Abandoned in the Smokies

In 1818 and with only seeds, a few tools, a child on the hip and another on the way, John Oliver and his wife, Lurena, made their way to an area that had no roads and was located in the middle of a hostile mountain range. It was this place where they lived in an abandoned Cherokee hut for a year. The following year they built a crude structure to live in and a couple years later they built the cabin where they would raise their family. They were the first settlers to the area known today as Cades Cove. The Olivers raised a large family and their ancestors are still going strong throughout East Tennessee.

Many more settlers and frontiersmen would soon come and their families would live in the area for more than 100 years before being forced to abandon their homesteads at the creation of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1923. This move was pushed for by local businessmen from Knoxville who had recently created the Appalachian Club, a high society, private membership club for the region's most elite citizens. Their neighboring community of Elkmont/Daisy Town is a famous abandoned area filled with irony, as the same park they helped bring to the area and used to force the people from Cades Cove also eventually forced them from their private club and the cabins they built there.

In the video you will see the John Oliver cabin, located up a 1/4 mile trail. You'll also see black bears, turkey, primitive Baptist & Methodist churches, an awesome mill, cantilever barns, beautiful scenery and many other homesteads where the original settlers to Cades Cove lived and raised families that often included more than 10 children.

If you've never been to Cades Cove or the Great Smoky Mountains, I really hope you come visit, I believe you will love it.

I've been trying to get better at editing so it's more fun for you guys to watch. There is a place where the screen flashes for a second while text is showing, I don't know why, but I'm sorry for that. I would re-render it, but it took almost 14-hours to produce and I thought a couple seconds wouldn't make that much of a difference overall.

I hope you all like the thread and enjoy the video. As always, if you have any questions, please ask and I'll do my best to answer them.

More information on Cades Cove

Star and flag for the post.

I have been to Cades Cove 3 times in my life, and have enjoyed it every time.

I may visit a fourth time in August when I venture up to Maryville to see some relatives and also to drive Deal's Gap in my play toy.

Anyone in the SouthEast who enjoys nature should visit Cades Cove at least once.

a reply to: cynicalheathen

Thanks heathen. I agree, this place is amazing, everyone should visit if they get the chance. I think the video turned out well, but it has nothing on the real thing. I live just outside of Maryville, there's a ton of history there too.

The Dragon, that is a different kind of awesome! I hope you have a great and safe time on your visit.

originally posted by: esteay812The Dragon, that is a different kind of awesome! I hope you have a great and safe time on your visit.

Brand new brakes, brand new Michelin Pilot Super Sports, and over a decade of driving cars fast on racetracks should keep me and my 421 wheel horsepower in good shape. Thanks though.

a reply to: cynicalheathen

Sounds like a nice set up. I was thinking more along the lines of the other people who you may need to watch out for, lol. It seems most of the people who come to ride the tail know what they are doing, then a lot of the accidents are caused by tourists not knowing how to drive on a road like that.

a reply to: esteay812

Thank's for posting that, some very impressive old buildings. The hand sewn timber and dovetail joint cabins were really cool. Reminded me of how productive and resourceful we used to be vs the lazy society we've become. I doubt they had much free time on their hands.

Great post

a reply to: mtnshredder

It seems that today we have jobs we go to and everything is served to us. I used to wonder what people back then did with all their time, but after visiting these places first-hand, it's quite obvious that running their own homes and land was more than a full-time job. I'd say most of the people from that era worked harder in a day than I ever have and I like to think I've had a few hard working days .

The craftsmanship on those buildings is really something cool to see. A lot of the places are on foundations made of small boulders and rocks stacked on top of each other.

Does anyone know what the hollowed out logs @ 13:55 were used for? I used to know, but can't remember for anything.

a reply to: esteay812

Maybe food storage or sweet gum hollowed out for Bee homes?
I liked your video.

a reply to: beachbound

Thanks beachbound. I was thinking food storage too and just assumed that's what it was, but it seems like I remember they were used for something else. I'll look around on the internet and see if I can find out for sure. It might be for storing corn or something like that, but I could see using it for bees too.

a reply to: esteay812
I just thought of a rabbit trap also.
Or, another small animal.

a reply to: beachbound

I looked around a little, but the closest thing I could find was a . . . bee hive. I don't know if that's what these were used for, but the picture I found looks a lot like the ones in the video. Good call if that's what they're used for and it seems like they may be, unless someone else knows something more.

originally posted by: esteay812
Does anyone know what the hollowed out logs @ 13:55 were used for? I used to know, but can't remember for anything.

Wash tubs maybe?

a reply to: mtnshredder

Good guess, but I think there is no bottom. I think they may be for honey bees, but not certain. If no one knows for sure, I'll have to ask a ranger when I get back up there, it's going to drive me crazy .

Thanks for the video, I enjoyed watching it. I've been to Cades Cove as a child and I've always wanted to go back to the area. Western NC is one of the places I'm considering moving after I get my degree.

a reply to: trollz


I'm glad you liked it.

Western Carolina is a great place, pretty much the same as over here. There's a lot of really cool places like Cades Cove on both sides of the mountain.

Nice to hear you're headed for a degree, I wish you the best of luck.

I think it would be a safe bet to say they we're used as beehives. You learn something everyday.

The Akamba beehive is the (in Africa) familiar barrel made from a hollowed-out log, and the generic name for such a hive is mwatu. It may vary in length from about a half to one meter.

a reply to: mtnshredder

How interesting! People are just clever, aren't they?
Nice find.
Thoughts and ideas travelled across oceans even then.

a reply to: mtnshredder

Nice work finding that. I think the only thing I saw was maybe the first picture - or a very similar one. I guess back then honey was about their only source for sugar. I know they used it in a lot of stuff, including cough syrup made with moonshine.

a reply to: beachbound

Makes me wonder if that is something they learned from the Native Americans or if it is something they brought with them as immigrants. A lot of the settlers were Scottish or Irish, maybe they used some similar methods in those countries.