Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Photo courtesy Friends of the Smokies
Arriving in Cades Cove, it’s hard not to be taken aback by the beauty of the place—lush meadows surrounded by the cool, green peaks of the Great Smoky Mountains.
But Cades Cove, located near Townsend, Tennessee, is more than just its scenery, alluring as that may be. The place has a history, and one that is rather unique among National Park lands.
Stephen Weber is president of the Cades Cove Preservation Association, and his roots there are as deep as anyone’s.
“My mother’s family came from the cove,” Weber said. John Oliver (his great-great-great-grandfather) was among the very first settlers, arriving around 1821. “The history is what makes the cove special,” Weber said.
The quickest way to take in Cades Cove, which is part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, is to drive (or bike) the 11-mile, one-way road that loops around the valley. Along the road is the Visitor Center, which features a number of exhibits and offers a good overview of the cove’s history and significance.
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Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Photo courtesy Friends of the Smokies
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Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Courtesy Friends of the Smokies
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Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Photo courtesy Friends of the Smokies
While on the road, visitors will have ample opportunities for wildlife viewing, which Weber notes is an always-popular activity. Guests will also have access to riding stables and hiking trails, and opportunities to check out the numerous historical points of interest, such as old homesites—including John Oliver’s cabin—churches and cemeteries.
And that access is a key point, because as convenient as the road is, to truly experience the cove, you’ll need to stop and get some soil under your feet. Once you do that, it might help to
take a deep breath and close your eyes. Then, visualize what the Cove was like 100, 125 years earlier.
Weber can speak with authority on that.
“By the time the park was created, there were probably 400-600 people living here—about 125 families,” he said. “There were schools, stores, churches. This was a very productive farming community—the land was very fertile.”
Families grew enough for their own needs, and sold the surplus at markets in Maryville and Knoxville, Tennessee.
“People were well off, even without running water,” he said. “By the late 1890s, six people had telephones. There was an exchange in Townsend.”
Mostly, it was a tight-knit community.
“People did work together,” Weber said. For example, sharing farm machinery was commonplace. One person with a particular piece of equipment would use it on his or her land and then help out another farmer who needed it.
“Agreements were made with a handshake,” Weber said.
Weber’s grandfather, John W. Oliver, witnessed firsthand the transformation of the cove from a farming community to becoming part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“He took the Civil Service exam in 1904, then was then the mail carrier for 34 years,” Weber said. “First he was on horseback, then he drove a Model T Ford.”
By 1927, the states of North Carolina and Tennessee had begun buying land for what would become the park. Weber said the creation of the national park differed in that most of this land was held in private ownership, often by large lumber companies. Park land out west, on the other hand, was largely already owned by the federal government.
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Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Courtesy Friends of the Smokies
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Cades Cove: A palpable, spiritual place in nature
Jim Matheny/Friends of the Smokies
By 1934, the cove had become part of the park. Landowners could sell their property to the government and move out, or take the option of signing lease agreements that allowed them to stay on their land, albeit with a number of restrictions (limits on hunting, trapping, timber harvesting etc.) put in place by the National Park Service.
According to Weber, some residents had second thoughts after they sold their land.
“Some never got over it,” he said. “They put the money they got into the banks, and then the banks failed (during the Great Depression). So they lost their money and their homes.”
Life continued to change in the cove. According to the park service, the last school closed in 1944, and the post office shut its doors in 1947. The landscape began to change as well.
“What you see now, as far as open land goes, is about one-third of what was cleared at the time. It didn’t take long for Mother Nature to reclaim it,” Weber said.
“When the park took over, there were probably 450 structures in Cades Cove,” he said. “Some very nice homes and barns, along with schoolhouses and churches. What you see now is just a small fraction of what was there.”
Some of the houses were used for a time as living quarters for the park rangers, he said.
The group Weber leads, the Cades Cove Preservation Association, was formed in 2001 by former residents and their descendants with a specific mission in mind.
“We thought the true story of Cades Cove wasn’t getting out,” Weber said. “We wanted to maintain the history and culture of Cades Cove.”
The group has worked to restore and maintain the cemeteries in the cove, as well as the churches. Members clean the churches (which are high tourism traffic areas) once a week and annually give them a deep clean.
The organization also operates a museum in Maryville, at 1004 E. Lamar Alexander Pkwy., that’s well worth a visit. The building that houses it is even historic—a two-story log structure dating to the 1790s.
The museum is another way to get that story out there, Weber said, and it features close to 1,000 artifacts from Cades Cove. It also hosts events such as craft fairs and homeschool days for local students.
“It’s interesting to see people come into the museum,” Weber said. “Some stay for 15 minutes and others will stay two hours.”
Of course, the history of Cades Cove predates the European settlers who called the valley home for generations. According to the park service, the Cherokee used it as a hunting ground, seeking deer, elk and bear, all of which were abundant. It seems unlikely that the Cherokee had a large-scale settlement there, but they did maintain smaller camps used while hunting.
The serenity you feel in Cades Cove is palpable, even spiritual in nature. The Cherokee no doubt felt it, as did the many families who lived there in its pre-national park days. It can be easy to lose oneself in such surroundings and imagine a less harried way of life. And there’s nothing wrong with that.