Back to Archive: 09/25/03. |
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Ruralite Cafe: Published 09/25/03By Lisa Majors-Duff - News EditorHiking back in time in the Smokies |
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| When Congress created many of the famous national parks of the West,
they did so simply by drawing lines on a map of mostly uninhabited land
owned by the government or railroads. Creating Great Smoky Mountains National
Park was nowhere near as easy." So said a Great Smoky Mountains Association publicist as an introduction to "History Hikes of the Smokies. " "Over 5,000 people lived on the land that would become the largest and most visited national park in the East. They owned white-washed two-story homes, grist mills, fruit orchards, barns, country stores, hotels, guest cottages and much more. Dozens of schools and churches dotted the valleys. Timber companies owned hundreds of miles of railway, sprawling lumber mills and whole 'company towns' with commissaries, barber shops, pool halls and movie theaters. All of it had to be purchased and either moved or abandoned." From the moment I first laid eyes on the Wonderland Hotel and summer cottages in Elkmont Campground in Tennessee, I've been fascinated with what the Smokies must have looked like and meant to the people who lived there before the park came into existence. When I learned of the existence of a new book that not only details the history of the region before the park, but encourages you to lace up your hiking boots to see it on 20 different hikes - 10 in North Carolina and 10 in Tennessee - I knew I'd finally found the door back in time I'd been looking for. The pocket-sized book written by Michal Strutin of Johnson City, Tenn., could not have arrived on my desk at a more perfect time. While Western North Carolinians are blessed with a variety of options for spending time out of doors all year round, fall is my preferred time for hiking. It's not just the abundance and color of the leaves falling from the trees or the sudden lack of tourists on the trails, it's that sweet smell in the air that unmistakenly tells you a change is coming, ready or not, and now is the time to "seize the day." "Discovering the past in the Smokies by means of the park's historical trails can be an incredibly exciting exercise in discovery," Strutin, who also wrote "Grist Mills of the Smokies," says in the introduction to her new book. "Once you understand how early settlers lived, you learn where to look for, say, the springhouse or the family cemetery. "A good imagination is a great companion on history hikes," she continues. "Let your eyes learn to push back the forests so that you can imagine the sunny corn and potato fields enclosed by rock walls; the dog-trot cabin decorated with daffodils and rose bushes; mills full of cornmeal, flour and energy; lumberyards full of stacked boards; CCC camps with barracks, neat pathways and parade grounds where young men marched and played baseball." Of the 10 North Carolina hikes in Strutin's book, I chose to start with a simple, but colorful, hike just outside Bryson City. The 3.1-mile Goldmine Loop Trail sounded intriguing right from the start since it is accessed by first walking through the long tunnel at the end of the Road to Nowhere. It's been some years since I first took that long walk into the darkness. And like many youth in this area, I did it on a moonlit night and a dare. In the middle of the afternoon on an overcast Sunday, the walk seemed much shorter and far less terrifying. According to Strutin's description, the Goldmine Loop trail runs next to at least two of 10 homesites, where people with names like Hyatt, Cole, Hall and Jenkins lived and raised their families. "The Goldmine Branch community was closely tied to the Forney Creek community just to the west," Strutin writes. "So, when Norwood Lumber Company came into Forney Creek with logging opportunities, people in this area became loggers." On walks with my father in the Smokies over the years, he often pointed out to me in that casual way he has the signs of an old homesite. I found all these on this walk: boxwood and black walnut trees, a weedy field, a honeysuckle-covered rock chimney, a wider-than-usual path. I also found something I'd never seen before: The inside of a yellow jacket nest compliments of a bear in the vicinity. Bears, I was told later, find yellow jacket larvae a delicacy and will root around in the ground till they find what they're after. But the highly agitated bees chased me off and prevented me from getting too long a look. "One down; 19 to go," I thought to myself as I walked back through the tunnel to my car. Other hikes in North Carolina include Boogerman Trail in Cataloochee Valley; Forney Creek Trail, which begins at Clingmans Dome and ends in Bryson City; and Kephart Prong Trail with its remnants of a CCC camp, a fish hatchery and a railway. Over in Tennessee Old Settler's Trail winds through an area that was home to Dolly Parton's great-grandparents; Little Brier Gap Trail leads to the home, barn and springhouse of the Walker sisters, six unmarried sisters who grew their own food, made their own clothes and gathered their own herbal medicines. I might not get to all of them this fall, but I'll enjoy trying. |
Back to Archive: 09/25/03. |
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