Why Are People Obsessed With This Old Cabin Turned Restaurant in the Smokies?

The Peddler in Gatlinburg ... and it's cult-like following

It’s Gatlinburg and it is 1958. Less than twenty years after FDR dedicated the National Park just up the road at the Rockefeller Memorial in Newfound Gap, the public is still deep in America’s obsession with the Smoky Mountains and its people.

In Gatlinburg, the people of the charming mountain village have been morphing their business ventures into things that cater to tourists. By 1958, the forward momentum of the tourism-dominated Gatlinburg economy is nearly unstoppable.

It was in this world that Earl Ogle – yes, one of THOSE Ogles – and his wife Beth, built their dream home, a log cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon, not far from the entrance to the National Park.

Earl was an American success story and Gatlinburg royalty. The son of Charles Austin Ogle and Hattie Mae Maples, Earl represented another in a long line of connections between two of Gatlinburg’s founding families.

Today, the family log cabin that Earl built isn’t a residence at all. It’s one of the best-known and beloved restaurants in town and probably East Tennessee.

Find out MORE about The Peddler and it's history

... and why it has a cult-like following