United States Destinations

Tennessee town highlights Smoky Mountain heritage

By Toni Dabbs

Photo by Toni Dabbs

Townsend, Tennessee, is known as the "Peaceful Side of the Smokies." But once, it was a hub of industry, serving as headquarters for a lumber company that logged much of what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The forest has regenerated and the sawmill is long gone, but signs of the town’s logging heritage can still be found.

The town is named for W.B. Townsend, who came from Pennsylvania to start the Little River Railroad and Lumber Company in 1901. Over the next four decades, the company harvested more than 560 million board feet of 57 varieties of hardwood (including cherry, chestnut, maple and poplar) from 100,000 acres that now lie within the national park’s boundaries.

The place to learn about this part of Townsend’s past is the Little River Railroad and Lumber Company Museum. It is situated at the site of the old sawmill complex on the main road, Lamar Alexander Parkway, which follows track bed that ran from the community of Walland, northwest of town, to Elkmont, inside the national park.

One of the museum’s primary structures is the Walland depot, relocated to Townsend from its original setting. It exhibits period photographs, memorabilia, tools, equipment and other artifacts that tell the story of the company and the people who worked for it. The company hired many of the self-sufficient hardscrabble farmers whose land it purchased for logging, greatly changing their lifestyles.

The Little River Railroad had about 18 miles of permanent track, but the lumber company had 150 miles of track that was moved around to access whatever areas were being logged. Elkmont was the junction between conventional locomotives and Shays, geared locomotives used to haul logs from the mountains along steep grades. The repatriation of Shay Engine 2147 from a lumber company in North Carolina was the catalyst for establishing the museum in 1982. Soon after the Little River Railroad began operating, Elkmont became a popular resort for weekend travellers from Knoxville. Families came in summer to enjoy the cool mountain air, and men came year-round to hunt and fish. By the early 1920s, Mr. And Mrs. Willis P. Davis, an influential Knoxville couple who perhaps had spent time at Elkmont themselves, had proposed the creation of a national park in the Smoky Mountains.

It took years of negotiations with governments, corporations and individuals to determine boundaries for the park, raise the necessary capital and acquire the land. Property owners had to be bought out, and people living within proposed park boundaries had to be relocated or granted lifetime residency rights. Little River Lumber Company agreed to sell its holdings but was allowed to continue logging until 1938, when it brought its last load of timber down from Tremont.

Today, visitors entering the park from Townsend can pick up an informative auto tour guide to the Tremont logging camp area and, using its map, find indentations from side tracks where rail equipment was maintained and remains of the water-powered generator.

Townsend also is the gateway to Cades Cove, one of the homestead sites preserved within the park.

A thriving farming community of 137 households in 1850, Cades Cove was virtually abandoned less than 100 years later, when the national park was created. A loop road takes visitors past its surviving structures, including the 1819 cabin of original settler John Oliver and three churches, the oldest being the 1827 Primitive Baptist Church.

Halfway around the 24-kilometre loop, a visitors’ centre has been built on the 1870 John P. Cable farm site. Buildings on the property include a house, a grist mill and a cantilever barn.

Bicycling is allowed on the loop road. During summer, the road is closed to motor vehicles until 10 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays so bicyclists may pedal in peace. The cove also has trails for horseback riding and hiking. Visitors will want to keep their eyes open for black bears and white-tailed deer.

Not all the natural beauty around Townsend is above ground, though. Tuckaleechee Caverns is a warren of underground passageways and vast chambers. Its spectacular formations have been carved over thousands of years by a stream that originates inside the national park and flows through the caverns.

On one-hour and 15-minute tours, knowledgeable guides lead visitors along a mile of well lighted walkways to view unusually shaped stalactites, 20-foot-high stalagmites, 200-foot waterfalls and even a subterranean beach. Tuckaleechee is considered one of the best caverns in the eastern United States.

Townsend meanders along both sides of Lamar Alexander Parkway and into the surrounding hills. It includes a number of heritage structures dating from the town’s early days. The white-framed Campground Methodist Church was attended by Mr. And Mrs. W.B. Townsend. The Art Emert General Store supplied railroad and sawmill workers with everyday necessities. And a series of swinging (or suspension) bridges allowed workers to access their cottages on the north side of the Little River.

Maps, books, brochures and other information to help tourists find their way around is available at the Townsend Visitor Center, 7906 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway, Townsend TN 37882-4033 (800-525-6834 or 865-448-6134, www.smokymountains.org).

INFO TO GO:

• Hideaway Cottages (865-984-1700, www.hideawaycottagestn.com) offers luxury accommodations in secluded log cabins on large wooded lots. Amenities include full kitchens, fireplaces, hot tubs and porches with mountain views.

•Dancing Bear Lodge (865-448-6000, www.dancingbearlodge.com) provides a white linen dining experience in a rustic setting. Inspired by flavours indigenous to the region, Chef Jeff Carter creates is own Tennessee specialties emphasizing fresh seasonal ingredients. The restaurant features the only full bar and wine service in the area.

•Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center (865-448-0044, www.gsmheritagecenter.org) presents an in-depth history of the Smoky Mountains region, demonstrating Native American and pioneer lifestyles through exhibits about pottery, hunting, medicine, music, trade and more.