Our Journey : October 18, 2023 Cades Cove Part 1 of 3

10/24/2023

October 18, 2023 Cades Cove Part 1 of 3

We woke to a beautiful sunny morning and headed out to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park – specifically the Cades Cove Loop.

I took so many pictures that I divided this day into three parts.

Fog in the mountains:

Into the Park:

For hundreds of years, Cherokee Indians hunted in Cades Cove but archeologists have found no evidence of major settlements. The first Europeans settled in the cove sometime between 1818 and 1821. By 1830, the population of the area had already swelled to 271.

More history can be found here:

https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/historyculture/cades-cove-history.htm

https://www.cadescove.net/history/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cades_Cove

https://www.visitmysmokies.com/blog/smoky-mountains/everything-know-cades-cove/

Enjoy the pictures:

The fog was thick in the meadows. Lots of wild turkey:

Yes, bumper to bumper traffic here too:

Very eerie:

He was a big boy – LOL!:

Deer in the meadow:

I love this shot. I was blessed to get it with no traffic – everyone was stopped to see the deer and turkeys.

Our first stop was the John Oliver Cabin Trail. We took the paved route to the cabin and the dirt path back.

How beautiful!

More turkeys – they were not afraid of us at all:

What beautiful colors:

The John Oliver Cabin:

“John and Luraney Oliver were poor and had to be frugal in their preparations for their move to Cades Cove. They could have had little more with them than their seed, and a few tools yet, in 1818, toting one child and expecting another, the Olivers struck out from Carter county to the promise of the Smoky Mountain cove, Cades Cove one hundred miles away. Their journey was exhausting and yet, whether out of necessity or pure pioneer grit, John and Luraney simply walked into Cades Cove, rolled up their sleeves and went to work building their dream.
Though the Oliver’s historic settlement in Cades Cove may have been simple, it certainly was not easy. For one thing, the Olivers had to be convinced to move to Cades Cove in the first place by their friend Joshua Jobe. Once he brought them to the cove, they must have questioned the wisdom of having followed him into the wilderness. Once the Olivers were in the cove Joshua left them, intent on going back for more settlers. They would not have been concerned that Joshua would want to return to the cove as he had purchased land in Cades Cove from his father-in-law and intended to settle there. But would he return? It was common knowledge that settlers in the Wautauga Valley had been forced by the fierceness of the Cherokee Nation to live in forts. And so the issue of safety and living among the Cherokee was a real concern. With such stories about, the Olivers must have wondered would Joshua Job be killed by the Indians before his return? Would they?

As it turned out, the Olivers plight of living alone with the Native Americans turned out well after all. With the work of clearing the land and building their cabin, the Olivers didn’t get enough crops harvested and preserved before the harsh winter set in. Had it not been for the kindness of the Smokies tribe, the Cherokee, who shared their food with the Olivers, they would have surely starved.

Life for the young couple had been so grueling that come spring when Joshua Job returned, he had to give Luraney two milk cows in order to convince her to stay in the Smokies! And stay they did. The Oliver’s offspring still lived in Cades Cove when the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was formed in 1934.

The Oliver’s original Cades Cove cabin stood fifty yards or so behind the cabin now identified as their cabin. It like all the Smokies cabins was built of the same natural materials found in the Great Smoky Mountain Park today. Even the shingles on the roof were made of the trees. John and his wife were as much a part of the land as were the bear, deer, fish and other living things of the Smoky Mountains. The cove society they began and participated in was a practical organic one which ebbed and flowed naturally with the seasons and times.

In the Smokies in the 1800s even the needs of youth were taken care of in a practical way for their day. For instance, the cabin, still standing and preserved by The Great Smoky Mountain National Park service and identified as the Oliver’s cabin is actually the honeymoon house which the their family built for their son to use when he married. Such cabins were quite common in the Great Smoky Mountains. Typically honeymoon houses were built on the parents property near the main house.”