning. And don’t forget to notice the fieldstone chimneys, the squared logs’ careful notchings, and the handsplit wooden “shakes” up on the roof.

Field work

Just up the road is Mingus Mill, an excellent example of a turbine-powered gristmill. Amiller is often on hand May through October to answer your questions about how waterpower was used to produce cornmeal and flour. You might even be able to purchase some of the cornmeal or the flour ground right at the mill. Wheat is harder than corn and requires harder stone to grind it. Millstones for grinding wheat in this area were imported from France. The stones used for grinding corn were cut domestically.

Wheelwright

Chicken

A commercial mill the size of Mingus Mill would generally be built by a specially skilled carpenter known as a millwright, a term which has taken broader meaning today.

Cades Cove

Cades Cove preserves the image of the early settlers’ self-sufficient life style in the Smokies. It was not all romance. Cades Cove itself is expansive, level, idyllic farmland, which hardly describes most of the Smokies. Cades Cove is today an open air museum. Here are the beautifully restored and picturesque Elijah Oliver cabin; the still-operated Cable Mill grinding flour with water power; and numerous churches, houses, and cabins. At Cable Mill are many artifacts of past agricultural practices from throughout the Smokies. The largely self-sufficient agricultural economy here came to an end with the advent of logging about 1900.SpinningChurch building and graveyardBy 1920, most Smokies residents were linked to a cash economy, to manufactured items and store-bought foods. But Cades Cove preserves glimpses of the pioneer ingenuity that wresteda living from the landscape. Preserved with the cabins here are many ingenious devices such as effective door latches simply fashioned from local wood.In 1850 Cades Cove supported 685 people in 132 families. Most originally came from Virginia via routes followed today by Interstate 81 and U.S. 411. A treaty in 1819 transferred the Cades Cove from Cherokee to State of Tennessee ownership. Settlers traded in what is now Townsend, and in Maryville and Knoxville.A delightful 18-kilometer (11-mile) one-way loop road unfolds the quiet pleasures of Cades Cove to you. This is a popular route with bikers because it is so scenic—and not so arduous. Periodically the loop road is closed to motor vehicles for the sake of bicyclists. Early farmers were quick to appreciate the same level aspect of the cove that appeals to today’s cyclist.Barn and wagon

Spinning

Church building and graveyard

By 1920, most Smokies residents were linked to a cash economy, to manufactured items and store-bought foods. But Cades Cove preserves glimpses of the pioneer ingenuity that wresteda living from the landscape. Preserved with the cabins here are many ingenious devices such as effective door latches simply fashioned from local wood.

In 1850 Cades Cove supported 685 people in 132 families. Most originally came from Virginia via routes followed today by Interstate 81 and U.S. 411. A treaty in 1819 transferred the Cades Cove from Cherokee to State of Tennessee ownership. Settlers traded in what is now Townsend, and in Maryville and Knoxville.

A delightful 18-kilometer (11-mile) one-way loop road unfolds the quiet pleasures of Cades Cove to you. This is a popular route with bikers because it is so scenic—and not so arduous. Periodically the loop road is closed to motor vehicles for the sake of bicyclists. Early farmers were quick to appreciate the same level aspect of the cove that appeals to today’s cyclist.

Barn and wagon

Lacrosse field

The Cherokee nation was settled in the shadow of the Smokies. “The place of the blue smoke,” they called the mountains in their heartland, and so the Smokies have become named. Myth, ritual, and religion bound the Cherokees closely to the land. Ironically, they enjoyed a sophisticated culture very similar to the white culture that would so cruelly supplant them. They were agrarian and democratic, and they believed in one god. They lived in mud-and-log cabins, women sharing tribal governance, and men sharing household duties.Family and cabinBasketmakingThe Cherokees rapidly adopted governmental features of the invading culture. They adopted a written legal code in 1808. Within a dozen years they had divided their nation into judicial districts with designated judges. Two years later they had established the Supreme Court of thefeat. Within just two years of its adoption,The Cherokee Phoenixnewspaper was published and most Cherokee-speakers could read and write! But the white people had an insatiable appetite for land. Treaty after treaty was made and broken. The fatal blow was the discovery of gold in 1828 near the Cherokee villages in northern Georgia. Within a few years all their land was confiscated. The infamous “Trail of Tears” came with passage of the 1830 Removal Act.WomanSome 13,000 Cherokees were forced to march to Oklahoma: 25 percent died en route. Not all left, however, and some soon returned. Today the eastern band of Cherokees lives on the Cherokee Reservation on the park’s North Carolina side.

Family and cabin

Basketmaking

The Cherokees rapidly adopted governmental features of the invading culture. They adopted a written legal code in 1808. Within a dozen years they had divided their nation into judicial districts with designated judges. Two years later they had established the Supreme Court of thefeat. Within just two years of its adoption,The Cherokee Phoenixnewspaper was published and most Cherokee-speakers could read and write! But the white people had an insatiable appetite for land. Treaty after treaty was made and broken. The fatal blow was the discovery of gold in 1828 near the Cherokee villages in northern Georgia. Within a few years all their land was confiscated. The infamous “Trail of Tears” came with passage of the 1830 Removal Act.

Woman

Some 13,000 Cherokees were forced to march to Oklahoma: 25 percent died en route. Not all left, however, and some soon returned. Today the eastern band of Cherokees lives on the Cherokee Reservation on the park’s North Carolina side.

The Cades Cove loop drive is reserved for bicyclists certain hours each week. Its level demeanor looks like heaven if you have biked across the mountains.

A low sun casts fencepost shadows on a Cades Cove road. The relatively flat cove was premium farmland. Geologically, the cove floor is limestone, younger than the rocks forming surrounding ridges. The Rich Mountain mass skidded across what is now the cove as the Smokies range was being formed.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee boundary for about 110 kilometers (70 miles). It is accessible by car from the Interstate highways encircling it as they connect the Tennessee cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga with Asheville, North Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; and Atlanta, Georgia. The Blue Ridge Parkway reaches its southern terminus here on the park’s North Carolina side. Major gateways to the park are Cherokee and Bryson City, North Carolina, and the cities of Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Townsend, and Cosby, in Tennessee. These urban areas with their tourist services are connected by Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441), the only park road that crosses the mountains. It is closed to commercial vehicles.

The National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, is responsible for the management of the park. The superintendent’s address is Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738. Telephone (615) 436-5615. Park headquarters is located 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) south of Gatlinburg, on the Newfound Gap Road.

Maps, guides, and information on routes, points of interest, accommodations, and services are available from several sources. For a Tennessee highway map write to the Department of Transportation, Nashville, Tennessee 37243-0349, or telephone (615) 741-2331. For Tennessee vacation information write to Department of Tourist Development, P.O. Box 23170, Nashville, Tennessee 37202, or telephone (615) 741-2158.

For a North Carolina highway map write to Travel and Tourism Division, 430 No. Salisbury, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603, or telephone (919) 733-4171. The division distributes several brochures on North Carolina vacations, recreation, and special events; specify your interest in the Smokies. TheNorth Carolina Outdoorsbooklet lists areas and facilities, including private campgrounds, keyed to the official highway map.

Great Smoky Mountains National ParkHigh-resolution Map

Chambers of commerce offer trip information:

Pigeon Forge Chamber of CommerceP.O. Box 1390Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37868800-251-9100 or (615) 453-8574.

Pigeon Forge Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 1390

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee 37868

800-251-9100 or (615) 453-8574.

Gatlinburg Chamber of CommerceP.O. Box 527Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738800-822-1998 or (615) 436-4178.

Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 527

Gatlinburg, Tennessee 37738

800-822-1998 or (615) 436-4178.

Townsend Chamber of CommerceTownsend, Tennessee 37882.

Townsend Chamber of Commerce

Townsend, Tennessee 37882.

Cosby Chamber of CommerceCosby, Tennessee 37722.

Cosby Chamber of Commerce

Cosby, Tennessee 37722.

Cherokee Chamber of CommerceP.O. Box 460Cherokee, North Carolina 28719(704) 497-9195.

Cherokee Chamber of Commerce

P.O. Box 460

Cherokee, North Carolina 28719

(704) 497-9195.

Bryson City Chamber of CommerceBryson City, North Carolina 28713(704) 488-3681.

Bryson City Chamber of Commerce

Bryson City, North Carolina 28713

(704) 488-3681.

Lodging and supplies are available in Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Sevierville, Townsend, Maryville, Bryson City, Cherokee, and other Tennessee and North Carolina towns surrounding the park. No public transportation serves the national park. Major airlines serve Knoxville, Tennessee and Asheville, North Carolina, where cars may be rented.

National Park Service Visitor Centers are located just inside the park on both the North Carolina and Tennessee sides. On the Tennessee side the Sugarlands Visitor Center is 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) south of Gatlinburg. The Cades Cove Visitor Center (closed in winter) is located in the Cable Mill area of the Cades Cove Loop Road. On the North Carolina side the Oconaluftee Visitor Center is 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) north of Cherokee.

If you plan to be in the park just a few hours or up to several days, you will do yourself a favor by checking out a visitor center. Museum displays give you a quick and interesting insight into both nature and history in the park. At Sugarlands there is a free movie. Books, maps, and other publications are offered for sale in the visitor centers and free park folders are available. These resources—and the people working the information desks—can help you plan your stay in the park within the time limits you must meet.

The Great Smokies is a large park whose diverse features are separated by significant driving times. Park employees can help you use your time to best advantage.

Visitor centers also offer restroom facilities, drinking water, and a mail drop and they sell film for your convenience. Here you can get backpacking information and apply for a backcountry use permit. (See section onBackcountry Use.) Visitor center bulletin boards carry information on road conditions, urgent contact requests, and interpretive programs.

Visitor centers are open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the winter, with extended hours of operation in the spring, summer, and fall. The Cades Cove Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from mid-April to late November.

Guided walks and evening programs are conducted by the National Park Service throughout the park. Most of these start or take place at the visitor centers and at campground amphitheaters. The uniformed park employees who render these services are trained in the natural history and/or history of the Great Smokies. They give you excellent vignettes of the park’s nature and its historical period of Indianand mountaineer life and the opportunity to ask questions. You, for instance, might enjoy a short nature walk up a burbling Smokies stream and so learn about the more than 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) of streams in the park. Schedules of these activities and programs are posted at the visitor centers and on campground bulletin boards. A copy of the schedule is inGuide to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is available free at any visitor center, ranger station, or campground.

Sugarlands Visitor Center (above) in Tennessee and Oconaluftee Visitor Center in North Carolina (below), are the best places to begin your park trip. Exhibits explain the natural and human history of the Great Smokies. A free park folder is available, books and maps are sold, and you can check the posted schedule of activities being offered.

Oconaluftee Visitor Center

Live demonstrations of mountain life skills and folkways are also provided periodically (spring through October) at places such as the Pioneer Farmstead beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and the nearby Mingus Mill, or at the Cable Mill in Cades Cove. You even might be able to buy cornmeal freshly ground just as it was a century or more ago.

Self-guiding nature trails have been laid out throughout the park. Look for these marked trails near campgrounds, visitor centers, and picnic areas. Most are easy walks of 1.5 kilometers (a mile) or less which take you through former farmsteads now returning to forest, groves of the world-famous cove hardwoods, reclaimed logged-over lands, or other aspects of the park. Trails are well marked and seldom difficult. At the trail’s start look for a container offering a descriptive brochure for sale on the honor system.

Two self-guiding motor nature trails lead you through impressive areas of the park in the comfort and convenience of your own vehicle. Near Gatlinburg, off the Cherokee Orchard Road, is the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Its scenic route takes you by several restored pioneer buildings. The Cades Cove Loop Road is an 18-kilometer (11-mile) drive through the pleasant scenery of Cades Cove. Here you getpleasant vistas out across the cove where you may well see deer grazing against a mountain backdrop. The fields recall the rural scene of many years ago. A brochure available at the start of the loop describes points along the way that are designated by numbered signs. At several points you can park your car and visit preserved farm structures, both log and frame, and churches and cemeteries. Partway through the loop is a small visitor center and the restored Cable Mill. Associated restored buildings here display farm implements once used for valley and mountain farming in this region.

Guided interpretive programs are offered largely in summer. Check the current schedule at the visitor centers or on campground bulletin boards.

Evening campground programs offer interesting free family entertainment. Try the many interpretive programs offered at park campgrounds in the evenings throughout the week. Check bulletin boards for the schedules.

The three most often asked questions in the park are: Where can I fish? Where can I camp? and What about the bears? Some evening programs cover the bears in detail and you will learn about unusual denning habits in the Smokies. All evening programs are offered for the general public by trained National Park Service interpreters. You will enjoy them no matter how much, or how little, you know about the topic. And you are free to ask questions, knowing they will be taken seriously.

Evening programs cover such topics as the pioneer life, wildlife, hiking, and the incredible botanical story of the Smokies. There are programs on the “preserve and protect” philosophy of how the park is managed, and exploring the park. For the adventurous there are “night prowls,” guided experiences after dark to sample the sights, sounds, and odors of the night forest.

Quiet walkways provide short walks on easy grades. They usually begin at parking areas that accommodate no more than two cars, so crowds are excluded. This is a nice way to experience the naturalness of the Smokies in walks not exceeding 0.5 kilometers (0.3 miles).

They still grind corn sometimes by the old water-driven methods at the restored Mingus Mill, just up the road from the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

But school’s in session at Little Greenbrier only for the sake of people who come to the park to see what life was like in the Smokies a couple of generations back. These living history demonstrations are sometimes offered in summer at various parts of the park. Check schedules at a visitor center or campground.

A few comments may save time and open new vistas for your driving in the Smokies. Within just an hour’s drive of each other here are climatic differences created by elevation. You can drive through the spruce-fir forests typical of Maine up near Clingmans Dome in late morning and be driving through lush southern hardwoods back near Sugarlands or Oconaluftee in early afternoon.

The roads are designed for scenic driving. There are numerous turnouts and parking areas at viewpoints or historic sites.

Traffic, winding roads, and the scenery conspire to making driving time more important than distance here in the park. Figure about twice the time to drive a given distance that you would for normal highways. Be on the alert for unexpected driving behavior from others—they may be under the influence of the scenery! Gasoline is not sold in the park, so check your gauge. Remember that winter storms may close the Newfound Gap and Little River Roads.

The main road in the park is the Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) between Gatlinburg and Cherokee. It is the only road across the mountains. Along it and at the Newfound Gap Parking Area you will get some of the best scenic high-mountain vistas in the park—and on the East Coast, for that matter. If you want to go still higher you can drive up the Clingmans Dome Road from Newfound Gap and walk up to the observation tower. Here you are at the highest point in the national park, and the third highest east of the Rockies. The reward is a 360-degree panorama of the sea of peaks for which the Smokies (and Natahalas and Unakas and ...) are famous. Clingmans DomeRoad is a deadend spur off the Newfound Gap Road at the crest of the Smokies.

If you want to sample the Blue Ridge Parkway and also enjoy some beautiful mountain scenery from right up in it, try the Balsam Mountain Road, which leaves the parkway between Oconaluftee and Soco Gap. It winds for 14.5 kilometers (9 miles) back into the national park’s Balsam Mountain Campground. Incredible azalea displays will dazzle you here in season. If you are adventurous and want to try a mountain dirt road, continue past the campground to the Heintooga Picnic Area and the start of the Round Bottom Road (closed during winter). This is a 22.5-kilometer (14-mile), partially one-way, unpaved road that descends the mountain to the river valley below and joins the Big Cove Road in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. You come out right below Oconaluftee at the edge of the park.

Another view of the Smokies awaits you along the Little River Road leading from Sugarlands to Cades Cove. The road lies on the old logging railroad bed for a distance along the Little River. (The curves suggest these were not fast trains!) Spur roads lead off to Elkmont and Tremont deeper in the park, and to Townsend and Wear Cove, towns outside the park. Little River Road becomes the Laurel Creek Road and takes you on into Cades Cove where you can take the one-way 18-kilometer (11-mile) loop drive and observe the historic mountain setting of early settlers. If you are returning to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge from Cades Cove, try exiting the park toward Townsend and driving the beautiful Wear Cove Road back to U.S. 441 at the north end of Pigeon Forge.

Perhaps the most bucolic scenes in the Smokies are to be seen from the Foothills Parkway between Interstate 40 and Route 32 near Cosby, around the northeast tip of the park. Here you look out across beautiful farmland with the whole mass of the Smokies rising as its backdrop.

Other interesting drives in the park are the Rich Mountain Road, Parsons Branch Road (both closed in winter), and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. At the west end of the park there is another section of the Foothills Parkway between Chilhowee and Walland. The parkway is administered by the National Park Service. A small leaflet, “Auto Touring,” is available for a small charge at any of the three visitor centers.

Right beside the Oconaluftee Visitor Center as you enter the North Carolina side of the park is the Pioneer Farmstead, a restored small farm along the Oconaluftee River. As you leave the visitor center headed toward the mountains, Mingus Mill Parking Area soon appears on your left. The turbine-powered gristmill used water power to grind cornmeal and flour. Its millrace leaves a lively creek and spills toward the mill under arching mountain-laurel. Stones used to grind wheat came from France. Cornmeal stones were of local origin. Mingus Mill is open from May through October and a miller is usually on hand to answer your questions.

On the North Carolina side of the park limited restored structures are also found at Cataloochee.

The Cable Mill area in Cades Cove presents the largest group of restored structures on the Tennessee side of the park. Farming is still permitted in Cades Cove itself to preserve the open fields of the rural scene there. The 18-kilometer (11-mile) loop drive through Cades Cove takes you by numerous log and frame structures. The Elijah Oliver place is a particularly beautiful log structure with outbuildings in a cozy, shaded setting. The stream flowing through Elijah Oliver’s springhouse once kept his milk supply cool.

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