What was gatlinburgs original name

Nevertheless the town still carries his namesake into the 21st century and beyond. Times were hard in the first hundred years but the mountain people were tough, even when war broke out all around them.

Only a handful decided to join the cause and fight in the Civil War. Like many Smoky Mountain communities Gatlinburg held a strong anti-slavery stance.

However, in spite of their pro-Union stance, Gatlinburg attempted to remain neutral during the Civil War. Gatlinburg was briefly occupied by a company of Confederate troops led by Colonel William Holland Thomas who were trying to protect the natural saltpeter mines near the Tennessee-North Carolina border.

With the invention of the band saw and the logging railroad, the lumber industry experienced a massive boom in the s. As forests throughout the Southeastern US began being harvested at rapid rates, companies were forced to push deeper into areas of the Appalachian Mountains seeking timber.

The logging industry came to the Gatlinburg area in when local figure Andrew Jackson Huff opened a sawmill in Gatlinburg. For a few decades they brought their own men and enlisted some of the Gatlinburg folk as well to hew the tall trees, but changing economic times and new areas to get timber lured them away from the area. Shortly after Colonel W. Townsend established the Little River Lumber Company near Tuckaleechee Cove and Lumber entrepreneurs began buying large tracts of land in the Smokies to attain logging rights.

Mary Noailles Murfree, considered the first significant Appalachian female writer was from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. She brought fame to the Smoky Mountain region with her book In the Tennessee Mountains eight stories on the life and character of the Tennessee mountaineer. Horace Kephart, a prolific writer and naturalist wrote about his life near Hazel Creek in what would later become the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

His writings about his experiences living in the great wilderness of the Smokies were first published in Field and Stream and Camping and Woodcraft in Both the writing of Mary Noailles Murfree and Horace Kephart bought the first tourists to the Gatlinburg area around the turn of the century.

The first school was not established in Gatlinburg until The school opened its doors to only 13 students. The school was an immediate success, teaching both children and adults. It quickly grew from 13 to students within the first year it was opened.

Jack, his wife Pauline, and their family continued to operate the lodge until LeConte Lodge is still open to tourists who are ready to rough the hike today. It is also said that LeConte Lodge is haunted, and if you wake up at exactly in the morning you might see a ghostly girl standing at the foot of your bed watching you. Though there have been many reports of this ghost, nobody seems to know who the little girl is was?

With increased logging in the United States, Congress passed the Weeks Act in the w for the purchase of land for national forests. Seeing the rapid logging taking place in the natural wonder of the Smokies region, author Horace Kephart and Knoxville-area business interests began advocating the creation of a national park in the Smokies.

This dream came closer to a reality when With the purchase of 76, acres km2 of the Little River Lumber Company tract in Unlike national parks created out West, mostly on government land where many people chose not to live on, the land that became Great Smokies National Park was owned by hundreds of small farmers and a small group of timber and paper companies. The farmers did not want to leave their family homesteads, nor did the businesses want to leave huge forests of timber, many miles of railroad track, extensive systems of logging equipment, and their profits behind.

Fortunately, with the diligence of hardcore conservationists, backpackers, and trout fishermen, motorists, and key support groups in Asheville, NC and Knoxville, a bill was signed by President Calvin Coolidge that provided for the establishment of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Due to complications purchasing the land from private landowners within the soon-to-be park boundaries, the official establishment of the park was delayed. The problem was not over however because the cost of the land had now doubled, so the campaign ground to a halt. Between the great World Wars the US government created a program to provide employment and fulfill the dreams of President Roosevelt, an avid naturalist who had visions of maintaining the beauty of his country while providing work for its people.

The CCC , an agency created during the Depression to provide work and wages for unemployed young men, worked from to when World War II finally shut the program down.

The men labored to create over miles of hiking trails, build small structures and other assorted duties necessary to help the newly established park. Once these and the park jobs dried up many of the workers decided to make a home in Gatlinburg; to leave its natural beauty would be a shame after spending so many years in it. Smoky Arts and Crafts Community also known as Glades, was founded in After years of peddling their goods in downtown Gatlinburg, a group of local artisans decided they would invite tourists to come to them.

These artists wanted to be near their places of creation along with their tools and resources. Visitors quickly followed and soon other craftsmen and artists joined the community opening workshops, studios, and galleries most of them right alongside or in their homes. Here is an abbreviated discussion of how we got where we are. The Oglesby family were the first individuals to settle the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Before the area gained the name Gatlinburg, it was called White Oak Flats, a name derived from the types of trees found around the land.

As the years passed, settlers made their way to the little town of White Oak Flats. A majority of these settlers were Revolutionary War veterans from North Carolina.

The town began to grow as the residents started businesses and built a school and a church. In , the first Baptist church was introduced to a Presbyterian community. The first school was finished in , although it was initially only in session three months out of the year. In , a rather unpopular gentleman named Radford Gatlin purchased fifty acres of land that joined land owned by the Ogle family. Gatlin also made claim to thousands of acres in what is now Sevier County.

Gatlin had obtained notoriety for a disagreement with the Baptist church, which allegedly resulted in a fistfight on church grounds. Gatlin opened a general store, followed by a post office located in the store, in White Oak Flats.

The town changed its name after Gatlin opened his post office, although the specifics of how the name change happened are very unclear. Despite his success in the area, Gatlin was highly disliked by town residents because of his outspoken nature and a very public feud with the Ogle family.

Even after the town name change, it is said that Gatlin was banished because of his political beliefs. In , Mr.