How places like Devils Tater Patch, Stinking Creek or Mollie’s Butt were named
A few years ago, I interviewed Rex Caughron. He was one of the last generations to be raised in Cades Cove and the son of Kermit Caughron, the last resident of the Cove. One of the things I asked about his favorite and or least favorite parts of the Cove.
Rex never much cared from the Gregory Bald Trail, a nearly 9 mile hike up into the high mountains above the cove. It was a place where his dad herded livestock as a young man. His favorite view? Just as you come into the cove, if you look off into the distance to the left, you can see the mountain known as Mollie’s Butt.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. I’d lived in the area long enough and was familiar with the name of the mountain. In fact, I knew there are butts all over the Smokies – including Holly’s Butt which is located just above Gatlinburg.
What is a butt in mountain terms?
I always figured butt was just an East Tennessee mountain way of saying butte. But I found out the other day that there’s a difference between a butt and butte. A butte is usually found in more arid regions, a flat-topped mountain where the sides fall away quickly. A butt is more like the butt end of a rifle or the butt of log. Or a place where a mountain or range of mountains cuts off abruptly.
But that got me thinking about Smoky Mountain butts and I cannot lie. It made me curious about how and why some of the stranger named places in the mountains came to be. Don’t get me wrong, I assume places like Turtletown and Ducktown are fairly self-explanatory. But I do wonder just how many turtles you have to see before you name the place after them.
Top 7 strange place names in the Smokies and beyond:
1. Boogertown Road
You can still see the signs in Sevier County for Boogertown Road which used to lead to the Boogertown community – which was more officially known as the Oldham. This is one of those instances where a name got a little more unique over time due to changing cultural norms.
The booger in Boogertown has nothing to do nose picking. In the old times, a Booger was like ghost or spirit, today we might call them the Boogie man. It lingers in modern usage when you hear someone say something has been “boogered up.” But back in the old days, any place where a someone thought they saw a Booger – or a dark, gnarly place where Boogers might hide – was likely to get that name.
There’s another Boogertown in Gaston County, North Carolina and a Boogerman Trail. There’s a Booger Hole in West Virginia and Booger Swamp out near Memphis. It appears, like Butts, Boogers are all over the place.
2. Devil’s Tater Patch
Devil’s Tater Patch is a summit on the National Park near the Tennessee – Carolina border not far from the Appalachian Trail. It likely got its name from the many rocks and boulders that make climbing to the top difficult. There’s a similarly, but more formally, named spot in Pennsylvania called the Devil’s Potato Patch – which I feel obligated to pronounce like Samwise Gamgee “Po-tay-to” – which is essentially a field of boulders. The Devil actually has quite a bit of real estate in the Smokies. There’s the Devil’s Courthouse, Devil’s Garden Overlook and Huggins Hell located below Mt. LeConte.
3. Stinking Creek
Located just off of I-75 in Campbell County not far from the Kentucky border – is the unincorporated community of Stinking Creek. The name is from the nearby water source Stinking Creek. In this case, there’s not a lot of mystery. Stinking Creek is a Sulphur spring that stinks.
4. All the Smoky Mountain Butts
We’ve already spent enough time in this article talking about Butts, but (ha!) I did want to mention that there are five different locations in Western North Carolina named Big Butt of Big Butt Mountain. Naming things is hard.
5. Mellinger Death Ridge
In the early 1900s a man named Jasper Mellinger set out from the Roaring Fork area walking towards Western North Carolina. It is said he was possibly going to look for work. He was never seen alive again. Or more accurately he was never seen alive by his friends and or family again. Mellinger’s remains were found several years after he went missing.
A supposed deathbed confession says one father and son duo were poaching bear in the mountains and Mellinger unwittingly stepped into their trap. When they found the dying man, they finished the job and hid his remains rather than face legal ramifications for what they’d done. Another version says a different father and son stood trial for essentially the same set of circumstances.
It’s also possible that he died from the bear trap without further intervention. Whatever the story, all versions have Jasper getting caught in a bear trap. You can visit Mellinger’s grave which is at an old home stead not far off the Roaring Fork Motor nature trail.
Anyway, Mellinger Death Ridge is named that because that’s where Mellinger died. Naming things is easy.
6. Bitter End
An unincorporated community in Carter County in Upper East Tennessee, Bitter End is located right on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. The Bitter End is sailing term for the last links in the anchor chain or the end of rope that’s attached to the ship’s bitts – a wooden post on deck. Why is Bitter End called Bitter? I suspect someone looked at the geographic location of the place and thought they were funny. Naming things is mysterious.
7. Lick Skillet Branch
The Lick Skillet Branch is a creek that flows through the park near Cades Cove. We don’t have any hard data on how this name came to be. But it’s likely that again someone thought they were funny. There are other Lick Skillets or Lickskillets – including one in Hawkins County, Tennessee. The reference seems to be that the people there were so poor – or so hard up for food – that they had to lick the skillet clean to get every bit of sustenance they could. Naming things can be self-deprecating or kinda mean.
Do you know of a strangely named place to add to the list? Let us know in the comments!