| Cades Cove, a National Historic Site within the
park, receives 2 million visitors each year. Be forewarned, it is the most crowded park
destination and the one-way 11 mile stretch of road that runs through Cades Cove and can
get very congested during peak tourist times. During peak times (June - October) the loop
takes from 1 to 1 1/2 hours to drive and traffic is often bumper to bumper. Bicycle
rental is available and the best bet during peak times is to bicycle in and around the
area. This will allow you to go around the cars and to avoid the traffic buildups. Bikers
and hikers have the park to themselves in the summer when the loop is closed to motorized
vehicles on Wednesdays and Saturdays until 10am. On this road are 19 stops that
explain what life was like back then. There is also lots of activities to do
including hiking, horseback riding, and fishing.
Another alternative to avoid traffic is to explore Rich Mountain Road, a gravel
road that 2-wheel drive vehicles can handle with no problem.
- Want to be taken back to a simpler time where farming was
the number one economic production and people were friendly? Where extended families were
the norm and the old was respected and not thrown aside as society does today? Well, Cades
Cove is the place to go and daydream about what life was like years ago.
-
- Cades Cove, a 4,000 acre valley, is a rather large and flat area. It was
settled in 1812 by John Oliver and farmers who wanted a better life, a good piece of
bottom land and the chance to work hard to feed their families. It got its name from
Cherokee chief Abrams' wife Kate and was originally called "Kate's Cove".
Over time the name became "Cades Cove."
-
- At its peak in 1850, the area supported a community of 685 citizens and farmed
15,000 acres with horse and plow. Local farmers still graze cattle on the land to
keep the forests from growing back and the parks department has maintained the farm
buildings, the mill and church.
-
-
Preserved homes, chuches, and a working mill highlight the 11-mile loop road.
Wildlife
abounds around the cove and sightings of deer, foxes, wild turkeys, coyotes, woodchucks,
racoons, bears, and red wolves
occur. Beautiful mountain vistas climb from the valley floor to the sky. Situated in a
limestone window, the result of earthquake
activity and erosion, Cades Cove provides fertile habitat. Settlers first came to the cove
in 1819, and farmed this land until the
Park formed in the 1930s.
PRESERVED STRUCTURES IN CADES COVE
There are a variety of facinating buildings to be seen in Cades Cove.
Along with the cabins and three historical churches there is a smithy, smokehouses,corn
cribs and a cantilevered barn.
1.) John Oliver Cabin
2.) Primitive Baptist Church
Three churches remain from the original five and the Primitive Baptist Church is
the oldest. Built in 1827...
3.) Methodist Church
4.) Missionary Baptist Church
5.) Elijah Oliver Cabin
6.) Abrams Falls
- 7.) Cable Mill Visitors Center
- Cable Mill is a working farmhouse alongside a frame house and several farm
buildings. The 1868 mill still grinds corn raised in Cades Cove, and during the visiting
season, mid-April through October, crafts and farming demonstrations are held. For
one weekend in October, sorghum molasses are made and are available for purchase.
8.) Henry Whitehead Place
9.) Cades Cove Nature Trail
- 10.) Tipton Place
- Tiptons Place features a cantilievered barn. The barn spreads out at its
second story to provide shelter for work and and for animals.
11.) Carter Shields Cabin |
