Appalachian History

Back in nineteen and thirteen me and my brother coon hunted lots [in the] Smokies. We had a dog named Track. He was a good one. We went to Flat Creek one evening, built up a camp fire, and stayed till two o'clock the next morning. We left and went in on Stillwell, and old Track, he struck. Right up Stillwell he went, and us right after him. About ten o'clock in the day it begin to snowing.

We followed old Track about a hour, and the snow was about twenty-two inches deep. We turned back to the camp. About two o'clock in the evening old Track come back, and we had a big campfire. Chunks had rolled down, and old Track come in and set down by the fire, and directly he retched down and got a chunk of fire in his mouth, and right out the door he went.

We was right out after him, went back in on Stillwell, and we was a-trackin' him. He'd run off and left us. Right up Stillwell he went and us right after him, and about a mile above where we'd turned back, why, we found old Track at a big cliff. He took this chunk of fire, and he treed the coons in the cliff and stuck the fire under it and set the leaves afire, smoked the coons out, and had them, three big ones a-lyin' there dead. I give them to my brother and told him to come back the nigh way, and I'd go up to Balsam Corner, see if I could locate some bear sign.

Frank Mehaffey
b. 1894
Maggie Valley, Haywood County, NC
CCC blacksmith, farmer, and Baptist preacher
1939 interview

source: www.cas.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/transcripts/mehaffey_frank.html


coon+hunting Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park Haywood+County+NC appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

"I've been a guide now for quite a few years, and I was borned and rared in the Great Smoky Mountains, at the foot of Mount Leconte, and when I was a boy, I didn't do anything but hunt. One day I went out to, to shoot some turkey, and just as soon as I entered the woods, here I saw a big flock of turkeys up on a limb, and I had this old cap and ball gun.

"Well, I was a little bit choicey, and I didn't want to just shoot one and all the rest of the flock would fly away. So I tried to figure out some way that I could line these turkeys up and kill more than one, as this cap and ball gun that takes you so long to load them, why, the whole flock of turkeys is gone.

"And I was a very good shot at that time, but the trouble was that I always made them, the meat, the feathers fly, but the trouble was the meat went with it the most of the time. So I decided I couldn't line these turkeys up, and I just decided that I'd just pick one out or aim at the middle of the limb probably would be better. So I just aimed at the middle of the limb where these turkeys was settin'.

Photo caption reads: "Doug Smith, Raymond Torrey, Wiley Oakley, and George Barber on a special hike. October 11, 1925”

"At the crack of this gun, why, I split the limb open and all these turkeys' feet fell right down in the crack of this limb. It closed in on them and fastened the whole flock. Here I had about a dozen or two fastened in this limb. By aiming at the limb instead of picking out one turkey, why, I got the whole business, but I had a hard time in climbing up the tree to get the turkeys out.

"Of course, when I yodel to the end of a story, that means you don't have to believe it unless you want to [YODELING]. Lord, Lord, this is about the best turkey hunt I ever made. Well now then, I have a true story. When they're true, why I don't yodel to end of the story, but when I was a boy, I did do quite a bit of hunting, and, and we had these old-fashion kind of guns.

"The first kind of gun was called the flintlock gun. You had to carry powder in the horn, and they had a little pan where you pour the powder in, and then the flint lock goes down and sets the powder off, and of course, of a rainy day you couldn't do much good a-huntin'. This was the first kind of a gun that I ever owned.

"Then a little later I had the cap and ball gun. You could go out on a rainy day and kill turkey, but you wouldn't kill them by the dozen. You'd only kill one at the time. The most of the time it was like I said before. They, usually you'd do a lot of good shooting, but they always knocked the feathers out, but the meat went along with them. So I'm not very good at story, story telling, not today, beg to be excused."

---Wiley Oakley
Gift shop owner and professional guide
born Sept. 12, 1885, Gatlinburg, TN

Joseph Sargent Hall interviewed Oakley in the Great Smoky Mountains in 1939. Oakley had a fourth- or fifth-grade education and some self-education.

As a graduate student, Hall began working for the National Park Service in the summer of 1937 collecting the speech of the Smoky Mountain inhabitants. He talked to people still living within the bounds of the park and to former Smoky Mountain residents who had been displaced by the park.

That first summer, Hall collected four notebooks full of details of the language, informant profiles, and bits and pieces of the mountain culture from songs to herbal remedies. The bulk of Hall’s work in the mountains spans from 1937 to 1941, but he continued refining and processing his collection for the rest of his life.


sources: Joseph Sargent Hall Collection/ East Tennessee State University/ Archives of Appalachia --- http://www.etsu.edu/cass/archives/Collections/afindaid/a422.html
http://www.cas.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/transcripts/oakley_wiley.html



Joseph+Sargent+Hall Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park Wiley+Oakley Gatlinburg+TN appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Please welcome guest blogger Dylan Thuras. Thuras is a travel blogger and the co-founder of the Atlas Obscura: A Compendium of the World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica, with Joshua Foer. The following post ran originally on Boing Boing.


Happening right now, and for the next few days, the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee will light up as P. Carolinus fireflies begin to blink in beautiful, astonishing unison. The fireflies, who can sense when their neighbor fireflies are flashing and attempt to flash before them, send waves of light to cascading down the Tennessee hillsides.

One of the best spots to see them is in one small area, near the Little River Trailhead in Elkmont, TN.



Long thought to be an exclusively Southeast Asian phenomenon, the dazzling behavior was only discovered in an American firefly species (P. Carolinus) in 1992. The American fireflies were first brought to the attention of scientists by a reader of Science News, who thought it odd that an article on Asian firefly synchronicity mentioned nothing about the bugs near her own home. She wrote a letter to a Steven Strogratz, a Cornell mathematician who studies synchronization:

I am sure you are aware of this, but just in case, there is a type of group synchrony lightning bug inside the Great Smoky Mountain National Park near Elkmont, Tennessee. These bugs "start up" in mid June at 10 pm nightly. They exhibit 6 seconds of total darkness; then in perfect synchrony, thousands light up 6 rapid times in a 3 second period before all going dark for 6 more seconds. "We have a cabin in Elkmont... and as far as we know, it is only in this small area that this particular type of group synchronized lightning bug exists. It is beautiful.

In 1995, scientists confirmed the existence of the Great Smoky Mountain synchronized fireflies, and have subsequently discovered other populations in the Congaree Swamp in South Carolina and other high altitude locations in the Appalachian mountains. As this curious phenomenon remained undiscovered for years, it is quite possible that there are other varieties of fireflies blinking in unison throughout the United States, perhaps even in your own backyard.

More info on the Smokey Mountain fireflies here and here; more info on bioluminescent spots around the world on the Atlas bioluminescent spots page.



appalachia Elkmont+TN synchronized+fireflies Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park appalachian+history history+of+appalachia

“One of boyhood’s traditional toys has come of age. Jim Gasque, North Carolina sportsman, has proved that the ordinary slingshot, when properly made and used, can be an adult weapon of deadly accuracy at distances up to 30’ --- a range sufficient for stalking small game. He shoots regular No. 0 buckshot.

"His slingshots are made as shown, the dogwood forks being dried in a slow oven overnight after tying. Instead of inner-tube strips, he uses two rubber bands 1/16” thick, 5/8” wide, and 7½” or 8” long.

"When shooting, he takes a stance similar to that in archery, body at right angles to the target, feet apart, and weight balanced on both feet. Holding the shot cup at the right eye, he stretches the rubber by extending his left arm fully while aligning the target in the sights."

---Rubber Band Sharpshooter; How a North Carolina Sportsman Makes and Shoots His Slingshots, by Tom Cushing, Modern Mechanix, Aug 1946

Jim Gasque, an outdoor writer from Asheville, NC, authored Hunting and Fishing in the Great Smokies, a classic 1948 work that offers a period portrait of outdoor life in those mountains.

The book, re-released last month by the University of North Carolina, was the first nationally distributed book on fishing in and around the Smokies, although Horace Kephart, who also was a great fan of angling in the region, often wrote about it as well.

Filled with anecdotes, fishing and hunting stories, and recollections of legendary local sportsmen and guides, the book presents a social history of these activities before the founding of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934.

Gasque's guide covers trout fishing on well-known creeks like Cataloochee, Deep, and Hazel; smallmouth bass fishing on rivers like Oconaluftee, Tuckasegee, and others; and lake fishing on Fontana, Nantahala, Chatuge, and Santeetlah. Thanks to careful preservation by the park, the streams Gasque describes still draw sportsmen today.

"The techniques and few flies noted in the book are as deadly on trout today as when the information was penned half a century ago," says Don Kirk, author of Fly-Fishing Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains. "Gasque’s chapters on Cataloochee and Deep creeks are extremely insightful." The book offers a nuanced glimpse of the region just prior to an era of significant development and growth.

Gasque is best known for his only other book---Bass Fishing: Techniques, Tactics, and Tales.


sources: http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1566
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/08/05/rubber-band-sharpshooter/?Qwd=./PopularScience/8-1946/sling_shot&Qif=sling_shot_0.jpg&Qiv=thumbs&Qis=XL#qdig



Jim+Gasque fly+fishing coon+hunting +trout+fishing Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

The World Heritage Committee (WHC), meeting in Quebec this week, on Monday added 8 natural sites and 19 cultural sites to UNESCO's World Heritage List of cultural, natural, and mixed properties that have "outstanding universal value." This brings the total to 905 sites listed: 697 cultural, 182 natural, and 26 mixed properties, in 145 states parties. It's a good time to take stock and reflect on just how appreciated the three World Heritage List sites in Appalachia are, not just in the region, not just in America, but worldwide.

World Heritage sites are acknowledged to belong to all the peoples of the world, irrespective of the territory on which they are located. Here in America the WHC has identified 20 such sites (including two sites jointly administered with Canada), starting in 1978 with the Mesa Verde National Park, most administered by the National Park Service.

The inscription of these 20 American properties as World Heritage Sites formally recognizes the respect they hold in the world community. They are linked today through the contemporary successor to the ancient list of the Seven Wonders of the World - the World Heritage List.

The three Appalachian sites that make the list are: Mammoth Cave National Park (1981), Great Smoky Mountains National Park (1983), and Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (1987).

The mere mention of the above names on the World Heritage list evokes our nation's heritage and the universal human values we stand for. Thomas Jefferson's designs for Monticello and the University of Virginia are recognized worldwide as exceptional examples of Neoclassical architecture. The earth's longest underground passageways at Mammoth Cave, and the astonishing variety of flora and fauna (more than 3,500 plant species) found in the Great Smokies, amaze millions of visitors annually.

But making the WHC list is more than just a pat on the back and a plaque on the wall. Through the World Heritage Fund, the WHC can provide countries requesting assistance with studies, advice, training, and equipment in order to eliminate problems, restore damaged areas, and set up safeguards.

The Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, is responsible for identifying and nominating U.S. sites to the list. Proposed U.S. sites must be either federal property, such as national parks, or sites already designated as national historic landmarks or national natural landmarks. Properties not owned by the Federal Government are nominated only if their owners wish to do so and pledge to protect their properties in perpetuity.

The WHC program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on November 16, 1972. Since then, 185 states have ratified the convention.


Sources: nps.gov/oia/topics/worldheritage/worldheritage.htm
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ebooks/records/7151-1.html



World Heritage Committee, List, Mammoth Cave National Park, Great Smoky Mountains Monticello, appalachia, appalachian history, mountains history

On June 15, 1934 it all officially came together at long last. Congress’ act dated that day noted that an area of 400,000 acres within the minimum boundary of the park had been acquired, and therefore it established the Great Smoky Mountains as a national park (GSMNP) with sufficient land for administration, protection, and development.

If you thought GSMNP was previously an enormous parcel of pristine wilderness just waiting to be christened a national park, think again! Merely acquiring the land took decades of work and millions of dollars.

By the late 19th century, logging had grown to become a major industry in the mountains. One socially unacceptable side effect was that cut-and-run style clearcutting was destroying the natural beauty of the area. As a response, there was a growing national interest, including from the National Park Service, in establishing a large national park in the southern Appalachians.

Photo caption: "Ramsey Cascades on the Ramsey Prong." Taken by Albert "Dutch" Roth on June 24, 1934.

However, there was no parcel of federally-owned land large enough. The rolling mountains of forest that now make up GSMNP were then owned by many separate entities, primarily logging interests.

On May 22, 1926, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill committing the Federal government to administer the land for a national park in the Great Smokies as soon as Tennessee and North Carolina donated 150,000 acres, and to begin park development when the states had donated 423,000 acres. So, though Congress had authorized the park, there was no nucleus of federally-owned land around which to build such a park, and furthermore Congress did not want to spend any money to establish one --- the bill explicitly declared that no federal funds would be used to purchase park lands.

Then there were the current owners of the proposed park land to contend with. The large lumber companies pulled out all stops, first to derail the project and, when that failed, to get the best possible price for their land. The Champion Fibre Company, owners of the largest land holdings in the proposed park, hired famed attorney Charles Evans Hughes to represent them and even bribed a lawyer hired by the Tennessee Park Commission to influence jury selection in a condemnation hearing. The process of taking all five of the major timber companies to court--in the case of the Suncrest Lumber Company to the U.S. Supreme Court--delayed the purchase of land until the late 1930s.

Private citizens from Tennessee and North Carolina pitched in to help assemble the land for the park, piece by piece. In 1927 the North Carolina and Tennessee state legislatures each committed two million dollars in bond funds to purchase land for the park. In 1928 John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated the final five million dollars needed for land purchases.

With the money in hand, the state-appointed commissions faced the daunting task of buying land from over 4,000 individual homeowners who did not want to sell. As one resident put it: "They tell me I can't break a twig, nor pull a flower, after there's a park. Nor can I fish with bait, nor kill a boomer, nor bear on land owned by my pap, and grandpap and his pap before him." Litigation costs and loss of pledge money due to the Depression quickly used up the available funds for land purchases.

The Department of the Interior and its head, Harold Ickes, found ways to circumvent the no-federal-funds-to-be-used proviso. In 1933 President Roosevelt issued an executive order to allocate $1,550,000 to complete land purchases in the park, justifying the expenditure as a means to "enhance the effectiveness and enlarge the opportunity" for Civilian Conservation Corps work in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. When this proved insufficient, Congress reversed its position and appropriated an additional $743,265.29 to secure the required 423,000 acres.

Sources: tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=G041
www.ashevillenc.com/area_info/great_smoky_mountains
http://greatsmokymountains-np.com/great_smoky_mountains_history.html


appalachia Harold+Ickes Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park Calvin+Coolidge John+D.+Rockefeller+Jr. Charles+Evans+Hughes appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

On April 2, 1931 Horace Kephart was killed in an automobile accident near Ela, NC along with fellow author Fiswoode Tarelton. Kephart (1862-1931) was a travel writer and librarian who published hundreds of articles during his lifetime, but became especially renowned for his classic works 'Our Southern Highlanders' and 'Camping and Woodcraft.'

In one of Poe's minor tales, written in 1845, there is a vague allusion to wild mountains in western Virginia "tenanted by fierce and uncouth races of men." This, so far as I know, was the first reference in literature to our Southern mountaineers, and it stood as their only characterization until Miss Murfree ("Charles Egbert Craddock") began her stories of the Cumberland hills.

Opening of 'Our Southern Highlanders,' by Horace Kephart

In 'Our Southern Highlanders,' published in 1913 and expanded in 1922, Kephart argued that the rest of America knew almost nothing of a people set apart "from all other folks by dialect, by customs, by character, by self-conscious isolation," who because of the terrain of the land still lived in the eighteenth century. His book strove to change that. Kephart saw firsthand the impact of modernized communication and transportation on Appalachia during his lifetime, and by book’s end predicted that the region was on the verge of an economic revolution which would change everything.

Trained as a librarian, Kephart achieved national recognition during his years as director of the Mercantile Library in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1903. While living in what was already one of the largest cities in the nation, Kephart began indulging in outdoor life through camping and hunting trips. As his passion for the outdoors increased, Kephart began to write articles about the subject topics. Kephart developed 10 years of experience writing about these excursions centered on Arkansas and Missouri.

These works are similar in substance and tone to those he would later publish about western North Carolina’s mountains and people. Eventually he succumbed to what he later called 'nervous exhaustion' and concluded that urban life was a major contributor to his problems. He left his career as a librarian in St. Louis and, after a brief respite and period of personal reflection at the home of his father in Ohio, soon decided to move to western North Carolina.

In 1904, at the age of 42, Kephart arrived in western North Carolina to begin his life anew. He chose a simple lifestyle and nature-as-healer approach. At the same time, he immersed himself in his new natural environment and took an immediate interest in the history and culture of the people.

Kephart, who was personally modest and rarely sought the limelight, nevertheless used his abilities and reputation on behalf of the movement to create a Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As a unique and recognized personification concerning the cultural and natural studies on the Great Smokies region, he was influential in convincing individuals on both the local and national levels of the need for such a park.

Kephart's arguments on behalf of a park were thoughtful and pragmatic as well as appealing to the love and appreciation of nature. Acknowledging that the Great Smoky Mountains contributed to his mental and physical recovery after 1904 and describing the economic potential of a national park, he campaigned vigorously to preserve the last major stands of forests in the East.

It had become apparent in his lifetime that a national park would be a reality. In February 1931 the U.S. Geological Board recognized Kephart's contribution by naming a peak within the park Mount Kephart, an honor previously only bestowed posthumously. Shortly before his death, Kephart had represented Swain County in Washington, D.C., when state park officials from North Carolina and Tennessee transferred the titles of the lands purchased by them to be used for the park over to the United States government.

Kephart's major works have remained in print and articles appear on a routine basis about his contributions to camping, regional history, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Sources: http://library.wcu.edu/digitalcoll/kephart/horacekephart/biography.htm
smokymountainnews.com/issues/06_04/06_30_04/mtn_voices.html


Horace+Kephart Our+Southern+Highlanders Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park appalachian+authors appalachia appalachian+history appalachian+mountains+history

Kephart: “People up North, and in the lowlands of the South as well, have a notion that there is little or nothing going on in these mountains except feuds and moonshining. They think that a stranger traveling here alone is in danger of being potted by a bullet from almost any laurel thicket that he passes, on mere suspicion that he may be a revenue officer or a spy.

“Of course, that is nonsense; but there is one thing that I'm as ignorant about as any novel-reader of them all. You know my habits; I like to explore--I never take a guide--and when I come to a place that's particularly wild and primitive, that's just the place I want to peer into. Now the dubious point is this: Suppose that, one of these days when I'm out hunting, or looking for rare plants, I should stumble upon a moonshine still in full operation--what would happen? What would they do?

Moonshiner: "Waal, sir, I'll tell you whut they'd do. They'd fust-place ask you some questions about yourself, and whut you-uns was doin' in that thar neck o'the woods. Then they'd git you to do some trifflin' work about the still--feed the furnace, or stir the mash--jest so's't they could prove you took a hand in it your own self."

"What good would that do?"

"Hit would make you one o'them in the eyes of the law."

"I see. But, really, doesn't that seem rather childish? I could easily convince any court that I did it under compulsion; for that's what it would amount to."

Revenue officers with a captured still on Rich Mountain, NC in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, November 18, 1931. Photographer George A. Grant.

"I reckon you-uns would find a United States court purty hard to convince. The judge'd right up and want to know why you let grass go to seed afore you came and informed on them."

He paused, watched my expression, and then continued quizzically: "I reckon you wouldn't be in no great hurry to do that."

"No! Then, if I stirred the mash and sampled their liquor, nobody would be likely to mistreat me?"

"Shucks! Why, man, whut could they gain by hurtin' you? At the wust s'posin' they was convicted by your own evidence, they'd only get a month or two in the pen. So why should they murder you and get hung for it? Hit's all 'tarnal foolishness, the notions some folks has!"

"I thought so. Now, here! The public has been fed all sorts of nonsense about this moonshining business. I'd like to learn the plain truth about it, without bias one way or the other. I have already learned that a stranger's life and property are safer here than they would be on the streets of Chicago or of St. Louis. It will do your country good to have that known. But I can't say that there is no moonshining going on here; for a man with a wooden nose could smell it. Now what is your excuse for defying the law? You don't seem ashamed of it."

The man's face turned an angry red.

"Mister, we-uns hain't no call to be ashamed of ourselves, nor of ary thing we do. We're poor; but we don't ax no favors. We stay 'way up hyar in these coves, and mind our own business. When a stranger comes along, he's welcome to the best we've got, such as t'is; but if he imposes on us, he gits his medicine purty damned quick!"

Our Southern Highlanders by Horace Kephart
(Outing Publishing Company, 1913)


Our+Southern+Highlanders Horace+Kephart moonshining revenuers rich+mountain+nc Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park appalachia appalachian+mountains+history

Today the former town of Elkmont, TN in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a magnet for lovers of the synchronous firefly display, which just ended several weeks ago.

But in the early 1930s nature's display was being outshone by political sparks flying in all directions. The previously bucolic summer haven for the socially prominent and wealthy members of Knoxville, Maryville, and Chattanooga was about to be changed beyond recognition, and tempers were high. There were two sides on the issue--one wished for a national park and one wanted the area to be preserved as a national forest. Colonel David C. Chapman was the driving force behind the national park; he wanted roads and facilities erected so all Americans could enjoy the area. He also believed the visitors would bring in money for local businesses.


"On the way to Silers Bald from Elkmont by way of Buckeye Gap."
August 17, 1929 -- photo by Albert Gordon (Dutch) Roth, 1890-1974

James Wright, a Knoxville lawyer and owner of a cottage in Elkmont, led the opposition. A dedicated conservationist, Wright believed the area would be contaminated by hoards of crowds. He thought the area would be best protected if classified as a national forest.

In the end, the national park idea won out. Colonel W. B. Townsend had years earlier purchased 75,000 to 80,000 acres in the surrounding area in order to create the Little River Lumber Company. Now, by agreeing to sell 76,500 mountain acres to the state, which would then be transferred to the Federal Government, he became the linchpin in creating the new park. He agreed to give up his lumbering empire. The town was facing its demise, for the public was not allowed to reside in national parks. Logging operations were stopped and the government began to buy the homeowners' property.

Great opposition arose from the residents and members of the Appalachian Club, a well established local sportsmen's group. They hired James Wright to defend their rights in court. Neither side would back down and no compromise was in sight. The State Park Commission was faced with two conclusions: either exclude the area in question from the proposed park or acquire the lands through purchase at the discretion of the owners, and at their stated price. The National Park Service would not agree to the exclusion, and the Commission did not have the funds to pay the owners' set prices.

The Commission and the Secretary of the Interior finally found a solution by devising a plan whereby the landowners would be offered long-term leases to live on the property, which would be purchased by the government at reduced rates. Upon grudging Congressional consent, the plan went into effect.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park became a reality in 1934, and the residents of Elkmont remained in their homes now owned by the Government.


source: www.imagesbuilder.com/gsmnp/elkmont.html


Colonel+David+C.+Chapman Colonel+W.+B.+Townsend Elkmont+TN Great+Smoky+Mountains+National+Park +appalachia appalachian+culture appalachian+history history+of+appalachia