Feature article
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Heritage Tours offer look at history of Cades Cove
By Leigh Ann Laube
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Editor’s Note: As part of our Hidden Treasures series, which runs each Thursday during the summer months, GoTriCities staff writers highlight places and events right here in our own back yard that many folks don’t know even exist. Got an idea or suggestion? We’d love to hear it. Write to the Kingsport Times-News, c/o Jessica Fischer, at 701 Lynn Garden Drive, Kingsport, Tenn. 37662 or e-mail jfischer@timesnews.net.
As a youngster bicycling the 11-mile Cades Cove loop, my goal was to ride as quickly as possible. Never mind the views, the wildlife, the history of an area that attracts nearly two million visitors every year.
Today, however, the story of John and Luraney Oliver — who, along with their infant daughter were among the first settlers in Cades Cove in the early 1800s — fascinates me. What was it like for the Olivers to leave Carter County and travel 100 miles into the wilderness? How long did it take them to clear the land and build their cabin? How did they befriend the Cherokee, who shared their food with the couple and kept them from starving that first winter?
Visitors to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park can learn more about the Olivers and other pioneers thanks to a new service. Cades Cove Heritage Tours is offering the first-ever guided educational shuttle service through Cades Cove.
Not only will riders learn so much more about the rich mountain history and unique natural resources of Cades Cove, but the decision to board a 19-passenger van will help improve traffic congestion and air quality.
Heritage Tours actually offers four tours, said Manager Alex Roche. The first, and most popular — the Heritage Tour — provides an overview of Cades Cove and includes multiple stops.
“We tell the story of about how John and Luraney Oliver were the first settlers, how they came over and had their baby girl with them ... and they wouldn’t have survived their first winter if it hadn’t been for the Cherokee sharing dried pumpkin with them,” Roche said. “We tell the story of Russell Gregory, his gravestone in the Primitive Baptist Church cemetery. We tell an intentionally vague version of how he was murdered by Carolina Rebels. It’s intentionally vague because there are so many different versions and we end up being corrected, and there are lots of living descendents, Gregorys, around here, and they’ve asked that the story be told a certain way.”
Russell Gregory had sons who fought on opposite sides of the Civil War, Roche said.
Stops may vary during each Heritage Tour, but will usually include a visit to Primitive Baptist Church, the Oliver cabin, a Methodist church, an overlook, Cable Mill and the Tipton Oliver homeplace.
If you’re looking to dig a little deeper into the history of Cades Cove, try the Cemeteries Tour.
“There’s like 13 known cemeteries, only four or five do most people actually see or know of, so we take you to some of the hidden ones and learn the stories behind the gravestones — how they lived, how they died, who they were married to,” Roche said.
The Homeplace Daffodil Tour is offered only in early spring and late winter.
“Where daffodils pop up marks former homesites and you know somebody lived there hundreds of years ago,” Roche explained. “You go way back in some holler somewhere and sure enough there’s daffodils popping up. You see where the foundation was, where the chimney stack was. Then we tell you the story about the family who lived there.”
The final tour, the Natural Wonders Tour, is an ecology tour and features several nature hikes.
The Cades Cove loop is open to auto, bicycle and foot traffic every day of the year from sunup to sundown with a few exceptions. Roche acknowledges that two tour vehicles are making only a small dent in automobile traffic there and that right now, the majority of riders are locals.
“It’s going very well. May really picked up for us a lot,” he said. “At this point, a vast majority, the lion’s share if you will, have been local, and they usually get off the bus and say, ‘Wow, we had no idea we could learn so much about Cades Cove having lived here all our lives.’”
Roche expects tours to become more popular this summer, as visitors make their way to the Smokies to celebrate the park’s 75th anniversary.
Cades Cove Heritage Tours operates as a division of the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend. The Heritage Center seeks to preserve, protect and promote the unique history and rich culture of the residents and Native Americans who inhabited the East Tennessee mountain communities that were incorporated into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its surroundings.
Tours generally last three to four hours, depending on traffic and the number of stops. It’s recommended that you dress comfortably, with shoes appropriate for walking. Cost is $15 for adults, $13 for seniors, $10 for children and free for children under the age of 6.
Reservations are required for all the tours, and more information can be found online at cadescoveheritagetours.org or by calling 865-448-8838.
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