A local’s take on why Gatlinburg and the Smoky Mountains have such lasting appeal Humans – quite frequently – are creatures of habit. Sure, we’ll try new things. But we often find comfort in the tried and the true. For instance, do you have a favorite Mexican restaurant? Do you have a favorite order there? Maybe it’s not something you
Inside the area that legendary author Horace Kephart once described as “a country of ill fame” In 1904 Horace Kephart, a librarian/outdoorsman who tended the stacks at the Yale University Library and for a while worked for an American rare book collector in Italy, separated from his family and made his way to the Mountains of North Carolina. Kephart was
A little-known man by the name of Melville Milton Murrell flew decades before the Wright brothers I’m old enough to remember being taught in school that Christopher Columbus was the first European to “discover” America. Back then, in the medieval times of the early 1980s, there were inklings, whispers and wild rumors that others had arrived in the Americas before
Social media revives rumors of feral humans in the Smoky Mountains linked to old cold case Dennis Martin was 6 years old in June of 1969. It was Father’s Day weekend and they hiked near the Tennessee-North Carolina border, a Martin family tradition. William Martin (his father) and Clyde (his grandfather) and the two boys started at Cades Cove and
Rich Mountain Road is a 200-year-old road hidden in the Smoky Mountains and it’s not for the faint of heart I learned to drive on the mountain roads of East Tennessee. I’ve rarely encountered a road that gave me much concern. That said, a couple of times, I’ve been caught underprepared. Maybe I didn’t pay close enough attention to the
A look at the Biltmore Estate, from today’s standards In the 1880s, George Washington Vanderbilt II came to the mountains with a dream. He also came with the type of generational wealth typically reserved for kings and pharaohs. So when Vanderbilt wanted a summer house, he purchased nearly 700 parcels of land – 50 farms and at least five cemeteries
A history of Elkmont and what to know before you go What is known as the Elkmont ghost town is a former logging camp town and once-booming resort town near the Sevier-Blount County line in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. The first settlers in the 1800s were mostly hunters, homesteaders and small-scale loggers. IN THIS ARTICLE The history of
In the 1930s, official plans were drawn up to turn the Cove into a reservoir Driving along the edges of East Tennessee’s lakes, there are signs that things are not always as they have been. Decaying grain silos rise inexplicably from the water and ancient roads and trails lead down to lakebeds without turning. In the days before the Tennessee Valley Authority,
Gatlinburg was named after a disliked man who lived there for less than 10 years Gatlinburg really should be Oglesburg, Oglesville or maybe Oglestown. I mean, at least, White Oak Flats. The town that became Gatlinburg, you see, was first settled by a South Carolinian named William Ogle in 1802. As one of the first settlers, Ogle found his “Land
Popcorn Sutton always said his name, his legacy and his moonshine would outlive him. He was right. Obscured by the brightly lit neon tourist attractions in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, there is a deeper truth about the mountains that I’ve called home for the better part of the last 35 years. It’s a truth we don’t market to tourists or