Gatlinburg TN - Area History

Gatlinburg, TN is a vacation resort, convention center, and family getaway located in Sevier County, just across the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Cherokee, NC.  U.S. Highway 441 connects the two towns.  Less than 7 miles away is the infamous town of Pigeon Forge TN, another vacation getaway for millions of visitors each year.  Gatlinburg is like a mix of historic San Francisco - with it's trolley cars and assortment of getaways - and a pioneering village fraught with culture and heritage.  The air is crisp and the water runs clear.  The people are wholesome and friendly, and the atmosphere is electric.  Simply put, Gatlinburg TN is the South's favorite playgrounds!

For those who want to put boots on the ground, there are more than 900 miles of scenic hiking trails, all situated around Gatlinburg and the Great Smoky Mountains. Horseback riding is available. Above the town rests the Ober Gatlinburg theme park. Enjoy some thrilling whitewater rafting, bring your fly rod and go trout fishing, or take advantage of the ski slopes. There are numerous family attractions about 500 shops and restaurants in Gatlinburg.

Encompassing just 10 square miles, Gatlinburg TN offers one of America's best places to relax, have fun, and enjoy living during all four seasons of the year.  It is surrounded by the high Appalachian mountains and is considered the Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.  To give you an idea of living in the "old days", there is an area of Gatlinburg which is better known as the Great Smoky Arts & Crafts Community, the sole zoned crafts community in America.  Its an area where you can take in all the history and culture of Gatlinburg, as well as the Smoky Mountains, and entails the largest coalition of independent artisans in North America.

Centuries before European settlers arrived in Gatlinburg TN, native Americans - and chiefly the Cherokee - used the area as hunting and trading grounds.  Following what is now Indian Gap Trail (now Highway 441), they traveled back and forth, undisturbed, until European hunters, trappers and fur traders arrived in the 1700s.  The name they gave the area was Shaconage, or "land of blue smoke".

Though many hunters and trappers moved through the then called White Oak Flats area, it wasn't until William Ogle, from Edgefield, South Carolina, arrived in 1801 or 1802 to build a cabin.  The local Cherokee helped him prepare the logs for the cabin and Ogle returned to Edgefield to retrieve his family, describing the place as "The Land of Paradise".  In 1803 while there, he died from Malaria.  His wife, Martha Jane Huskey Oagle and her 5 sons, two daughters, and brother Peter Huskey returned via the Indian Gap Trail in 1807 and erected a cabin from the prepared logs.  Shortly thereafter, a number of people began moving to the area - many of them Revolutionary War soldiers who were cashing in their 50-acre deeds for wartime service.

In 1854, Radford Gatlin set up a post office in his general store, under the name Gatlinburg.  During the 1880's logging became a booming business for Gatlinburg, thanks primarily to the newly invented band saw.  Logging continued through the early 1900s and conservationists lobbied Congress to purchase land from the Little River Lumber Company in 1926 to form a National Park.  Their theory was, if the West had Yosemite and Yellowstone, then the eastern United States needed one too.  The Great Smoky Mountains National Park instantly brought wealth to Gatlinburg, courtesy the newfound tourism industry.  And though Gatlin's controversial political views got him banished from Gatlinburg, the community name remained.

The first hotel arrived in Gatlinburg TN in 1916, followed shortly by the Le Conte Lodge in 1926.  In 1934 the Great Smoky Mountains National Park became a reality.  And, the town was incorporated in 1945.  During the 40 or 50 years prior to the opening of the park, the greater Gatlinburg area was a conglomerate of about 600 individuals who lived in log cabins.  They were serviced by a church, a blacksmith shop, and general store in the town proper.  After the park opened, more than 40,000 visitors transcended the area in less than a year.  The following year, a half million people visited the park.  By 1940, the cost of one acre of land in the area was $40.  Ten years later, that figure had grown to $8,000.  Many an early settler became rich nearly overnight.