‘We’re All Ghosts’

Gravestones have lured visitors for centuries, beckoning them through stone passes or iron fences. Whether it’s a longing to connect with the past or a desire to explore one’s own mortality, people are fascinated with eternal resting places.

The Smoky Mountains host some of the most haunting and beautiful historic cemeteries and graveyards in the country. Come along with us as we explore the spirits of the Smokies.

Winding along U.S. 411 in Sevier County, Tennessee, Fox Cemetery appears on the horizon like a mirage. Small in size but bold in history, it’s a beautiful vestige only offered those who choose this unbeaten path. 

Established in 1787, the site was early German settlement ground with the first settlers being the families of Jacob Derrick, Jacob Bird and Adam Fox. A fort once stood on Derrick’s land nearby. Mark Fox was scalped and killed by Indians on Muddy Creek in 1787, possibly the first person buried in the cemetery that bears his family name. 

Time and weather have worn names and dates into oblivion, while those interred have become one with the earth. The Tennessee Smokies stand majestic in the background, holding many secrets in their peaks. 

Nearby, just outside of bustling Gatlinburg, the Glades Cemetery hides upon a tree-covered knoll. Below, tourists and locals drink lattes and carry shopping bags while perusing a village of potters, artists and crafts people, unaware of the graves above them. Touted as haunted, one must be on a search for Glades Cemetery to find it, a tiny sign dimpled by BBs or a pellet gun serves as the only directional indicator. 

Glades Cemetery hosts few headstones compared to other cemeteries in the region. One heartbreaking grave of a two-year old is adorned with a stone lamb with the somber wording, “Budded on earth to bloom in heaven.” The lamb and quote adorn many infant, child and adolescent graves in primitive cemeteries. 

Dandridge, Tennessee, the second oldest town in the state, is home to the Revolutionary War Graveyard, adjacent to the Hopewell Presbyterian Church. The original place of worship in this Scotch-Irish settlement was a log cabin church, which became the site for the graveyard. Notable graves are those of early Dandridge citizens, such as the Inman brothers, along with many Revolutionary War veterans. This historic site is maintained by the Martha Dandridge Garden Club and is the starting point on the downtown Dandridge walking tour. 

In another part of the Smoky Mountains, tucked away in the Cataloochee Valley of Haywood County, North Carolina, are two primitive graveyards at Palmer Chapel and Little Cataloochee Church. At the turn of the twentieth century, at least 200 structures existed in Cataloochee, which was divided into Big Cataloochee and Little Cataloochee. Noland Mountain physically separated the two settlements, yet they were connected by blood and marriage. 

During the 1920s, the devastating effects of logging led to the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which included Cataloochee Valley. Residents were forced to move, and Palmer Chapel, Little Cataloochee Church, Beech Grove School, the Daniel Cook cabin, several frame houses and a few other remnants are all that’s left of what once was. 

The Palmer Chapel Cemetery was part of Big Cataloochee and serves as the eternal resting place for many residents of the once-thriving community. With easy access, plenty of creeks and the possibility of seeing elk, Big Cataloochee is a popular picnic spot and tourist attraction. Many area churches host events in the field in front of the chapel, and the Palmer family still uses the site for family reunions. 

Little Cataloochee isn’t quite as accessible. All that’s left of this section of this settlement is Daniel Cook’s cabin, Little Cataloochee Church and the remains of an old apple storage house. It’s an eight-mile, out-and-back hike to view these sites, but if one is willing to exert the effort, the reward is worth it. Hikers come to the cabin and apple storage house first, and then end the initial four miles looking at the white Little Cataloochee Church sitting postcard perfect on a hill. The front bank of the church hosts a small graveyard with the graves of Cook and other Cataloochee citizens. One noticeable pair of headstones marks two baby sisters who died a year apart. 

An hour east sits the artsy hub of Asheville. The well-known Riverside Cemetery rests amidst the historic Montford neighborhood. Many notable Asheville residents are buried there, including Thomas Wolfe and William Sidney Porter, better known as O. Henry. Also at Riverside are former North Carolina Governor Zebulon Vance and James H. Posey, a bodyguard to Abraham Lincoln. 

Upon O. Henry’s grave is strewn with loose change, homage to the opening line of his classic short story The Gift of the Magi: “One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.” 

O.Henry died at age 47 of cirrhosis of the liver, complications from diabetes, and an enlarged heart. His beloved second wife, Sara, had left him one year before his death. 

Thomas Wolfe rests alongside his family. The Asheville native wrote four lengthy novels, dramatic works, novellas and many short stories, with Look Homeward Angel being his most famous title. Visitors frequently leave pens in a stone vase at his headstone to honor his craft. He died at age 37 of tuberculosis. 

While folks like Porter and Wolfe bring visitors to Riverside Cemetery, there are many lesser-known people with gravestones suggesting dark endings. One structure holds three headstones connected together with the title “The Sister Trio.” Buried are three sisters, Mary Johnston, Sarah Johnston and Louisa Johnston, who all died in 1867 in succeeding months, Louisa in May, Sarah in June and Mary in July. 

Hundreds of other Smoky Mountain cemeteries and graveyards hold their own history, eternal resting places tucked amid forests or situated near urban development and tourist attractions. While the region continues to grow and modernize, one must not forget to visit and honor the spirits in our midst. For as writer Liam Callanan said, “We’re all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”