Cades Cove

Cades Cove was once known as "Kate's Cove" after an Indian chief's wife. The Cove drew the Cherokee Nation back again and again by its abundant wildlife and good hunting. Later, Cades Cove's wildlife drew European descent frontiersmen to make it their home. They and their offspring cleared the fertile valley floor and built farms to sustain them. The pioneer's families lived in Cades Cove for many generations before the cove became part of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Today, Cades Cove is still as full of wildlife as before but draws not hunters, but millions of Smokies visitors.

The Cove has been preserved by the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to look much the way it looked in the 1800's. Once home to a small mountain community, whose settlers came from mainly from Virginia, North Carolina and upper east Tennessee, Cades Cove is today the largest open air museum in the entire Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Cades Cove has original pioneer homesteads, barns, businesses, pasture and farmland--a fitting tribute to the hearty people who lived here in the days of yesteryear.

Most of the settler’s homes and home sites will be outside of the road you as you travel the Cades Cove loop. To the center of the loop will be acre upon acre of grass and wildflower fields which were once cleared by frontiersmen for valuable for growing things such as wheat, corn and cattle. Nearly all the buildings built by the pioneers and preserved by the Great Smoky Mountain National Park are outside the Cades Cove Loop. These remaining original structures, as well as abundant wildlife, are easy to spot as you travel the loop.

A History of Cades Cove:

Cades Cove was once a remote place in the Great Smoky Mountains. One of the few ways through the Smokies and into the cove was along Indian trails. Some of those trails were improved into roads. One of those trails was called, appropriately enough, Cades Cove road. The name was later changed to Rich Mountain Road. By either name the road was one of the main routes through the Smokies between Tuckaleechee and Cades Cove.

Rich Mountain Road has a number of famous views of Cades Cove and today's Smoky Mountain visitors face the temptation to travel up Rich Mountain Road to see those views. Smokies tourists may use the road but shouldn't unless they don't mind leaving Cades Cove before finishing the auto tour most of which lay beyond the roads turn off. Rich Mountain Road is a one way dirt road which exits The Great Smoky Mountain National Park after twelve mountainous miles.

Cove roads which went to Maryville through the Smoky Mountains could be difficult to travel for the Cades Cove population and their teams of horses. You see the trip to town and back took three days, one to go, one to buy or sell goods, or perhaps visit and one to come home again.

Though Cades Cove was generally a self sustaining community, pioneers bought things from Maryville such as medicine and remedies such as camphorated oil, catnip tea, Castor oil, or Epsom salts. As time went by, general stores such as the Giles Gregory store sprang up in Cades Cove where medicine, seeds, sugar, kerosene, yard goods and hardware supplies. Products could be purchased with money or by trading products such as eggs. Still, the larger town of Maryville had a more appealing selection and so the trips from the Cades Cove continued. If on a trip to Maryville, the family was selling rather than buying, chances are they were selling chestnuts which grew in abundance in Cades Cove. Unfortunately disease eventually killed the majestic chestnut groves.

Blacksmith Shop:

Every farmer in the Smokies needed the talents of a blacksmith and so when James V. Cable, son of John P. Cable inherited the mill and farm from his father, he decided to also become a blacksmith. Perhaps he was inspired to do this because of the many people bringing grain and logs to be milled by means of wagons drawn by mules and horses. Once the products were milled, it was more convenient for his customers to also have their animals shod rather than traveling somewhere else. Mules and horses, so helpful in farm work needed their metal shoes pulled and reset about every eight weeks, so this produced a constant need for blacksmiths.

To reset the shoes of Cades Cove's horses, the blacksmith had to nip the nail ends off and then pull the horses shoes off. Next he had to trim the hoofs down as they grow like fingernails. Last the blacksmith had to either reset the old shoe or make new shoes for the animal. This involved heating metal until it was white hot and shaping it into a shoe.

Aside from shoeing horses, the Smoky Mountain blacksmiths made all sorts of metal products for the home, farm and light industry. Other products made by blacksmiths might include plows, nails, adzes, axes, chains, hinges, bolts, hammers, hoes, bits, hooks, broadaxes, kitchen knives and drawknives. For these services, the blacksmiths of Cades Cove were certainly welcome and well respected for their skills.

Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church:

On May 15, 1841, Adams and other disenfranchised Smokies pioneers banded together and established the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church. The start was rocky. They had no meeting house and had to meet in individual homes. Sometimes they made arrangements to meet at the Primitive Baptist or Methodist church buildings. Also, in the Smokies there was much confusion over the Civil War. During the Civil War and reconstruction, the Missionary Baptists didn't meet for long periods of time. After the war however, they had a particularly successful revival and were able to erect their own church building in the Cades Cove area of the Smoky Mountains. Their church was constructed on Hyatt Hill in 1894, with their rolls bulging with 40 members. Eventually the rolls grew to over one hundred. In 1915, a new building was needed and was created in the present location.

Bicycling Cades Cove:

The 11-mile one way road is a popular bicycling area. It provides bicyclists with excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing and touring 19th century home sites. During summer and fall, bicycles may be rented at the Cades Cove Campground Store (located near Cades Cove Campground). For information call (865) 448-9034.

Shuttle Tours in Cades Cove:

Cades Cove Heritage Tours has started the first-ever guided educational shuttle service through Cades Cove. To improve traffic condition and air quality, the public will now be able to get a guided shuttle tour through the 11-mile loop.

 "Visitors who take a tour with us will not only learn about the rich mountain history and unique natural resources of Cades Cove but will also feel good about how their choice affects the environment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park," said Alex Roche, manager of the nonprofit Cades Cove Heritage Tours. The shuttles are 19-passenger fuel efficient vehicles. Public tours cost $13 for adults, $10 for seniors, $8 for children and six and under are free. The tours will operate daily, leaving the depot at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. lasting approximately three hours. The depot is located next door to the Great Smoky Mountain Heritage Center in Townsend. For More information on touring cades cove visit http://www.cadescoveheritagetours.org/