Cades Cove in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park

I shared a beautiful spring day in the Smokies with Richard and Trina Saturday. Trina wanted some pictures of old churches for a black and white layout, so what better place to find old churches with steeples than Cades Cove!

All of the more than 500,000 acres of land in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park were once privately owned. A considerable portion of it was cleared and some of it cultivated. Now, as one of our country's national parks, it belongs to all the people of our country. The park land is now being managed in accordance with the National Park Service policy of preserving all natural features in their original condition and making them available for the enjoyment of the people. Land once cleared for farming or lumbering is rapidly returning to its original thickly forested condition. The visible reminders of the former use of the land and its forests are slowly disappearing. The old abandoned fields, the moldering cabins, barns, and mills are being invaded by the quickly encroaching forest. Cades Cove is the one large exception to this situation. In Cades Cove today, farmers are still raising cattle and hay and grain. Some of the log cabins, barns, and other structures were rehabilitated and these are being prepared with constant repair and maintenance. The pioneer scene is being preserved as a historic exhibit.

Here there survived a manner of living which has disappeared almost everywhere else in the United States-the pioneer way of life. That is what Cades Cove represents with its pastures and fields, its old mill and its cabins, barns, and other structures-a persistent pioneer community now being preserved as a historic exhibit.


Enjoy the pictures - it was a wonderful day.