We have come to the conclusion that the Appalachian Mountains must be a US state secret. Different names used for different parts of the chain ensure that many people are unaware that the Appalachians run all the way from Newfoundland in Canada down to Alabama. In Virginia and most of North Carolina, they are called the Blue Ridge Mountains while in the south of North Carolina and in Tennessee they are called the Great Smoky Mountains. If work on 50 plus DC suddenly stops it may be because we have been arrested for divulging the existence of the Appalachians. The Great Smoky Mountains formed part of the Cherokee homeland, but settlers moved in to start farming and in the 1830s the Cherokee were evicted. Congress approved a National Park in 1926 to protect the area from excessive logging, but it was not until 1934 that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was set up.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Newfound Gap road
The scenery in Great Smoky Mountain National Park is pleasant but it can not match the spectacular scenery in some of the parks in the western USA. We would agree that this is the best National Park in the eastern USA and its accessibility to the huge population of the east ensures that it is the most visited National Park in the whole country. The National Park straddles the border between North Carolina and Tennessee with roughly equal amounts of the land in each state.
Great Smoky Mountains Nat’l Park
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Interior of house, Pioneer Farmstead
An isolated location and lack of mineral wealth ensured that the this was a relatively poor area for the early settlers. The terrain supported only small mountain farmsteads rather than the huge plantations found elsewhere. The local population did not own slaves and during the Civil War most local sentiment supported the Union side. With the rest of North Carolina and Tennessee staunchly Confederate, the people of the Great Smoky Mountains suffered considerable harassment. Following the Civil war, the area remained poor and isolated, and there was little immigration. The residents intermarried and built a culture of self-sufficiency, making everything that they could locally. Until logging arrived in the early 20th century, farms like this were the only industry in the area.
Pioneer Farmstead
A plentiful supply of timber meant that most buildings in the great Smoky Mountains were built from logs. When the National Park was set up more than 1,200 landowners had to leave their land. They left behind many buildings including farms, mills, schools, and churches. Over 70 original structures have been preserved in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the largest collection of historic log buildings in the eastern USA.
Cantilever Barn, Tipton Place, Cades Cove
Cades Cove sits in a broad fertile valley on the Tennessee side of the park. It was first settled in 1818 by former soldier John Oliver and by 1830 the population had risen to 271. Many of the buildings of this settlement have been preserved to show the lifestyle of an 1800’s mountain community. This barn is one of the more unusual buildings to be found here. No, they didn’t fail to finish building it, the cantilever design is deliberate to allow animals grazing the field to shelter while feeding on the hay from the barn. Click Tab 2 to see John Oliver’s Cabin, built around 1822.
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© Mike Elsden 1981 - 2025
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