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141-546: The Sugarlands area stretches roughly from Grapeyard Ridge and Roaring Fork in the east to the slopes of Sugarland Mountain to the west. Mount Le Conte rises 5,000 feet above the valley to the south and southeast. The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River , its source high in the mountains, passes through the Sugarlands, draining much of the valley. When the first Euro-American settlers arrived in

282-430: A long hunter and surveyor instrumental in the early settlement of Kentucky and Tennessee. Like Boone, Appalachian pioneers moved into areas largely separated from "civilization" by high mountain ridges and had to fend for themselves against the elements. As many of these early settlers were living on Native American lands, attacks from Native American tribes were a continuous threat until the 19th century. As early as

423-574: A paramount chiefdom centered around a village complex in northern Georgia. By the time English explorers arrived in Appalachia in the late 17th century, the central part of the region was controlled by Algonquian tribes (namely the Shawnee ), and the southern part of the region was controlled by the Cherokee . The French based in modern-day Quebec also made inroads into the northern areas of

564-608: A "core" Appalachian region consisting of 164 counties in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, and a greater region defined by the ARC. In the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (2006), Appalachian State University historian Howard Dorgan suggests the term " Old Appalachia " for the region's cultural boundaries, noting an academic tendency to ignore the southwestern and northeastern extremes of

705-478: A Thousand Drips" is the last stop along the motor trail before it re-enters Gatlinburg. Appalachia Appalachia (locally / ˌ æ p ə ˈ l æ tʃ ə / , elsewhere also /- l eɪ tʃ ə , - l eɪ ʃ ə / ) is a geographic region located in the central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. In the north, its boundaries stretch from

846-411: A cabin, barn, and tub mill that were once part of the homestead of Noah "Bud" Ogle (1863–1913). The cabin is a "saddlebag" cabin, a design in which two cabins are built around the same chimney, with both cabins consisting of one story and loft. Ogle's barn is the last remaining four-pen barn in the park, consisting of four 11 feet (3.4 m) by 11 feet (3.4 m) pens. Ogle's tub mill, one of

987-1082: A distrust of religious hierarchies , both rooted in the evangelical tendencies of the region's pioneers, many of whom had been influenced by the Holiness movement and " New Light " movement in England. Many of the denominations brought from Europe underwent modifications or factioning during the Second Great Awakening (especially the Holiness movement) in the early 19th century. Several 18th and 19th-century religious traditions are still practiced in parts of Appalachia, including natural water (or "creek") baptism , rhythmically chanted preaching, congregational shouting, snake handling , and foot washing . While most church-goers in Appalachia attend fairly well-organized churches affiliated with regional or national bodies, small unaffiliated congregations are not uncommon in rural mountain areas. Protestantism

1128-473: A great frog squatting in the gap, but when the people who came to see it were frightened like the others and ran away from the monster he mocked at them for being afraid of a frog and went on to the next gap. The first European settlers arrived in the area around 1800, settling in the vicinity of what would eventually become Gatlinburg . Richard Reagan and William "Black Bill" Ogle—children of these early settlers—farmed land along Mill Creek (now LeConte Creek) in

1269-511: A house to take them in for the night but returned to North Carolina empty-handed. While moonshining no doubt occurred, Kephart's account is probably exaggerated. Gladys Trentham Russell, who grew up in the Fighting Creek area, estimated that less than 20% of mountain families ever engaged in the practice. Those who consumed moonshine often did so for medicinal purposes. Russell did acknowledge, however, that "bootleggers" and "bad men" made

1410-443: A lesser extent today, sociology studies have since begun to dispel them. While endowed with abundant natural resources, Appalachia has long struggled economically and has been associated with poverty. In the early 20th century, large-scale logging and coal mining firms brought jobs and modern amenities to Appalachia, but by the 1960s the region had failed to capitalize on any long-term benefits from these two industries. Beginning in

1551-629: A majority of southern Appalachians still supported the Union. Though with opposition by Southern Unionist , middle and southern Appalachia became components of the Confederacy . In 1861, a Minnesota newspaper identified 161 counties in southern Appalachia—which the paper called "Alleghenia"—where Union support remained strong, and which might provide crucial support for the defeat of the Confederacy. However, many of these Unionists—especially in

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1692-539: A movement among conservationists to preserve what remained and allow the land to "heal". In 1911, Congress passed the Weeks Act , giving the federal government authority to create national forests east of the Mississippi River and control timber harvesting. Regional writers and business interests led a movement to create national parks in the eastern United States similar to Yosemite and Yellowstone in

1833-540: A narrow valley between Mount Winnesoka and Piney Mountain. The mouth of Roaring Fork is located at the northern end of Gatlinburg , where it empties into the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River . The Roaring Fork valley is underlain by Precambrian sandstone of the Ocoee Supergroup, a rock formation formed from ancient ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. Roaring Fork Sandstone is found throughout

1974-408: A quasi-factual account of a North Carolina deputy's raid into the Sugarlands to find three fugitives. Kephart describes a cornfield planted on a slope "so steep that it must have been dug with mattocks and hoed on hands and knees." The residents, while polite, seemed very suspicious of the outsiders, offering no information on the three fugitives and refusing overnight lodging. The party eventually found

2115-618: A raging whitewater rapid after a mild rain shower. The "roar" of the water is amplified by its echo on surrounding mountain ridges. The source of Roaring Fork is located nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m) up along the northern slopes of Mount Le Conte , where several small springs converge. The highest of these springs, known as Basin Spring, provides the water source for LeConte Lodge. From its source, Roaring Fork drops 2,500 feet (760 m) over just two miles (3.2 km), spilling over Grotto Falls and absorbing Surry Creek before steadying in

2256-566: A resurgence in popularity across the country during the American folk music revival of the 1960s, when musicologists such as Mike Seeger , John Cohen , and Ralph Rinzler traveled to remote parts of the region in search of musicians who they thought were unaffected by modern music. Today, dozens of annual music festivals held throughout the region preserve the Appalachian music tradition. Early Appalachian literature typically centered on

2397-496: A significant role in developing the instrumental aspects of Appalachian music, most notably with the introduction of the five-stringed banjo —one of the region's iconic symbols—in the late 18th century. Another instrument known in Appalachian culture was the Appalachian dulcimer which, practically, is a guitar-shaped instrument laid on its side with a flat bottom and the strings plucked in a manner to make alternating notes. In

2538-593: A small percentage of the region's present population, their most notable concentration being the reservation of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in North Carolina. The Melungeons , a group of mixed African, European, and Native American ancestry, are scattered across northeastern Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, and southwestern Virginia. According to the American Factfinder 's 2013 data,

2679-466: A village of indigenous peoples near present-day Tallahassee, Florida , whose name they transcribed as Apalchen or Apalachen ( IPA: [aˈpal(a)tʃen] ). The name was altered by the Spanish to Apalache ( Apalachee ) and used as a name for the tribe and region spreading well inland to the north. Pánfilo de Narváez 's expedition first entered Apalachee territory on June 15, 1528, and applied

2820-569: Is a dialect of Midland American English known as the Southern Midland dialect and is spoken primarily in central and southern Appalachia. The Northern Midland dialect is spoken in the northern parts of the region, while Pittsburgh English (more commonly known as "Pittsburghese") is strongly influenced by the Appalachian dialect. The Southern Appalachian dialect is considered part of the Southern American dialect , although

2961-544: Is a narrow one-way road that is open to vehicular traffic (cars and small pickup trucks only) in spring, summer, and fall. Along with the historic district, the road passes by two overlooks and a forest that is representative of mid-level elevations in the Smokies. The trail begins just past the Rainbow Falls Trailhead on Cherokee Orchard Road and slowly ascends Piney Mountain, topping out at an overlook on

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3102-650: Is a stream in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee , located in the southeastern United States . Once the site of a small Appalachian community, today the stream's area is home to the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and the Roaring Fork Historic District . Like many mountain streams, Roaring Fork is volatile. While the stream presents as a peaceful trickle on any given day, it quickly becomes

3243-561: Is captured in works such as Olive Tilford Dargan 's Call Home to the Heart (1932), Agnes Sligh Turnbull 's The Rolling Years (1936), James Still 's The River of Earth (1940), Harriette Simpson Arnow 's The Dollmaker (1954), and Harry Caudill 's Night Comes to the Cumberlands (1962). In the 1970s and 1980s, the rise of authors like Breece D'J Pancake , Dorothy Allison , and Lisa Alther brought greater literary diversity to

3384-726: Is now Appalachia over 16,000 years ago. The earliest discovered site is the Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Washington County, Pennsylvania , which some scientists claim is pre- Clovis culture . Several other Archaic period (8000–1000 BC) archaeological sites have been identified in the region, such as the St. Albans site in West Virginia and the Icehouse Bottom site in Tennessee. The presence of Africans in

3525-735: Is now Kentucky took part in George Rogers Clark 's Illinois campaign . Two years later, a group of Appalachian frontiersmen known as the Overmountain Men routed British forces at the Battle of Kings Mountain after rejecting a call by the British to disarm. After the war, residents throughout the Appalachian backcountry—especially the Monongahela region in western Pennsylvania and antebellum northwestern Virginia (now

3666-490: Is pronounced /æpəˈleɪtʃ(i)ə/ , also /æpəˈleɪʃ(i)ə/ , all with a third syllable like "lay". The use of northern pronunciations is controversial to some in the southern region. Despite not being in Appalachia, Appalachian Trail organizations in New England popularized the occasional use of the "sh" sound for the "ch" in northern dialects in the early 20th century. Native American hunter-gatherers first arrived in what

3807-483: Is said that when other mills lacked sufficient water power because of low water levels, Reagan's mill would continue to operate. The Alex Cole Cabin is the last surviving structure from the Sugarlands community proper. Built by mountain guide Albert Alexander Cole, it has been moved from its original site to the Jim Bales Place along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail

3948-622: Is the largest city by population to be sometimes considered within the Appalachian region. As defined by the 2020 census , the following metropolitan statistical areas and micropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) are sometimes included as part of Appalachia: An estimated 90% of Appalachia's earliest European settlers originated from the Anglo-Scottish border country—namely the English counties of Cumberland , Westmorland , Northumberland, County Durham , Lancashire and Yorkshire , and

4089-506: Is the most dominant denomination in Appalachia, although there is a significant Roman Catholic presence in the northern half of the region and urban areas, such as Pittsburgh and Scranton. The region's early Lowland and Ulster Scot immigrants brought Presbyterianism to Appalachia, eventually organizing into bodies such as the Cumberland Presbyterian Church . English Baptists —most of whom had been influenced by

4230-450: The / æ p ə ˈ l æ tʃ ən z / , and the cultural region of Appalachia is pronounced /ˈæpəˈlætʃ(i)ə/ , both with a third syllable like the "la" in "latch". This pronunciation is favored in the "core" region in the central and southern parts of the Appalachian range. In northern U.S. dialects, the mountains are pronounced / æ p ə ˈ l eɪ tʃ ən z / or / æ p ə ˈ l eɪ ʃ ən z / . The cultural region of Appalachia

4371-587: The Appalachian Regional Commission was created to further alleviate poverty in the region, mainly by diversifying the region's economy and helping to provide better health care and educational opportunities to the region's inhabitants. By 1990, Appalachia had largely joined the economic mainstream but still lagged behind the rest of the nation in most economic indicators. Since Appalachia lacks definite physiographical or topographical boundaries, there has been some disagreement over what

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4512-606: The Civil War . While there were two major theaters of operation in the region—namely the Shenandoah Valley and the Chattanooga area—much of the violence was caused by bushwhackers and guerrilla warfare . The northernmost battles of the war were fought in Appalachia with the Battle of Buffington Island and the Battle of Salineville resulting from Morgan's Raid . Large numbers of livestock were killed (grazing

4653-492: The French and Indian War in 1763 lured settlers deeper into the mountains, namely to upper east Tennessee , northwestern North Carolina, upstate South Carolina , and central Kentucky. During the 18th century, enslaved Africans were brought to Appalachia by European settlers of trans-Appalachia Kentucky and the upper Blue Ridge Valley. According to the first census of 1790, more than 3,000 enslaved Africans were transported across

4794-571: The Manhattan Project and advancements in supercomputing and nuclear power . By the 1950s, poor farming techniques and the loss of jobs to mechanization in the mining industry had left much of central and southern Appalachia poverty-stricken. The lack of jobs also led to widespread difficulties with outmigration. Beginning in the 1930s, federal agencies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority began investing in

4935-703: The Separate Baptist and Regular Baptist movements—were also common on the Appalachian frontier, and today are represented in the region by groups such as the Free Will Baptists , the Southern Baptists , Missionary Baptists , and "old-time" groups such as the United Baptists and Primitive Baptists . Circuit riders such as Francis Asbury helped spread Methodism to Appalachia in the early 19th century, and today 9.2% of

5076-687: The Upland South , following Protestant Scotch-Irish migrations to the southern and Midwestern United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Upland South region includes the Ozark Plateau in Missouri , Arkansas , and Oklahoma , an area which is not included in the ARC definition. While exploring inland along the northern coast of Florida in 1528, the members of the Narváez expedition , including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca , found

5217-437: The yeoman farmers of Appalachia and their wealthier lowland counterparts continued to grow, especially as the latter dominated most state legislatures. People in Appalachia began to feel slighted over what they considered unfair taxation methods and lack of state funding for improvements (especially for roads). In the northern half of the region, the lowland elites consisted largely of industrial and business interests, whereas in

5358-471: The "Roamin' Man of the Mountains," Oakley's navigational instincts and extensive knowledge of area plant and animal life and oral traditions would later prove invaluable to park service scientists and anthropologists. When various entities began buying up land for the national park in the 1920s and 1930s, most of the inhabitants of the Sugarlands were displaced. Russell recalls: Most folks were happy with

5499-514: The 1860s and native novelists such as Mary Noailles Murfree . Works such as Rebecca Harding Davis 's Life in the Iron Mills (1861), Emma Bell Miles ' The Spirit of the Mountains (1905), Catherine Marshall's Christy (1912), Horace Kephart 's Our Southern Highlanders (1913) marked a shift in the region's literature from local color to realism. The transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society and its effects on Appalachia

5640-579: The 18th century, Appalachia (then known simply as the "backcountry") began to distinguish itself from its wealthier lowland and coastal neighbors to the east. Frontiersmen often argued with lowland and tidewater elites over taxes, sometimes to the point of armed revolts such as the Regulator Movement (1767–1771) in North Carolina. In 1778, at the height of the American Revolution , backwoodsmen from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and what

5781-402: The 1930s, the federal government sought to alleviate poverty in the Appalachian region with a series of New Deal initiatives, specifically the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The TVA was responsible for the construction of hydroelectric dams that provide a vast amount of electricity and that support programs for better farming practices, regional planning, and economic development. In 1965,

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5922-507: The 21st century. Since 2001, a number of the region's public schools were threatened with loss of funding due to difficulties fulfilling the demands of No Child Left Behind . Appalachian music is one of the best-known manifestations of Appalachian culture. Traditional Appalachian music (called old-time music ) is derived primarily from the English, Irish, and Scottish ballad and fiddle traditions. African-American blues musicians played

6063-553: The ARC's pragmatic definition. The term " Greater Appalachia " was introduced by American journalist Colin Woodard in his 2011 book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America . Sean Trende , senior elections analyst at RealClearPolitics , defines "Greater Appalachia" in his 2012 book The Lost Majority as including both the Appalachian Mountains region and

6204-593: The Appalachian Mountains dates back to the 16th century with the arrival of European colonists. Enslaved Africans were first brought to America during the 16th-century Spanish expeditions to the mountainous regions of the South. In 1526 enslaved Africans were brought to the Pee Dee River region of western North Carolina by Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllõn . Enslaved Africans also accompanied

6345-509: The Appalachian region. Sociologists such as James Brown and Cratis Williams and authors such as Harry Caudill and Michael Harrington brought attention to the region's plight in the 1960s, prompting Congress to create the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1965. The commission's efforts helped to stem the tide of outmigration and diversify the region's economies. Although there have been drastic improvements in

6486-593: The Bales Place. As Bales got older, the farm passed on to other families, one of which erected a modern frame house on the land (known as the "fancy house") where they entertained visitors. When the Park Service gained control of the land in the 1930s, the frame house was torn down. The Alex Cole Cabin, being more representative of the pioneer days of Appalachia, was moved to the farm from the Sugarlands. Bales' corn crib and barn remain, however. Just below

6627-599: The Bales and Reagan families lived on adjoining lands, the families intermarried. Caleb Bales married one of Richard Reagan's granddaughters, Elizabeth, in 1861. Ephraim Bales married a great-granddaughter of Richard Reagan, Minerva, in 1889. Caleb's daughter, Martha, married Alfred Reagan in 1879. Uppermost on Roaring Fork, near where the stream absorbs Surry Creek, were farms owned by the Clabo family, Gilbert Ogle, and Jasper Mellinger. Former homesteads can usually be identified by

6768-576: The Blue Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee. Although Swedes and Finns formed only a tiny portion of the Appalachian settlers, it was Swedish and Finnish settlers of New Sweden who brought the northern European woodsman skills such as log cabin construction which formed the basis of backwoods Appalachian material culture. Germans were a major pioneer group to migrate to Appalachia, settling mainly in western Pennsylvania and southwest Virginia . Smaller numbers of Germans were also among

6909-628: The CCC camp which was located about a mile away. The Rock House is a stone structure consisting of two rooms and containing artifacts from its time in use. Broken bottles, bed frames, and an old camp stove remain within. The house was not noted in a 1931 USGS topographic map of the area, but does appear in a 1942 USGS topographic map. It has fallen into disrepair and should be explored with caution. 35°41′08″N 83°32′11″W  /  35.6855°N 83.5365°W  / 35.6855; -83.5365 Roaring Fork (Great Smoky Mountains) Roaring Fork

7050-562: The Carolinas filled up, immigrants began pushing further and further westward into the Appalachian Mountains. A relatively large proportion of the early backcountry immigrants were Ulster Scots —later known as " Scotch-Irish ", a group mostly originating from southern Scotland and northern England, many of whom had settled in Ulster Ireland prior to migrating to America —who were seeking cheaper land and freedom from prejudice as

7191-488: The Civil War, mandatory education laws and state assistance helped larger communities begin to establish grade schools and high schools. During the same period, many of the region's institutions of higher education were established or greatly expanded. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, service organizations such as Pi Beta Phi and various religious organizations established settlement schools and mission schools in

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7332-1166: The Company of Women , Hazard Zones , Gloria , Running , Morgantown , Lyndon Johnson and the Majorettes , Looking Good ) Maurice Manning ( Bucolics , A Companion for Owls ), Anne Shelby ( Appalachian Studies , We Keep a Store ), George Ella Lyon ( Borrowed Children , Don't You Remember? ), Pamela Duncan ( Moon Women , The Big Beautiful ), David Joy ( Where All Light Tends to Go , The Weight of This World ), Chris Offutt ( No Heroes , The Good Brother ), Charles Frazier ( Cold Mountain , Thirteen Moons ), Sharyn McCrumb ( The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter ), Robert Morgan ( Gap Creek ), Jim Wayne Miller ( The Brier Poems ), Gurney Norman ( Divine Right's Trip , Kinfolks ), Ron Rash ( Serena ), Elizabeth Madox Roberts ( The Great Meadow , The Time of Man ), Thomas Wolfe ( Look Homeward Angel , You Can't Go Home Again ), Rachel Carson ( The Sea Around Us , Silent Spring ; Presidential Medal of Freedom ), and Jeannette Walls ( The Glass Castle ). Appalachian literature crosses with

7473-602: The Huskey Gap Trail. During the tourism boom in subsequent decades, Cole was a much sought-after mountain guide due to his knowledge of the Mount Le Conte area. The "Rock House," as it is locally known, can be found along a moderately difficult and faint footpath extending roughly a half mile off of the Old Sugarlands Trail. This structure is of unknown origin, although it is likely linked to

7614-637: The Huskey Gap Trailhead along Newfound Gap Road follows this road along the river's west bank), but was later moved to the Jim Bales Place along the Roaring Motor Nature Trail a few miles to the east. Like many Sugarlanders, Albert Alexander "Alex" Cole (1870–1958) and his sons worked for the Little River Lumber Company at Elkmont, making a weekly trek across Sugarland Mountain via what is now

7755-475: The Jim Bales Place is visible on the right (east). The Grapeyard Ridge Trail, which connects Roaring Fork to Greenbrier, begins just behind the barn. Past the Jim Bales Place are the Ephraim Bales Place and Alfred Reagan Place. The road continues to descend past the historic district, passing along the way a parking lot that allows for a view of Roaring Fork. A thin waterfall known as "The Place of

7896-498: The Jim Bales place is the farm of Ephraim and Minerva Bales. Ephraim, Jim Bales' older brother, farmed some 30 acres (120,000 m ) of his 70-acre (280,000 m ) plot. The other 40 acres (160,000 m ) were mostly wooded, which the Bales family used for construction material and firewood. The Bales cabin was a double cabin with a passageway known as a "dog trot" in between. Dog-trot cabins, which are fairly common throughout

8037-573: The Lowland Scottish counties of Ayrshire , Dumfriesshire, Roxburghshire , Berwickshire and Wigtownshire . Most of these were from families who had been resettled in the Ulster Plantation in northern Ireland in the 17th century, but some came directly from the Anglo-Scottish border region. In America, these people are often grouped under the single name " Scotch-Irish " or "Scots-Irish". Many of these Scots-Irish emigrated to

8178-400: The Middle and West forks of Little Pigeon River." In the legend "Aganunitsi and the Uktena," the Shawano medicine man, Aganunitsi, in exchange for his freedom, seeks out the great serpent, Uktena , in hopes of snatching a magical jewel from its forehead. After searching the surrounding mountains, Aganunitsi found his way to Walasi'yi: Going still south to Walasi'yi, the Frog place, he found

8319-400: The Mountain View Hotel in 1916. With the arrival of tourism, Sugarlanders found a wider market for their furs and produce. During this period, many Sugarlanders became legendary as mountain guides. Wiley Oakley (1885–1954), the most famous of these guides, lived on the northern slopes of Mount Le Conte in an area known as the Scratch Britches (now traversed by the Rainbow Falls Trail). Known as

8460-409: The Noah Ogle homestead and the eastern head of the Old Sugarlands Trail. The Noah Ogle Place at the northeastern fringe of the valley, the John Ownby Cabin near the Sugarland Visitor Center, and the Alex Cole Cabin now at Roaring Fork are the last remaining extant building from the valley's pre-park communities. Various stone foundations, chimney falls, and crude rock walls remain scattered throughout

8601-420: The Ocoee Supergroup, known specifically as Roaring Fork sandstone. This rock, like other formations throughout the Appalachian region, was formed from ancient ocean sediments nearly one billion years ago. Erosional forces throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras—especially during the last ice age —have carried rocks of various sizes down from boulder fields high up on the surrounding mountain slopes, leaving

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8742-410: The Old Sugarlands Trail, crossing the slopes of Bull Head before intersecting The Boulevard Trail atop Mount Le Conte . The Huskey Gap Trail, with its trailhead along Newfound Gap Road a mile past the visitors center, ascends Sugarland Mountain to the Sugarland Mountain Trail . Both the Boulevard Trail and Sugarland Mountain Trail intersect the Appalachian Trail along the crest of the Smokies to

8883-404: The Roaring Fork Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The first historic stop along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is the Jim Bales Place, a farm which Jim Bales inherited from his father, Caleb. Jim, born James Wesley Bales in 1869, lived here for much of his life. He married Emma Ogle, a granddaughter of Gilbert Ogle, whose farm was located just above

9024-409: The Scotch-Irish were looked down upon by other more powerful elements in society. Others included Germans from the Palatinate region and English settlers from the Anglo-Scottish border country. Between 1730 and 1763, immigrants trickled into western Pennsylvania , the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and western Maryland . Thomas Walker's discovery of the Cumberland Gap in 1750 and the end of

9165-434: The Smokies today. The cabin's design is known as a "saddlebag" design, which involves two cabins constructed around a single chimney. A kitchen area was added later. The Reagan mill is a standard tub mill, with a flume directing water from Roaring Fork to power a tub-wheel turbine. The turbine turns a grindstone which breaks down corn and wheat into cornmeal and flour. Reagan's mill was well designed and well positioned. It

9306-436: The Smokies. Andrew Huff had erected a sawmill in Gatlinburg, and the Little River Lumber Company began operating in the upper reaches of Little River by 1908. Many Sugarlanders found employment with the latter in Elkmont , which could be reached on foot by crossing Sugarland Mountain via what is now the Huskey Gap Trail. Bark from trees cut in the Sugarlands was often used for tanning . Poverty plagued much of Appalachia in

9447-413: The Southern Appalachia has a white majority, comprising 84% of the population. African Americans are 7% and Hispanics or Latinos are 6% of the population. Asians and Pacific Islanders are 1.5% of the population. The counties have great differences among themselves, in terms of racial and ethnic diversity. Christianity is the main religion in Appalachia, which is characterized by a sense of independence and

9588-434: The Sugarlands Visitor Center. From this intersection, it is approximately 25 miles to Cades Cove in the western Smokies, 22 miles to Newfound Gap , and 34 miles to Cherokee , North Carolina. Gatlinburg is two miles to the north. The Old Sugarlands Trail, which is both a hiking and horse trail, connects the Fighting Creek area along Newfound Gap Road with the Cherokee Orchard area. The Bullhead Trail branches off from

9729-414: The Sugarlands to get a basic education and helped to improve the health and economy of the area. By 1900, moonshining had become rampant throughout the Smokies. The dense forest, isolated coves, and ready availability of corn made mountain valleys such as the Sugarlands the perfect places to hide and operate illegal stills. Horace Kephart , a writer who lived on the North Carolina side of the mountains in

9870-435: The Sugarlands was a "land of poorer homes" than even Gatlinburg, which was selected for the settlement school as the community most in need. Another recalled a dining experience with a family in the Sugarlands where the food was served on "large pail lids" while chickens roamed freely through the house. Some of the area children did not know simple childhood games, and others knew nothing about Christmas . Regardless, building on

10011-419: The Sugarlands, and Greenbrier were continually moving and stacking these rocks, creating the characteristic rock walls that still criss-cross these areas today. Between 1800 and 1810, the first permanent Euro-American settlers arrived in the White Oak Flats area around what is now Gatlinburg. In the following decades, their descendants spread out into the surrounding coves and valleys. Richard Reagan (1776–1829),

10152-585: The United States "Alleghania" or "Appalachia" in place of "America", since the latter name belonged to Latin America too. Edgar Allan Poe later took up the idea and considered Appalachia a much better name than America or Alleghania; he thought it better defined the United States as a distinct geographical entity, separate from the rest of the Americas, and he also thought it did honor to both Irving and

10293-683: The United States government into areas of science and technology were established in the mid-20th century, notably with NASA 's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, crucial with the design of Apollo program launch vehicles and propulsion of the Space Shuttle program , and at adjacent facilities Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee with

10434-490: The Whig Party had disintegrated. Sentiments in northern Appalachia had shifted to the pro- abolitionist Republican Party . In southern Appalachia, abolitionists still constituted a radical minority, although several smaller opposition parties (most of which were both pro- Union and pro-slavery) were formed to oppose the planter-dominated Southern Democrats . As states in the southern United States moved toward secession ,

10575-507: The area for the park service. The ruins of this camp remain along a bend in the Old Sugarlands Trail. The closing of the CCC camp after World War II was the end of permanent human habitation in the Sugarlands. The forest quickly reclaimed the farmland, and other than a few small mountain cemeteries and the occasional odd clearing or pile of stones, few signs of the former inhabitants remain today. The park's two main paved roads—Fighting Creek Gap Road and Newfound Gap Road ( US-441 )—intersect at

10716-510: The barns), chicken coops , and toolsheds. There were at least five gristmills in the Sugarlands, the largest belonging to Caleb Trentham. The tubwheel-powered mill of Noah "Bud" Ogle still stands today at Cherokee Orchard. Like much of southern Appalachia , the U.S. Civil War proved devastating for the Sugarlands. The mountain communities of East Tennessee (most of which were pro- Union ) were especially vulnerable, as they were easy targets for Confederate raiders from North Carolina. During

10857-523: The commission was established, counties were added based on economic need, however, rather than any cultural parameters. The first major attempt to map Appalachia as a distinctive cultural region came in the 1890s with the efforts of Berea College president William Goodell Frost , whose "Appalachian America" included 194 counties in 8 states. In 1921, John C. Campbell published The Southern Highlander and His Homeland in which he modified Frost's map to include 254 counties in 9 states. A landmark survey of

10998-402: The early 19th century, they named the valley after the many sugar maple trees growing in the area at the time. Syrup was made from the sap in these trees and used as a sweetener in the days before the availability of cane sugar. While these trees were cleared by the early settlers, the sugar maple is still common throughout the park. The Sugarlands is underlain by a Precambrian sandstone of

11139-557: The early 20th century, and the Sugarlands was no exception. Former resident Alie Newman Maples recalled in a poem: The Sugarlands so clear and clean, Altho our meals were mighty lean. In 1912, the Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity established the Pi Beta Phi settlement school in Gatlinburg to combat poverty in the area. The early Pi Phi teachers' scrapbooks and letters recalled the region's sub-par conditions. One remarked that

11280-410: The early 20th century, described the Sugarlands during this period: ...a country of ill fame, hidden deep in remote gorges, difficult of access, tenanted by a sparse population who preferred to be a law unto themselves. For many a year it had been known on our side as Blockaders' Glory, which is the same as saying Moonshiners' Paradise, and we all believed it to be fitly named. Kephart goes on to give

11421-426: The early 20th century. Along with the cabin, Bales' corn crib, hog pen, and barn are still standing today, just a few yards from the cabin. A rock wall and paling fence behind the cabin are representative of the two major barriers used in the northern Smokies in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Alfred Reagan, a descendant of the area's first settlers, owned a small farm just below the Ephraim Bales Place. Reagan

11562-563: The eastern half of the Sugarlands. William Trentham homesteaded in the Fighting Creek area, where the Sugarlands Visitor Center now stands. In subsequent decades, three communities developed in the Sugarlands valley—the Forks-of-the-River and Fighting Creek communities in the vicinity of what is now the Sugarlands Visitor Center, and the Sugarlands community proper, which lay further to the south, between

11703-608: The end of Reconstruction . Pittsburgh as well as Knoxville grew into major industrial centers, especially regarding iron and steel production. By 1900, the Chattanooga area of north Georgia and northern Alabama had experienced similar changes with manufacturing booms in Atlanta and Birmingham at the edge of the Appalachian region. Railroad construction gave the greater nation access to the vast coalfields in central Appalachia, making its economy greatly dependent on coal mining. As

11844-419: The expeditions of Fernando de Soto in 1540 and Juan Pardo in 1566, who both traveled through Appalachia. The de Soto and Pardo expeditions explored the mountains of South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia, and encountered complex agrarian societies consisting of Muskogean-speaking inhabitants. De Soto indicated that much of the region west of the mountains was part of the domain of Coosa ,

11985-432: The far reaches of the Sugarlands too dangerous for women and children. In the 19the century, mountain areas became popular vacation destinations, especially since large urban areas were often wanting for clean air and scenery. Mineral-rich mountain springs were thought to have health-restoring qualities, and the cool air of the higher elevations lured people seeking relief from allergies and hay fever. Colonel W. B. Townsend,

12126-524: The feuds as the natural products of profound ignorance, poverty, and isolation, and perhaps even inbreeding . In reality, the leading participants were typically well-to-do local elites with networks of clients who, like the Northeast and Chicago political machines , fought for their power over local and regional politics. Logging firms' rapid devastation of the forests of the Appalachians sparked

12267-655: The habitats of native species and contributed significantly to the decline in agricultural land use in larger Appalachia. There are growing IT sectors in many parts of the region. Frontier , the fastest supercomputer in the world, is housed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. In the 21st century, Appalachia has swung heavily towards the Republican Party . Due to topographic considerations, several major cities are located near but not included in Appalachia. These include Cincinnati , Ohio, Cleveland , Ohio, Nashville, Tennessee , and Atlanta , Georgia. Pittsburgh

12408-586: The initial successes of the Gatlinburg school, the Pi Phis decided to open a school in the Sugarlands in 1920. The school was located near the old Ransom Sims place, in the vicinity of the Sugarlands Cemetery. While the Sugarlanders were initially suspicious of the Pi Phis' intentions, they eventually welcomed the benefits of the settlement school. Its presence allowed children in Gatlinburg and

12549-509: The initial wave of migrants to the southern mountains. The initial wave of Appalachian ethnography and anthropology in the first half of the 20th century disregarded this German culture, instead choosing to focus almost solely on the Scots-Irish component of Appalachian culture. This was likely due to Germanophobia caused by the two World Wars, and has since begun to be corrected. In the 19th century, Welsh immigrants were brought into

12690-581: The initiative failed after Tennessee's governor ordered the Confederate Army to occupy the region, forcing East Tennessee's Unionists to flee to the north or go into hiding. The one exception was the so-called Free and Independent State of Scott , though it was never recognized by either the Union or the Confederacy and thus would later be invaded by Confederates. Both central and southern Appalachia suffered tremendous violence and turmoil during

12831-638: The larger genre of Southern literature . Internationally renowned writers such as William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy have made notable contributions to the American canon with tales set within Appalachia. McCarthy's Suttree (1979) is an intense vision of the squalidness and brutality of life along the Tennessee River , in the heart of Appalachia. Other McCarthy novels set in Appalachia include The Orchard Keeper (1965), Outer Dark (1968), and Child of God (1973). Appalachia also serves as

12972-434: The late 19th century, Appalachia has been a source of enduring myths and distortions regarding the isolation, temperament, and behavior of its inhabitants. Early 20th-century writers often engaged in yellow journalism focused on sensationalistic aspects of the region's culture, such as moonshining and clan feuding , portraying the region's inhabitants as uneducated and unrefined; although these stereotypes still exist to

13113-597: The mid-level elevations of the northern Smokies and is especially common in Greenbrier to the east and the Sugarlands to the west. Over thousands of years, erosional forces have carried boulders composed of this sandstone down from boulder fields located higher up along the mountain ridges. This process has left the streambed of Roaring Fork and the flats in the Roaring Fork valley virtually covered with sandstone rocks of all sizes. Farmers who lived at Roaring Fork,

13254-524: The mountain areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama—were "conditional" Unionists in that they opposed secession but also opposed violence to prevent secession, and thus when their respective state legislatures voted to secede, some would either shift their support to the Confederacy, or flee the state. Kentucky sought to remain neutral at the outset of the conflict, opting not to supply troops to either side. After Virginia voted to secede, several mountain counties in northwestern Virginia rejected

13395-511: The mountain's northern slopes (the overlook's elevation is roughly 3,000 feet/910 meters). Just past the overlook, the road passes numerous large chestnut tree blowdowns. These trees, which often grew to 5–6 feet in diameter, were killed off by a blight in the 1930s. As the road descends Piney Mountain, it passes a parking lot at the Trillium Gap Trailhead . This hiking trail leads past Grotto Falls and Trillium Gap en route to

13536-707: The mountains into East Tennessee and more than 12,000 into the Kentucky mountains. Between 1790 and 1840, a series of treaties with the Cherokee and other Native American tribes opened up lands in north Georgia , north Alabama , the Tennessee Valley , the Cumberland Plateau , and the Great Smoky Mountains . The last of these treaties culminated in the removal of the bulk of the Cherokee population (as well as Choctaw , Chickasaw and others) from

13677-490: The name. Now spelled "Appalachian", it is the fourth oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. After the de Soto expedition in 1540, Spanish cartographers began to apply the name of the tribe to the Appalachian Mountain range. The first cartographic appearance of Apalchen is on Diego Gutiérrez 's 1562 map; the first use for the mountain range is the 1565 map by Jacques le Moyne de Morgues . Le Moyne

13818-547: The nationwide demand for lumber skyrocketed, lumber firms turned to the virgin forests of southern Appalachia, using sawmill and logging railroad innovations to reach remote timber stands. The Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and Virginia and the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia became major petrochemical production centers. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw the development of various regional stereotypes. Attempts by President Rutherford B. Hayes to enforce

13959-430: The natives after whom the Appalachian Mountains had been named. At the time, however, the United States had already reached far beyond the greater Appalachian region, but the "magnificence" of Appalachia Poe considered enough to rechristen the nation with a name that would be unique to its character. However, Poe's popular influence only grew decades after his death, and so the name was never seriously considered. By 1860,

14100-597: The north-central part of West Virginia)—refused to pay a tax placed on whiskey by the new American government, leading to what became known as the Whiskey Rebellion . The resulting tighter federal controls in the Monongahela valley resulted in many whiskey/bourbon makers migrating via the Ohio River to Kentucky and Tennessee where the industry could flourish. In the early 19th century, the rift between

14241-576: The northern slopes of Mount Le Conte. He was forced to withdraw, however, when a Union relief force threatened to surround the fort. As small farms in the Sugarlands recovered from the Civil War, some began growing enough excess crops to sell or trade. The more prosperous farmers opened small general stores, which were often located in the store owner's house or a room attached to the house. The stores sold flour, meal, meat, soda, salt, coffee, tobacco, snuff, and castor oil. The stores also bought (or traded for) chickens, eggs, honey, ginseng, and furs, which

14382-569: The observations of people from outside the region, such as Henry Timberlake 's Memoirs (1765) and Thomas Jefferson 's Notes on the State of Virginia (1784), although there are notable exceptions, including Davy Crockett 's A Narrative of the Life of Davy Crockett (1834). Travellers' accounts published in 19th-century magazines gave rise to Appalachian local color , which reached its height with George Washington Harris 's Sut Lovingood character of

14523-662: The ordinance and with the help of the Union Army established a separate state, admitted to the Union as West Virginia in 1863. However, half the counties included in the new state, comprising two-thirds of its territory, were secessionist and pro-Confederate. This caused great difficulty for the Unionist state government in Wheeling , both during and after the war. A similar effort occurred in East Tennessee. Still,

14664-579: The owner of the Little River Lumber Company, began to see the value of creating recreational areas on land that had already been stripped of its wood. In 1909, after the Elkmont area had largely been cleared, the company's train, the Little River Railroad , began offering daily train service from Knoxville to Elkmont in conjunction with Knoxville's Southern Railroad. Tourists also began pouring into Gatlinburg, especially after Andrew Huff opened

14805-484: The park's two surviving tub mills (the other is at the Alfred Reagan Place at Roaring Fork), consists of a millhouse connected via vertical shaft to a tubwheel turbine. An 80-foot (24 m) flume diverts water from LeConte Creek to power the mill. The Alex Cole Cabin was originally located on the east bank of the West Fork of Little Pigeon River along the old Indian Gap Road (the "Quiet Walkway" opposite

14946-506: The parts of the region south of the Mason–Dixon line , the lowland elites consisted of large-scale land-owning planters . The Whig Party , formed in the 1830s, drew widespread support from disaffected Appalachians. Tensions between the mountain counties and state governments sometimes reached the point of mountain counties threatening to break off and form separate states. In 1832, bickering between western Virginia and eastern Virginia over

15087-554: The preponderance of young tuliptrees (rather than the more common hemlock or oak), as tuliptrees are the quickest to reclaim previously cultivated land. Around 1850, the residents of Roaring Fork constructed a crude road connecting the area to White Oak Flats (this old road is now a stop along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail). By 1900, the community had matured into a mountain hamlet with its own school, church, general store, and tub mills . In 1976,

15228-551: The prospects of selling their rocky fields and hillsides for more money than they estimated it to be worth, but some felt they didn't want to be driven from their old homeplaces at any price. While most Sugarlanders accepted buy-out offers, a few had to be forced out via condemnation suits. Shortly after the formation of the park, the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a camp along the West Fork which operated from 1933 to 1942, building roads and trails in

15369-1373: The region encompasses. The most commonly used modern definition of Appalachia is the one initially defined by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) in 1965 and expanded over subsequent decades. The region defined by the commission currently includes 420 counties and eight independent cities in 13 states, including all 55 counties in West Virginia , 14 counties in New York, 52 in Pennsylvania , 32 in Ohio , 3 in Maryland , 54 in Kentucky , 25 counties and 8 cities in Virginia , 29 in North Carolina , 52 in Tennessee , 6 in South Carolina , 37 in Georgia , 37 in Alabama , and 24 in Mississippi . When

15510-542: The region for their mining and metallurgical expertise, and by 1900 over 100,000 Welsh immigrants were living in western Pennsylvania alone. Thousands of German-speaking Swiss migrated to Appalachia in the second half of the 19th century, and their descendants remain in places such as East Bernstadt, Kentucky , and Gruetli-Laager, Tennessee . The coal mining and manufacturing boom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought large numbers of Italians and Eastern Europeans to Appalachia, although most of these families left

15651-589: The region in modern-day New York state and Pennsylvania. By the mid-18th century the French had outposts such as Fort Duquesne and Fort Le Boeuf controlling the access points of the Allegheny River and upper Ohio River valleys after exploration by Celeron de Bienville . European migration into Appalachia began in the 18th century. As lands in eastern Pennsylvania, the Tidewater region of Virginia and

15792-625: The region in the following decade by the United States Department of Agriculture defined the region as consisting of 206 counties in 6 states. In 1984, Karl Raitz and Richard Ulack expanded the ARC's definition to include 445 counties in 13 states, although they removed all counties in Mississippi and added two in New Jersey . Historian John Alexander Williams, in his 2002 book Appalachia: A History , distinguished between

15933-800: The region to believe they were more widespread than in reality. In an 1899 article in The Atlantic , Berea College president William G. Frost attempted to redefine the inhabitants of Appalachia as "noble mountaineers"—relics of the nation's pioneer period whose isolation had left them unaffected by modern times. Entering the 21st century, residents of Appalachia are viewed by many Americans as uneducated and unrefined, resulting in culture-based stereotyping and discrimination in many areas, including employment and housing. Such discrimination has prompted some to seek redress under prevailing federal and state civil rights laws. Appalachia, and especially Kentucky, became nationally known for its violent feuds in

16074-461: The region via the Trail of Tears in the 1830s. Appalachian frontiersmen have long been romanticized for their ruggedness and self-sufficiency. A typical depiction of an Appalachian pioneer involves a hunter wearing a coonskin cap and buckskin clothing , and sporting a long rifle and shoulder-strapped powder horn . Perhaps no single figure symbolizes the Appalachian pioneer more than Daniel Boone ,

16215-561: The region when the Great Depression shattered the economy in the 1930s. African Americans have been present in the region since the 18th century, and currently make up 8% of the ARC-designated region, mostly concentrated in urban areas and former mining and manufacturing towns; The African-American component of Appalachia is sometimes termed Affrilachia . Native Americans, the region's original inhabitants, are now only

16356-412: The region's economic conditions since the commission's founding, the ARC listed 80 counties as "distressed" in 2020, with nearly half of them (38) in Kentucky. Since the 1980s, population growth in southern Appalachia has brought about concerns of farmland loss and hazards to the local environment. Regarding housing development, exurban development , characterized by its low-density housing, has violated

16497-528: The region's history, education in Appalachia has lagged behind the rest of the nation due in part to struggles with funding from respective state governments and an agrarian-oriented population that often did not see a practical need for formal education. Early education in the region evolved from teaching Christian morality and learning to read the Bible in small, one-room schoolhouses that convened in months when children were not needed to help with farm work. After

16638-529: The region's more rural areas. In the 20th century, national trends began to have more of an effect on education in Appalachia, sometimes clashing with the region's traditional values. The Scopes Trial —the nation's most publicized debate over the teaching of the theory of evolution —took place in Dayton, Tennessee , in southern Appalachia in 1925. Despite consolidation and centralization, schools in Appalachia struggled to keep up with federal and state demands into

16779-809: The region's population is Methodist, represented by such bodies as the United Methodist Church , the Free Methodist Church , and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church . Pentecostal movements within the region include the Church of God (based in Cleveland, Tennessee ) and the Assemblies of God . Scattered Mennonite colonies exist throughout the region. The Appalachian dialect

16920-726: The region. Along with the above-mentioned, some of Appalachia's best known writers include James Agee ( A Death in the Family ), Anne W. Armstrong ( This Day and Time ), Wendell Berry ( Hannah Coulter , The Unforeseen Wilderness: An Essay on Kentucky's Red River Gorge , Selected Poems of Wendell Berry ), Jesse Stuart ( Taps for Private Tussie , The Thread That Runs So True ), Denise Giardina ( The Unquiet Earth , Storming Heaven ), Lee Smith ( Fair and Tender Ladies , On Agate Hill ), Silas House ( Clay's Quilt , A Parchment of Leaves ), Wilma Dykeman ( The Far Family , The Tall Woman ), Keith Maillard ( Alex Driving South , Light in

17061-496: The remote mountain districts. They pitted the men in extended clans against each other for decades, often using assassination and arson as weapons, along with ambushes , gunfights , and pre-arranged shootouts . The infamous Hatfield-McCoy Feud was the best-known of these family feuds. Some of the feuds were continuations of violent local Civil War episodes. Journalists often wrote about the violence, using stereotypes that "city folks" had developed about Appalachia; they interpreted

17202-408: The son of one of these pioneers, settled on a large plot of land just south of Gatlinburg along LeConte Creek. Some of Reagan's children settled to the west in the Sugarlands, while some of them moved east to the hollow along Roaring Fork, which was then known as "Spruce Flats." By 1900, three of Reagan's grandsons, Alfred Reagan (1856–1928), Aaron Reagan, and John H. Reagan were still farming along

17343-677: The south. Two short trails labelled "Quiet Walkways" connect Newfound Gap Road with an area of stone ruins along the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River. An interpretive loop trail behind the Sugarlands Visitor Center leads past the John Ownby Cabin and the ruins of the Noah McCarter place. Cherokee Orchard Road connects US-441 in Gatlinburg to the Cherokee Orchard and Roaring Fork areas, and passes by

17484-413: The southeastern U.S., typically involve two adjacent cabins with roughly 10 feet (3.0 m) in between, but with one continuous roof. The space between the two halves was relatively cool in summer and warm in winter, making it attractive to dogs. Both halves of the cabin have their own chimney. With the exception of a back porch, the cabin remains largely as it was when the Bales family lived in here in

17625-586: The state's constitution led to calls on both sides for the state's separation into two states. In 1841, Tennessee state senator (and later U.S. president) Andrew Johnson introduced legislation in the Tennessee Senate calling for the creation of a separate state in East Tennessee. The proposed state would have been known as " Frankland " and would have invited like-minded mountain counties in Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama to join it. In 1839 Washington Irving proposed to rename

17766-539: The store owner would take to Sevierville or Knoxville to trade. Sugarlanders who lived near fords of the Pigeon River had the most lucrative storefronts. Among them were Richard Reason Reagan (1830–1912), who owned a general store near the Sugarland Branch ford, and Alex Cole, who operated a storefront further up the river. Around 1900, sawmills began moving into the area to harvest the thick forests of

17907-490: The stream, just above Gatlinburg. The Bales family settled in the upper section of Roaring Fork sometime in the 1830s or earlier. Caleb Bales (1839–1913), apparently a son or nephew of the first Bales to settle on Roaring Fork, owned a farm just south of the Reagan lands. Caleb's sons Jim Bales (1869–1939) and Ephraim Bales (1867–1936) would spend most of their lives on Roaring Fork farming land inherited from their father. As

18048-558: The summit of Mount Le Conte. Trillium Gap—the gap between Brushy Mountain and the main Le ;Conte massif—was named by Horace Albright , who observed the trillium -filled area in the 1920s. Past the Trillium Gap Trailhead, the road enters the upper reaches of the Roaring Fork hollow. Patches of young tuliptrees mark the former location of the Clabo and Ogle farms. Immediately after the road crosses Roaring Fork,

18189-528: The two "Quiet Walkways" opposite the Huskey Gap Trail and the Chimney picnic area. Most of the inhabitants still living in the Sugarlands when the park was formed were descended from these early settlers. For much of the 19th century, Sugarlanders lived in log cabins . The typical mountain cabin consisted of one room, 16' × 20', constructed of notched logs and puncheon floors. A chimney, usually made of slate and clay, rose along one wall. A lone window

18330-424: The two are distinguished by the rhotic nature of the Appalachian dialect. Early 20th-century writers believed the Appalachian dialect to be a surviving relic of Old World Scottish or Elizabethan dialects. Recent research suggests, however, that while the dialect has a stronger Scottish influence than other American dialects, most of its distinguishing characteristics have developed in the United States. For much of

18471-406: The valley coated with a bouldery alluvium . Early farmers, having to move these rocks in order plant crops, stacked them up to make crude stone walls, many of which remain today. In Cherokee lore, the Sugarlands was part of the area known as "Walasi'yi", or "Frog place". Walasi'yi included Mount Le Conte and Bull Head, as well as "the ridge extending into Sevier County, Tennessee , between

18612-579: The valley, giving hints of the layout of the early Appalachian settlements. The farmland, however, has been almost wholly reclaimed by hardwood forest. Built in 1860, the John Ownby Cabin is the last surviving structure from the pre-park Forks-of-the-River community. Repaired in 1964, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. The Noah Ogle Place, located along LeConte Creek just south of Gatlinburg, consists of

18753-554: The war, Will Thomas —a Confederate colonel and later Cherokee chief—made improvements to the Oconaluftee Turnpike to allow Confederate marauders easier access to Sevier County. The Sugarlands would have been among the first communities approached along this road heading north from Chimney Tops . Early in the war, Thomas' forces ascended the turnpike and occupied Gatlinburg. Thomas erected a small fort on Burg Hill in hopes of protecting salt peter mines at Alum Cave, along

18894-579: The west, culminating in the creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park , Shenandoah National Park , Cumberland Gap National Historical Park , and the Blue Ridge Parkway in the 1930s. During the same period, New England forester Benton MacKaye led the movement to build the 2,175-mile (3,500 km) Appalachian Trail, stretching from Georgia to Maine . Several significant moments of investment by

19035-479: The western Catskill Mountains of New York, continuing south through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains into northern Georgia , Alabama , and Mississippi , with West Virginia near the center, being the only state entirely within the boundaries of Appalachia. In 2021, the region was home to an estimated 26.3 million people. Since its recognition as a cultural region in

19176-755: The whiskey tax in the late 1870s led to an explosion in violence between Appalachian " moonshiners " and federal "revenuers" that lasted through the Prohibition period in the 1920s. The breakdown of authority and law enforcement during the Civil War may have contributed to an increase in clan feuding, which by the 1880s was reported to be a problem across most of Kentucky's Cumberland region as well as Carter County, Tennessee ; Carroll County, Virginia ; and Mingo and Logan counties in West Virginia. Regional writers from this period such as Mary Noailles Murfree and Horace Kephart liked to focus on such sensational aspects of mountain culture, leading readers outside

19317-475: The years following World War I, British folklorist Cecil Sharp brought attention to Southern Appalachia when he noted that its inhabitants still sang hundreds of English and Scottish ballads that had been passed down to them from their ancestors. Commercial recordings of Appalachian musicians in the 1920s (such as the famous 1927 Bristol sessions ) would have a significant impact on the development of country music and bluegrass . Traditional Appalachian music saw

19458-499: Was a jack-of-all-trades, operating the Roaring Fork community's blacksmith shop, general store, and its most consistent grist mill. Reagan was also a part-time preacher at the Roaring Fork Church, for which he donated the land and helped build. Of all the buildings on Reagan's farm, only his cabin and mill remain today. With its sawboard paneling and coat of paint, Reagan's cabin stands out among historical structures in

19599-421: Was also the first European to apply "Apalachen" specifically to a mountain range as opposed to a village, native tribe, or a southeastern region of North America. The name was not commonly used for the whole mountain range until the late 19th century. A competing and often more popular name was the " Allegheny Mountains ", "Alleghenies", and even "Alleghania". In southern U.S. dialects, the mountains are called

19740-512: Was an important part of Appalachia's economy), and numerous farms were destroyed, pillaged, or neglected. The actions of both Union and Confederate armies left many inhabitants in the region resentful of government authority and suspicious of outsiders for decades after the war. After the Civil War, northern Appalachia experienced an economic boom. At the same time, economies in the southern region stagnated, especially as Southern Democrats regained control of their respective state legislatures at

19881-473: Was on the wall opposite the chimney. Around 1900, modern frame houses slowly started replacing the log cabins. A standard farm in the Sugarlands consisted of the cabin or house and a small vegetable garden, all of which was surrounded by a paling fence, and several outbuildings. A smokehouse and woodshed would likely be found near the kitchen, and a springhouse would straddle a nearby spring. Other likely outbuildings included barns, corn cribs (often affixed to

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