Great Smoky Mountains

The Great Smoky Mountains rise in forested ridges along the southern Appalachians. Their peaks and valleys were part of the Cherokee homeland, crossed by hunters seeking deer, elk and bears. The Cherokee called Gregory Bald Tsitsuyi, or Rabbit Place, and associated it with the Great Rabbit. Far below the high ridges, coves and river valleys offered sheltered ground among the mountains.

Settlers began clearing homesteads in the Oconaluftee valley in the 1790s and reached Cades Cove around 1818–1821. In 1819 the Cherokee relinquished their claim to the last of their lands in the Smokies. Farms and log houses appeared in the coves, where families grew corn and raised livestock amid the surrounding forest. By 1830 Cades Cove had a population of 271, and Baptist and Methodist congregations had been established there.