LeConte Lodge (A Centennial History of a Smoky Mountain Landmark) by Tom Layton and Mike Hembree.McFarland & Company, Inc., 2025, 188 pages.
For those who have lived in these mountains for the majority of their lives, one of the pinnacle destinations and hikes has always been to Mt. Le Conte on the North Carolina/Tennessee border, a peak these authors refer to as “the shrine of the Smokies.”
At an elevation of 6,593 feet, Mt. Le Conte is the third highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. LeConte Lodge is located west of the summit at 6,360 feet, providing pathways for hikers and great views should one want to spend some quality time at elevation at the highest lodge in Eastern America.
LeConte Lodge was started in 1924 by a young naturalist named Paul Adams with only a single log building, but then was expanded the next year by Jack Huff, who created the small grouping of buildings known today at this historic landmark.
From Tom Layton and Mike Hembree, both of whom have made many trips to the top of Mt. LeConte, we get not only a professional and pleasurable read, but also lots of photographs, illustrations and charts to give the reader a visual experience as well as a literary one.
The name Le Conte, we are told, is of French derivation honoring the Le Conte brother (Joseph) who was an ecologist and scientist in the mid-1800s and who, like John Muir, first brought the American people to realize the importance of preserving the beauty of the mountains, the forests and all the features of the native landscape.
“Continuing over 100 years of service, LeConte Lodge is so far off the grid that laundry is transported by llamas and food is ferried in by helicopter. Visitors must brave one of six trails to the Lodge’s entrance, the shortest of which is five miles.” Despite its remote location, LeConte Lodge remains a prominent tourist destination as it celebrates, this year, its centennial as one of the oldest public accommodations in the entire National Park system.
With telling chapter titles, we get a hint at what is to come and the imaginative literary flair with which the book is written.
“A High Calling and a Hermit’s Job” is the interestingly detailed chapter telling the story of a youthful Paul Adams (who has also been compared to John Muir as well as John Burroughs) and his love of nature. He was the first recorded person to actually live on Mt. Le Conte, in the crude log cabin with a canvas roof that he built.
He also was instrumental in creating the Great Smokies National Park, as well as being an avid ornithologist and wilderness guide and teacher throughout his long life.
“A Man, His Mountain, and His Mom” is the story of Jack Huff, “the father figure of LeConte Lodge.”
After Adams’ year-long residency atop the mountain ended, Huff arrived and went to work building a dining hall, the original cabins and some furnishings that are still used today.
A tale of Huff carrying his ailing mother, with straps and a straight-back chair like a backpack on his back all the way up to the mountaintop so she could see the majesty of the sunset and sunrise from Le Conte, has been called biblical in the lore of Le Conte.
After construction, Huff became the innkeeper on Le Conte and, beginning in 1928, the lodge saw a steady stream of visitors.
The Asheville Citizen-Times labeled LeConte Lodge as “Jack’s Place” in the 1930s. Many intimate letters from visitors, news articles and comments from lodge owners and managers fill the book with a bird’s-eye (and a nail-by-nail, trail by trail, year-by-year) account of all that transpired in the century of the lodge.
Also included is the story of the creation of a trans-mountain highway; the various hiking trails on and around Le Conte; well-known natural landmarks; and stories of snow, storms, wildlife, and wildfires that threatened to end the life of the lodge.
What a hike Layton and Hembree offer, giving the reader the sense that we’ve been there, ourselves, for all of the amazing history that also reads like a movie script. They have left no stone unturned and we, the readers, are the wiser and better well-versed and wind-chilled for the experience.
About the author: Thomas Crowe is a contributing writer for Smoky Mountain Living and Smoky Mountain News, and is the author of the award-winning memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods. He lives in Jackson County, North Carolina.