The Smoky Mountains & Tennessee

The Cherokee people called these mountains ‘shaconage’ meaning “Blue, like Smoke” for the bluish mist which clings to the mountains and fills the valleys. Today it is known as The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The park’s 800 square miles are home to more species of plants than any other area on the North American continent, as well as over 50 species of mammals. Its mountains are the highest in the Appalachian range and home to about 1600 Black Bears which are also the symbol of the park. Originally settled by the Cherokee at least 11,000 years ago they enjoyed a sophisticated agriculture-based lifestyle. They first encountered Europeans in 1540 when Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto led an expedition, then late in the 18^th century Scotch-Irish, German and English settlers arrived in significant numbers. The Cherokee were friendly at first, then fought when provoked but eventually withdrew to the Blue Ridge Mountains. They adopted European customs and could read and write their own language, but the discovery of gold sounded their death knell. In 1830 president Andrew Jackson signed the ‘Removal Act’, the Cherokee appealed their case to the Supreme Court and won their case, however, Jackson disregarded the decree and in 1838 forced 13,000 Cherokee to March to Oklahoma along what has become known as the ‘Trail of Tears’. About one third died en route of malnutrition and disease, however, a handful of Cherokee disobeyed the edict and hid out in the hills and managed to survive. Approximately 10,500 of their descendants now live on the ‘Qualla Indian Reservation’ on the park’s south border.

Our first ride out into the park was on Sunday; we packed a picnic as usual and headed south into the park along Newfound Gap road, the main road across the mountains and a famous scenic drive.

We stopped off at Mingus Mill, a water turbine powered grist mill that still grinds corn into flour which is sold to visitors in fabric sacks.

‘Uncle Ike’ Bradley constructed the mill and the wooden turbine in the 1900’s and then when he was in his eighty’s he helped restore the mill to working order for the National Parks Service.

We also stopped at the Mountain Farm Museum; the buildings were moved here from locations throughout the Smokies to preserve some of the cultural heritage of the area. Most are from the early 1900’s and offer a glimpse into the lives of the original European settlers. The collection consists of the Davis house above, a woodshed, beegums (beehives), meat house, chicken house, apple house, cane mill, molasses shed, corn crib, gear shed, blacksmiths, springhouse and barn.

On the way back we stopped at a picnic area by a stream for our lunch.

Then we went up to Clingmans Dome at 6643 feet the highest point in the park and allegedly the best views, however, the low cloud foreshortened the view but didn’t take away the majesty of the surroundings. The dead trees are a result of an infestation of woolly adelgid accidentally imported from China.

On the way back we stopped at Newfound Gap where you cross the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, our 23rd state, which runs diagonally through the heart of the park. The car park had loads of motorcycles in it, the winding roads and beautiful scenery made it a Mecca for enthusiasts.

Monday I did the laundry while Dave watched the rain delayed Nascar race but on Tuesday we conquered the ‘Tail of the Dragon’. 318 curves in 11 miles of mountain highway which attracts motorcycle riders from around the world. We started by taking the road through the park again and then turned west in Cherokee to join the infamous road in Robbinsville, where we stopped for lunch over looking Lake Santeetlah. Just a few miles further on we came across a lady who had dropped her Harley on a wet corner, her husband had picked her and the bike up but she and the bike were both bruised and bloody. To our amazement other Harleys just drove by, only us, a BMW and a couple of sports bikes stopped. Dave, her husband and the BMW guy straightened the bike and patched her up while I directed traffic (I can’t stand the sight of blood). She was shaken but not badly hurt, she was extremely lucky, a grazed shoulder and elbow, she rode her husband’s bike away and he rode hers as it had a bent gear lever.

We continued on our way and turned north on the tail, otherwise known as US 129, we kept catching up with Harley Davidson’s which couldn’t take the curves at any speed, so we had to wait for the very rare straight sections to pass them and then have a free run at a few curves again.

The last part of the loop was along the Foothills Parkway back into the Park and Twin Creek RV Resort, our base camp in Gatlinburg. Ten miles north is the town of Pigeon Forge, an even more tacky collection of motels, outlet malls and restaurants etc, all of which have grown up in the shadow of ‘Dollywood’, Dolly Parton’s personal theme park. We left the next morning, heading north again this time to Panther Creek State Park located on the Cherokee Reservoir and 6 miles west of Morristown, Tennessee.

We had a very quiet few days, cooked supper on the camp fire, talked to our neighbours a truck driver and his wife, and Jim & Michelle Foley, a local couple who were waiting for us to vacate our site so that they could move in! We walked up to the reservoir one day and that evening we joined a group listening to a local group playing country music.

On Saturday we headed out, in Morristown we popped into Oreilly Autoparts for some spare windshield wipers and their car park was being used by the local school to raise funds for their French Group by washing cars. They were up for washing the RV and it definitely needed cleaning so we pulled in, and they only charged $20. They are planning to visit France next summer so we gave them our email address and hope to be able to meet up with them again somewhere!

Our next stop was in Cumberland Gap National Park which straddles the corners of Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky and the Appalachian Mountains. The sign at the entrance warned us we were in Bear Country, Black Bears inhabit most of the higher elevations of the Appalachians and surrounding mountain ranges and a bear attack had been reported on the television recently. We were hoping to see a bear but not at close quarters.

We found a spot in the Wilderness Road Campground where they leave free fire wood on each site and you are truly in the midst of the forest. We felt a bear could be only a few feet away and you wouldn’t even know it was there.

The Appalachian Mountains rise in a series of parallel ridges between the eastern seaboard and the continent’s interior. Daniel Boone was commissioned to blaze a trail through the gap; this evolved into the Wilderness Road and established him as a frontiersman and pathfinder. Settlers flooded through into the Ohio Valley and Cumberland Gap became the primary way to the West, it was estimated 300,000 people crossed the gap on foot or horseback between 1775 and 1796 before the railroads crossed the Appalachians and the Gap’s use declined.

We left on Sunday morning heading north again into Kentucky where the place names reflect the ancestry of the European settlers.