Attractions / Activities
Gatlinburg History / Interests
Historical Summary
Gatlinburg, surrounded on three sides by the majestic Great Smoky Mountains National Park, has evolved from a rural hamlet to a thriving gateway community in less than a century. First named White Oak Flats, for the abundant white oak trees in the valley, it was settled in the early 1800s by English, Scotch, Irish, and Scotch-Irish immigrants. The Ogles, Huskeys, McCarters, Reagans, and Whaleys were the first to settle the valley of the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River and its tributaries. Most heads of households were Revolutionary War veterans, come to claim title to 50 acre tracts of land allotted to each for their patriotic service. It is believed that a middle-aged widow, Martha Jane Huskey Ogle, was the first official settler here. She came with her family to start a new life in what her late husband had described as a"Land of Paradise" in East Tennessee. The first homesteads were located at the mouths of Baskins Creek, Le Conte Creek (then called Mill Creek for its numerous grist mills), and Roaring Fork where each joined the Little Pigeon River. In the following decades, Maples, Trenthams, Ownbys, Clabos, Oakleys, Kings, Cardwells, Bohannons, and other families took up residence along streams, hollows, and up mountain sides., Radford C. Gatlin came here in 1855 and opened the village's second store. Although Gatlin was a controversial figure, who was eventually banished from the community, the city still bears his name. As a self-contained, subsistence community the "Burg" changed little in its first hundred years. When the Civil War erupted, a number of locals joined the Union, and a few the Confederacy, but in general, the mountain people tried to remain neutral. Although only one Civil War skirmish was fought here, countless raids were made upon the area by both sides to gather vital resources needed to sustain the war efforts. As with much of the South, deprivation and hardship persisted in the area long after the war. Education came here in the form of subscription schools (where parents paid for each child) in the early 1800s. The first public school was established around the time of the Civil War, and finally a settlement school was created by the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity in 1912. This latter institution not only provided academic and practical education for area children, it also contributed to a rebirth of Appalachian arts and crafts and the so called "cottage craft industry," movement. Timbering began replacing subsistence farming in the early 1900s. In fact, Gatlinburg's first hotel was built to accommodate traveling lumber buyers. With the coming of the national park and the first wave of tourism, the area's economy began to pick up. Many of the mountain families, displaced by the park, moved into town, taking jobs in the new hotels, eateries, and service facilities that sprang up to cater to a burgeoning tourist industry. World War II slowed progress, but at its end, the tourists came back with a vengeance, and the sleepy little village of Gatlinburg expanded to meet the demands. Incorporated in 1945, it has since developed into a four-season resort and convention Mecca.
Alfred Reagan Home
Alfred Reagan's homestead was quite different from that of his neighbor, Eph Bales, but the two properties had some things in common. Besides being a farmer, Reagan was a Jack of all trades. As a craftsman, he made furniture (including coffins at no cost to neighbors) and was an accomplished blacksmith. He was a shrewd business man who owned and operated a store; he even preached at times in a church he helped construct on land he donated for that purpose. His home was larger and fancier than many in this valley, weather boarded or planked and painted in three shades of Sears & Roebuck's best colors. You can see the home today along with a restored tub mill, a structure more commonly associated with the larger homes in these mountains.
In 1945, Pi Beta Phi, in conjunction with the University of Tennessee, established a summer program of craft workshops. This program eventually became the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts located here on the old Pi Beta Phi Settlement School grounds. The program has grown considerably; it now offers year-round classes and workshops for college credit. The classrooms, once used for elementary and high school education and vocational training, have been transformed into studio space for arts and crafts classes, food and lodging services, and facilities for administration and maintenance. 556 Parkway.
An arts and crafts program was established at Pi Beta Phi Settlement School in 1915 to encourage the production of rustic, handmade items once produced by the mountain people as part of their everyday lives. This was the genesis of the arts and crafts revival that gave rise to "cottage craft industries." The effort enabled the mountain people to make baskets, brooms, quilts, fabrics, furniture, and other items at home for sale to an ever-broadening and appreciative audience. The art of weaving on hand looms was revived here, at Berea College in Kentucky, and at a number of schools in North Carolina in the 1920s. Since this movement began, the area around Gatlinburg has become known as the crafts capital of the U. S. This shop, established in 1926, was Gatlinburg's first outlet for the sale of these items. Arrowmont Campus.
Bales Cemetery
Bales Cemetery, dating from 1881 (or 1887) was established on the farmstead of Caleb and Elizabeth Reagan Bales. Family burials include mostly Bales, Ogles, and Reagans. The cemetery also includes the buried leg of Giles Reagan. He lost his leg in a sawmill accident and insisted it be given a proper Christian interment.
Campbells of Campbell Lead
This long ridge is located on the northwest edge of Gatlinburg with Chalet Village on the southwest end and Greystone Heights on the northeast. Campbell Lead Road passes the old home place of Tom and Sophia Campbell, which overlooked Gatlinburg, long before the road was built. In fact, for lack of a road, when "Aunt" Sophia died, her casket had to be hand carried down the mountain by Civilian Conservation Corps boys. Tom and "Aunt" Sophia were typical mountain people and she smoked hand made pipes. Sometimes a tourist would talk her out of one of her treasured homemade pipes and she would slip another treasured pipe from her stash, the tourist never the wiser. Like many other mountain people in this area, they lived a simple but good life. They never knew they were poor. Having never had the luxury of indoor plumbing, they didn't miss it. No specific site, see Campbell Lead Road on Map.
Cardwell Mill & Manufacturing
At the junction of Roaring Fork and the Little Pigeon River, there once stood the Cardwell Mill and Manufacturing Company, also called the "Do Little Factory." Built just after the Civil War, at the present site of the Terrace Motel, it was the city's first sizable manufacturing enterprise and survived into the 1930s. Besides grinding rye, wheat, and corn, its owners Napoleon and Clisby Cardwell built quality furniture and coffins. When Wiley Oakley was forced to abandon his home in the new national park, he moved his family to a rented house across from the mill at the site of Wallace Zoder's Motel. Lucinda Ogle, Wiley's daughter, recalls a time in the early 1920s when she and her brothers amused themselves by floating along the Little Pigeon River in some of the mill's left over Egyptian-style coffins. Then the flood of 1923 washed the coffins downstream to Pigeon Forge and Sevierville, causing quite a stir. Thinking that a cemetery had washed away upstream, people tried in vain to recover the bodies. Lucinda and her husband Earnest Ogle constructed a new home across the parkway in 1939. This structure now houses Morton Antiques. 396 Parkway.
Cherokee Orchard
John H. Whaley owned considerable acreage in the area that later became Cherokee Orchard. At that time, the area was called Bullhead, either for John's nickname "Bullhead," or possibly for a sub peak of Mount Le Conte (named for its resemblance to a male buffalo's head). John planted the first apple trees in the Cherokee Orchard area. The Cherokee Orchard and Nursery Co. was established on the lower western flank of Mt. Le Conte. Around 1933, its 796 acres were acquired from two brothers, Will and Matt Whittle, for inclusion in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At the time there were about 6,800 apple trees, representing some 47 varieties, growing there along with Virginia boxwoods, eastern hemlocks, azaleas, andromedas, and other nursery stock. When acquired, the NPS gave the new nursery 30 years to abandon the orchard in increments of one third of the land per decade. Each season the fruit was picked and shipped to market until the orchard was relinquished in 1963. Although the once-thriving fruit trees and other ornamentals were overtaken by weeds, vines, and finally the forest itself, one can still find stunted and gnarled apple trees producing small, wormy (but still tasty) apples.
The Civil War in Gatlinburg
Although pro-Union at heart, most people around Gatlinburg tried to avoid involvement in the Civil War. Gatlinburg's only Civil War skirmish occurred in 1863. Confederate forces patrolled the Alum Cave Bluff area, on the southeast side of Mt. Le Conte, where saltpeter was mined for manufacturing gunpowder. These troops, under Col. William H. Thomas (called the Thomas Legion) included Cherokees and some North Carolina mountain men. Fearing Union troops might attack their mining operation; Thomas constructed a blockhouse and about 15 frame huts on "Burg Hill" above what is now the intersection of the Parkway and U. S. 321. On December 9, 1863, two companies of Federal troops approached Gatlinburg, the cavalry via Fighting Creek Gap and the infantry through Pigeon Forge. They met and encamped along the Little Pigeon River just outside the city. The next morning the union forces formed a line from the river to White Oak Flats Cemetery and quickly advanced on the Confederate stronghold. Finding themselves out maneuvered and possibly outnumbered, Thomas's Legion retreated, leaving everything behind, including Thomas' hat. After this encounter, the Indians probably returned to their reservation for good. Before leaving Gatlinburg, the Federal troops burned the huts on Burg Hill but left the blockhouse and its stores of food and other items to the hungry locals. Unfortunately, Confederate guerrillas returned to burn the blockhouse and its contents, allegedly to keep it out of enemy hands. 458 Parkway.
This landmark building graced the Parkway in Gatlinburg from 1933 until it was moved here in 1997. It was designed and constructed by Louis Jones, whose impressionist and realist paintings have captured the imagination of tourists and art collectors through the years. Jones, a prolific painter, came to Gatlinburg from Woodstock, New York, and was tireless in his efforts to capture the haunting beauty and spirit of this area until his death in 1958. He was the first artist to make a living selling paintings of the Smoky Mountains and the Cliff Dwellers Shop was his studio, gallery, and home. Jones donated the land above his shop for construction of Gatlinburg's First Methodist Church. He also left an endowment that provides various scholarships as well as a $100 annual award for the local high school student who writes the best essay on the beauty of the Smokies. Artist Jim Gray acquired this structure and had it moved and reconstructed here in the Great Smokies Arts and Crafts Community. It is presently owned and operated by a group of professional artists as a cooperative gallery. 668 Glades Rd.
Ephram Bales Home
This cabin is typical of those constructed by other so called "hard scrabble" farmers in these mountains in the late 1800s. It was called a dog-trot cabin because it was actually two cabins connected by a porch through which the dogs often ran. Eph Bales and his wife raised nine children in this structure. Life was hard and privacy hard to come by. He raised pigs and chickens and cultivated corn, beans, potatoes, and other crops literally between the rocks of his 70 acre hillside farm. The cabin, as well as his barn and corn crib (storage house) has been restored by the park service as a demonstration farmstead on Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail.
First Baptist Church
Religion was important to the settlers and before they had church buildings, they held services outside or in homes. Although this area was settled by Presbyterians, their first church was Baptist. History records that the White Oak Flats "arm" of the Sevierville Baptist Church convened in the early 1800s on Baskins Creek, probably at the present location of the Ogle cabin. Under the guidance of the Reverend Richard Evans, a second church was built on River Road near the mouth of Mill (now Le Conte) Creek, and in 1837, they formed a new church and called it White Oak Flats Baptist. The congregation then met in a log cabin on Baskins Creek which also served as a school. The first frame church building was constructed in 1875, at the corner of the Parkway and Baskins Creek Road (see historic plaque on the sidewalk). The congregation changed its name to Gatlinburg Baptist Church in 1932; in 1951, they constructed a landmark stone church at the same location. As businesses crowded around them, First Baptist moved, in 1991, to its present location on U. S. Highway 321, east of downtown. Arrowmont Campus.
The First Clinic
This frame building, called the "Watson House," is believed to have served as Gatlinburg's first medical clinic. The cottage was built by Andrew Ogle in 1910, who moved his family here from the original (Martha Jane Huskey) Ogle cabin. Opening in 1922, it served the school and the community as hospital and training facility, teaching health and hygiene to the mountain people. Doctors and dentists from Knoxville came to the clinic periodically to render services. The clinic's most notable nurses were Phyllis Higgenbotham and Marjorie Chalmers, who treated patients at the clinic and made house calls at all hours of the day and night. They taught midwifery to local "Granny Women" and hundreds of local babies were "caught" by these graduates. This facility eventually served as a model for other area clinics. The Arrowmont School business office also served as a Pi Beta Phi clinic between 1940 and 1965.Arrowmont Campus.
Forks of the River Community "Sugarlands"
The area surrounding the national park visitor center, park headquarters buildings, and extending up into the surrounding mountains, is now referred to as the Sugarlands. The name comes from the presence of many sugar maple trees. Before the park, this area was known as the Forks of the River community, for its location at the confluence of Fighting Creek and the Little Pigeon River. Just before it was abandoned for the park in 1934, some 25 families lived there and up along Fighting Creek. Many were Trenthams and a portion of the community was once called Trentville. These folks were fairly self sufficient, having their own church, school, grist mill, general store, and post office. Some who gave up their hundred-plus-year-old farmsteads moved to Gatlinburg at a time when the tourist business had created jobs. Be sure to visit the Sugarlands Visitor Center and walk the Fighting Creek and Sugarlands Valley self guiding trails, where you can learn more about how the settlers tamed the wilderness and how the forest continues to erase all traces of that former human habitation.
When the Gatlinburg Ski Resort on Mt. Harrison was built in the early 1960s, the only route to the top was the slow, steep, and precarious Ski Mountain Road. The idea for an aerial tramway that would carry visitors to the top in a cleaner, safer, quieter, and more comfortable manner was long debated, but in September 1972, the tramway became a reality. It was engineered and constructed by the world's leading producer of aerial tramways, Von Roll Ltd., of Switzerland. Traveling at 17 miles per hour, the tramway makes the 2.1 mile trip from Gatlinburg to the Mt. Harrison station (a vertical rise of 1,335 feet) in only 10 minutes. There are two cars, each with a 120 passenger maximum. The tram is electrically powered and has a backup diesel generator. It has been estimated that it would take 63 cars, carrying 4 passengers each, making 180 trips, traveling over 1,250 miles, and consuming over 125 gallons of gas per hour to carry as many passengers to the top as the tram carries during normal operation. 1001 Parkway.
Gatlinburg Inn
Historic Gatlinburg Inn, the city's third major hotel, has been many things to many people. It was constructed by R. L. (Rellie) Maples, Sr., son of David Crockett and Cora Ogle Maples, Jr. between 1937 and 1940. His wife, Wilma Maples, still operates the facility. Gatlinburg's city offices were located here in 1946-47 and the city's First National Bank was organized within its walls. Gatlinburg's first large press newspaper also started here. The city's first Dentist, Dr. Meaker, even had an office in this inn. "Lady Bird" Johnson, Liberace, Dinah Shore, Tennessee Ernie Ford, and Melville Bell Grosvenor (former editor of National Geographic Magazine) were among its guests and the Inn appeared in Ingrid Bergman's movie, "A Walk in the Spring Rain." The Tennessee anthem, "Rocky Top," was written in room 388. 755 Parkway.
Glades Lebanon Baptist Church
This church was founded in the Glades community in 1816. It started with only 20 members and met in four separate cabins before constructing a modern church in 1993. Rev. Richard Atchley was the first pastor and descendants of the church's founders, including Profitts, Watsons, and two Ownby families, continue to worship here today. The church was named for the biblical Cedars of Lebanon forest from the times of King Solomon. 820 East Highland Dr.
Established in 1937, the historic Arts & Crafts Community is located along an 8.5 mile loop including portions of Glades Road, Buckhorn Road, and U. S. 321 (about 3 miles east of Gatlinburg). This charming, scenic, winding country pathway makes up a portion of the officially designated Tennessee Heritage Arts and Crafts Trail. This area encompasses the largest enclave of independent artists and crafters in the country. They paint, carve, cast, weave, sew, or otherwise create artistic masterpieces. Many demonstrate skills used in everyday life by mountain folk. There are some 80 shops and galleries on the loop.2.6 miles from the junction of US 321 and US 441.
Historic Nature Trail (was Airport Road)
As you drive or walk along this road, don't expect to find an airport. However, in the early 1940s, a Mr. Rogers cleared the gently sloping, relatively flat pasture and fields, and built a landing strip. The first aircraft, a red Aeronca biplane, landed here in the spring of 1941 while the airport building was still under construction. A few weeks later, many planes flew in and out to celebrate its grand opening. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Rogers began piloting an aerial sight-seeing service. After affixing public address system speakers to the bottom of one of his planes, he began flying low along the parkway announcing his flying service and advertising for other local businesses. With the coming of World War II, business plummeted, the airport closed, and the airstrip was abandoned. The burgeoning town grew outward from the Parkway, and the pastures and fields gave way to homes, churches, lodging, restaurants, and other establishments including the old Mills Auditorium and the Gatlinburg Convention Center. What became of the airstrip? A portion of it was incorporated into what is now Historic Motor Nature Trail-Airport Road.
John H. Reagan Historical Marker
Many consider John H. Reagan to be Gatlinburg's most famous son. Born near this memorial plaque in 1808, he left home at the age of 16 to work and further his education in Sevierville and later Maryville. Around 1838, he moved to Texas where he worked as a surveyor and eventually became a lawyer, district judge, and state representative. Unable to find a way for Texas to remain in the Union, he recommended secession. He was appointed Postmaster General of the Confederacy during the Civil War and his picture was even used on its currency. After the war and a brief imprisonment, he became a U. S. Senator and introduced many of the nation's basic laws of interstate commerce. Married 3 times, he had 11 children. Light #7 on the Parkway.
Le Conte Creek
This stream was originally called Mill Creek because some 14 grist mills were powered by its waters in the last three and half miles above its confluence with the Little Pigeon River at Gatlinburg. Some references state that as many as 25 mills were located on the creek at one time. This pristine little tributary arises on Mt. Le Conte and flows down, past the Ober Gatlinburg Station, to join the Little Pigeon River on the northwest side of the Parkway.
Little Pigeon River (West Prong)
 This stream is named for the now extinct Passenger Pigeon that once flourished here. The bird vanished from Tennessee in 1893 as a result of over hunting. As you walk along this clear, cold mountain stream you are likely to encounter everything from trout to mallards and occasionally a bear (yes, even in the city!). James Bohannon, the first man to die in Gatlinburg, drowned in this stream. He was carrying a large sack of maple sugar across a foot log when he lost his balance and fell in. His body was recovered down stream. He is believed to have been buried near the old Ogle's store, his body still there, somewhere beneath the Mountain Mall.
Louis Vorhees Home
The Twin Creeks Research Center, named for two parallel branches of Le Conte Creek, lies inside the park, just off Cherokee Orchard Road. This park service research facility, off limits to the public except by appointment, was once the property of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Vorhees. A wealthy entrepreneur and inventor from Cincinnati, Vorhees purchased 100 acres of fertile farm land from Harvey Oakley around 1928. He constructed a very expensive frame home, two guest houses, elaborate gardens, and eventually expanded his farm and orchard to 300 acres. He also harnessed the power of Le Conte Creek by construction and installation of a mill house and waterwheel which operated an electric power plant. He donated the land and the estate to the National Park Service, retaining life tenure. This was probably the only donation of private land to the park, until recent times. On his death in the late 1950s, his wife gave up her rights to the land. The main house became the home of the park superintendent and other buildings were used for staff housing. Today, the buildings and grounds are the nucleus of the park service's scientific research.
Methodist Assembly Ground
What is today Mynatt Park was once a private youth campground Camp Chewase, and before that the old Methodist Assembly Grounds. The area was developed by the Holston Methodist Conference in the 1920s and once encompassed a much larger acreage. Some of the land is now part of the city's southeastern residential area. In its first decade, the Assembly Grounds hosted many old-fashioned camp revival meetings as well as summer youth camps. In the 1930s, the church moved these activities to Lake Junaluska near Asheville, North Carolina. In 1933, the Methodists leased the area for operation as a private, non-sectarian camp. The name of the camp was later spelled "Chewassee" to make it easier to pronounce. Perhaps its most famous camper was an 11 year old Knoxvillian, Patsy Neal. She was quite a little ham in camp skits and we know her today as world renowned actress Patricia Neal. Asbury Rd.
The Model Barn
Constructed in 1923, the Red Barn, as it is known today, served as a "model barn" where young men were taught agriculture, including the care of livestock. The first motion picture in Gatlinburg was shown in the loft of this building on a projector donated by Pi Beta Phi. Thereafter, silent movies continued to be shown in the barn attracting locals from miles away. Square dances were held there and the game of basketball was introduced and played by elementary students in the loft. It is said that some of the young players were so modest they wore their overalls under their monogrammed Pi Beta Phi basketball uniforms. In the 1950s the structure was renovated to serve as student housing. Then in 1999 it was remodeled and modernized. Arrowmont Campus.
Mt. Le Conte
Mt. Le Conte, the crown jewel of the Great Smoky Mountains, rises a mile above Gatlinburg. At 6,593 feet above sea level, it is higher from base to summit than any other peak in the East. Its three-peaked profile is a familiar landmark viewed from Gatlinburg or from the Cumberland Plateau, 50 air miles to the northwest. Three of the five designated hiking trails to its summit, Bull Head, Trillium Gap, and Rainbow Falls trails, originate along Cherokee Orchard Road. Paul Adams established a primitive camp on Le Conte in 1925 for the Great Smoky Mountains Conservation Association. In 1926, Jack Huff, a Gatlinburg native, began constructing Mt. Le Conte Lodge. It continues to serve visitors who enjoy hiking to its summit for one or more days and nights of rustic comfort in a wilderness setting. Dubbed the highest guest lodge in the eastern U. S., it consists of individual cabins with a central dining hall, situated on a glade surrounded by a spruce-fir forest. Hiking from Gatlinburg to Le Conte, one travels through the same ecological (floral and fauna) zones that would be encountered between Georgia and southern Canada.
The first National Park headquarters was housed in Gatlinburg on the second floor of the Mountain View Hotel and then in cabins behind it. Those functions were moved to this new building in 1940. It was constructed of native stone cut and laid by Civilian Conservation Corps workers, trained by Italian stone masons under the guidance of the National Park Service. The building stone was quarried at Ravensford near the North Carolina (Oconoluftee) entrance to the park and the roof slate was shipped here from near Richmond, Virginia. The lobby, paneled in so called "wormy" American chestnut cut on the grounds, was influenced by the living room of Blount Mansion in Knoxville. The floor is constructed of Crab Orchard sandstone, from the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. This building served as a park visitor center until the adjacent Sugarlands facility was completed in 1961. 107 Park Headquarters Rd.
Noah "Bud" Ogle Place
On Cherokee Orchard Road. Pick up an interpretive brochure at the farmstead entrance.
Ogle's Broom Shop
The log cabin home of Ogle's Broom Shop is approximately 135 years old. When Lee Ogle built his new home in 1939, the cabin became his shop. It was moved here from Johns Branch in 1971. Lee grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee and learned the craft of broom making. The straw comes from broom straw or broomcorn, a relative of sorghum cane. The seeds are combed from the seed head, leaving the straw or bristles which are bunched around a handle. This was once bound with strips taken from the soft inner bark of tulip trees, but today the broom makers must use nylon cord. For larger, stronger brooms, nylon cord is also stitched through the straw for reinforcement. The handles are made from mountain laurel or other dense wood. Lee and wife Lillie began making brooms in 1920. Today, the third generation of broom makers operates the shop. 688 Glades Rd.
Ogle's Cabin
This cabin was Gatlinburg's first home. Around 1802, William Ogle selected a building site near where the Watson House now stands. He cut and hewed the logs for the cabin and then returned to South Carolina to get his family. He told them that he had found "The Land of Paradise" in the mountains of East Tennessee. While preparing to bring his family here, he fell ill (probably with malaria) and died in 1803. In 1807, widowed Martha Jane (Huskey) Ogle, at age 46 or 47, came here to settle with her five sons and two daughters, her brother, Peter Huskey, and his family. From William's oral directions, they located his hewed logs, completed the cabin, and started a new life. A community eventually grew up around this settlement. Great grandson Andrew Ogle and his family were the last of the clan to live in the cabin, abandoning it about 1910. The farm was sold to Pi Beta Phi as the settlement school expanded in 1921. They used this cabin as a hospital, and from 1922 to 1926, as a museum of mountain artifacts. The cabin was moved here, to the former site of the community's first church building, when the Arrowmont School expanded again in 1969. Arrowmont Campus.
Ogle Store
Noah Ogle was Gatlinburg's first merchant of record, establishing a store in 1850 on a site that later became the Riverside Hotel. In 1910, he moved the store to the intersection of River Road and the Elkmont Highway. Ephraim E. Ogle took over his father's store around 1916; and until 1925, the E. E. Ogle and Company store housed the Gatlinburg Post Office. Grandson, Charlie A. Ogle, and great grandson, Charles Earl Ogle, continued the family tradition. Through the years the store expanded, spreading out, rambling, and jutting about as new merchandise was added. You could purchase almost anything in that store, from hairpins to threshing machines, "if they could find it." The quaint old general store and adjacent tourist cabins were torn down in the mid 1970s to make way for the Mountain Mall. The Ogles, descended from the area's first settlers, have played a major role in the city's development. 611 Parkway.
Pi Beta Phi Settlement School
In the early 1900s, Gatlinburg was still a remote mountain village located in an even more remote Appalachian region, and public schools did not exist. In 1910, the alumni of the Pi Beta Phi Fraternity, voted to commemorate their 50th anniversary and honor the founders by providing education to a community where no formal schooling had been available. Although technically called a fraternity, Pi Beta Phi was a national women's organization. It was the first of its kind in the U. S., and had a long standing tradition of helping others, especially the under-privileged. The provision for basic education was later expanded to include vocational and home economics training for the community's adults. E. E. Ogle, with persuasion from the community, sold 35 acres of land to Pi Beta Phi for the establishment of this school. Many area residents were educated here, and the school's focus on reestablishing and promoting local craft skills helped establish Gatlinburg as a prominent arts and crafts center. Many of its original buildings have been refurbished and are still used today. The school opened in an unused church building in March 1912 with an initial enrollment of 13 students. An additional 35 acres were acquired by the school in 1921. Today it is known as the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. 556 Parkway.
The Radford Gatlin Story
There are many stories as to how Gatlinburg got its name, all involving a controversial figure who settled here, in 1854, in what was then called White Oak Flats. Radford C. Gatlin opened the town's second general store and when the post office was established in his store, in 1856, the town name changed to Gatlinburg. He was flamboyant and, as a preacher, established his own "Gatlinite" Baptist Church. He was a democrat in a republican community. He and Elijah Lawson Reagan established the E.L. Reagan Furniture Company, a woodworking business here in 1910. It is believed to be the oldest, continuously-operated business of its kind in Gatlinburg's history. For over a decade, he practiced his craft with simple hand tools, but in the 1920s, he harnessed the power of the Roaring Fork to operate his new electric power tools. He built a water-wheel and installed a turbine and generator which furnished power for his shop. He also furnished electricity to his neighbors until the Tennessee Valley Authority brought inexpensive power to the valley. After his death in 1968, his son, Harlan Reagan, and son-in-law, J. Wade King, took over the business. Today another son-in-law, Lester Flynn, runs the shop which continues to make fine furniture in the Reagan tradition. 149 Poplar Lane.
Riverside Hotel
Gatlinburg's first hotel, the Mountain View, was located at the site of Fun Mountain on U.S. 321. What is today the Riverside Motor Lodge, Gatlinburg's second hotel, was constructed by Stephen "Uncle Steve" Whaley in 1925. It began as a 20 room boarding house, which faced the Little Pigeon River, and is, to date, the city's longest continuously operating hotel. When first opened, you could stay there for $35 a month including meals. It was soon rebuilt as a 40 room establishment facing the new Gatlinburg Parkway. The Riverside Hotel, like the Whaley family, has played a major role in Gatlinburg's growth and success. 715 Parkway.
Roaring Fork Creek
According to the late author and long time Gatlinburg resident, Laura Thornborough, "It has been said that on a five mile walk up Roarin' Fork the nature-lover may see more different kinds of trees, shrubs, ferns and wildflowers than (on) any other five mile walk in the land." This is one of the steepest gradient streams in eastern America. It drops a vertical distance of over a mile in elevations from its headwaters, at Basin Spring on the north slope of Mt. Le Conte, to its mouth at the Little Pigeon River in Gatlinburg.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a 5.5-mile-long paved loop, beginning at the south end of Historic Motor Nature Trail and ending on Roaring Fork Road on Hwy-321 N., at Traffic Light 1A. The history of the homes and people who once lived in the area is interpreted through a self guiding booklet. This booklet is available at the Sugarlands Welcome Center. The self guiding booklet goes into much greater detail on those sites also discussed in this brochure. Even without the booklet, this scenic drive is always a pleasure during good weather. There are hikes to waterfalls, vintage homes to tour and excellent views of the smokies to behold.
Skylift
The idea and venture capital for this popular Gatlinburg attraction came from father and son team John and Everett Kircher, owners of a ski lift and automobile dealership in Michigan. While visiting Gatlinburg in the early 1950s, they conceived the idea for a scenic skylift that would carry tourists to and from an observation point above the city. In 1953, a lease agreement was acquired from Rellie Maples, owner of the Gatlinburg Inn, and the Skylift was built. It extends from the Parkway to a point on Crockett Mountain, 518 feet above the city, and provides a birds-eye view of Gatlinburg and an extraordinary panoramic view of the main range of the Great Smoky Mountains. This Skylift was the city's first major sightseeing attraction. 765 Parkway.
Smoky Mountain Craft Shop
The front dining room of 449 Parkway was once the Smoky Mountain Craft Shop. Established in the 1920s by Allie Owenby and her mother, Mrs. E. L. Reagan, this was probably the first shop in Gatlinburg to make and sell homemade candies. It later became one of Gatlinburg's first eateries. Though the exterior has changed, the interior remains much as it appeared in the 1930s. A small lending library, begun in Mrs. Anna Porter's home near the Mountain View Hotel, was moved to this building in 1936. After several relocations, a permanent and expanded Anna Porter Library was constructed on Cherokee Orchard Road. 449 Parkway.
Trinity Episcopal Church
This church was organized in 1941; prior to that, members met in homes. The stone used in its construction was quarried in an area of North Carolina now beneath the waters of Fontana Lake. The stonework was crafted by Cherokee stone masons who left their signature in the form of an arrow on the floor of the church portico or narthex (you must lift the rug to see it). Alice Townsend, third wife of Col. Wilson B. Townsend (president of the former Little River Lumber Company), donated the three stained glass windows above the alter. The other windows were donated by early parishioners. The chapel is open daily from 9am to 5pm and visitors are welcome. Further literature about the church is found just inside the entry. There is also a quaint little St. Francis meditation garden in the rear of the church. 509 Historic Nature Trail.
Tsali Monument
This park and monument commemorates the Cherokee Indian hero-martyr Tsali (pronounced Solly) who, according to legend, gave his life so that some of his people (now known as the Eastern Band of the Cherokee) might remain in their ancestral Smokies. Eventually, most of the Cherokee and other native tribes were forced to move west to the Indian Territory of Oklahoma along the infamous Trail of Tears. Although Tsali has no direct connection to the city of Gatlinburg, many of its citizens have Cherokee ancestry and hence a spiritual connection to the man and the legend. This monument was erected to his memory by the school children of Knoxville in 1939, the 100th anniversary of his execution. 377 Parkway.
White Oak Flats Cemetery
Established around 1830, this placid, tree-lined cemetery contains the graves of many of Gatlinburg's earlier settlers and prominent citizens, including Clabos, Huskeys, Maples, Ogles, McCarters, Oakleys, Owenbys, Reagans, Trenthams, and Whaleys. You will find the grave stones of several people discussed in this guide including founder Martha Jane Huskey Ogle, Wiley Oakley, David Crockett, Jr., Cora Maples, and E. E. Ogle. The oldest section of the graveyard is on the left. Some of the tombstones are modern, some hand carved, and others field stones marking the locations of graves. The old moss and lichen covered stones were called "gray backs" by the mountain people. If no stone carver was available, or affordable, the dearly departed were often buried with a glass jar, sealed with beeswax, containing their name, dates of birth and death, and perhaps a picture. There are approximately 600 marked and 300 unmarked graves located behind the Village Shops.
Wiley Oakley Story
Wiley Oakley, who once operated a popular craft shop here on the Parkway, was one of Gatlinburg's most celebrated personalities. On weekends, he entertained tourists and locals with his humorous stories and mountain music. In fact, his tall tales and folksy humor earned him the title "the Will Rogers of the Smokies." A sign outside his shop once read, "Antiques Made to Order." He was also called "the roamin' man of the mountains," guiding hunters, anglers, and tourists through the Smokies before the national park was established. He knew as much, or more, about these mountains as any person alive. His laid back personality and generosity helped make him a successful entrepreneur and regional celebrity. His friends included Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford of automotive fame; entertainer Kate Smith; and millionaire, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Subscribing to the philosophy of "cheaper by the dozen," he and his wife, Rebecca Ann Ogle Oakley, stopped having children after the twelfth came along. The couple is buried at the historic White Oak Flats cemetery. 402 Parkway.
Historical Information courtesy of Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce
Back to Attractions / Activities Index
|
