| North Carolina (Swain County), Bryson City — Q-41 — Horace Kephart |
| | Author of "Our Southern Highlanders" (1913) and other works, naturalist, librarian. Grave 3/10 mi S.W. Mt. Kephart, 30 mi. N., is named for him. — Map (db m12693) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Bryson City — Q-57 — Kituwah |
| | Cherokee mother town. Council house stood on mound here. Town was destroyed in 1776 by Rutherford expedition. — Map (db m12696) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Bryson City — Q-3 — Tsali |
| | Cherokee brave, surrendered to Genl. Scott to be shot near here, 1838, that remnant of tribe might remain in N.C. — Map (db m12692) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Bryson City — Q-12 — Yonaguska — ca. 1760-1839 |
| | Chief of Oconaluftee Cherokee. He advocated temperance and opposed removal of his people from their homeland. Lived in this vicinity. — Map (db m12694) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — A Mountain Sanctuary |
| | Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a sanctuary. This is one of the few places in the eastern United States where animal populations can live, propagate, and die with relatively little influence from humans. Plants flourish in untold numbers and often achieve record size. Gene pools are remarkably diverse. Some species here are rare or endangered, and new species may yet be discovered.
These mountains have also become a refuge for humans. But a natural area like this benefits people far . . . — Map (db m20057) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Apple House |
| | For the mountain family, apples were a staple-eaten raw and used to make cider, vinegar, apple sauce, apple butter, and pies. Storing them was important, as evidenced by this substantial apple house. Summer apples were stored on the upper floor; hardier winter apples were put in ground-floor bins. Earth and thick stone walls provided insulation from cold and heat. — Map (db m12754) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Blacksmith Shop |
| | This shop was used by the farmer to make repairs to tools or to forge his own ironwork. Iron could be scarce, so a worn-out horseshoe might become part of a door hinge, as you can see here. This blacksmith shop was brought here from Cades Cove, Tennessee. — Map (db m12818) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Q-14 — Cherokee Indian Reservation / (Leaving) Cherokee Reservation |
| | [Marker Front]:
Cherokee Indian Reservation
Established by United
States for the Eastern
Band of Cherokee after
the removal of 1838.
[Marker Reverse]:
(Leaving) Cherokee
Reservation
Established by United
States for the Eastern
Band of Cherokee after
the removal of 1838. — Map (db m11526) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Cherokee Veterans Park |
| | This park is dedicated to all members of the eastern band of Cherokee Indians who served honorably in the Armed Forces of this Great Nation, and especially to those who died in the effort and to Charles George, the only member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. — Map (db m12929) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Corn Cribs |
| | Corn cribs housed the family's most important crop. Corn fed humans and livestock. Families consumed it both fresh and as cornmeal cooked into dishes such as mush and cornbread. After allowing corn to dry on the stalk, farmers stored it on the cob. The crib provided protection against weather and large animals. Almost every farm had a corn crib. Some combined a crib and a gear shed, where the farmer also stored tools and implements. — Map (db m12815) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Q-45 — Echota Mission |
| | Methodist. Maintained by Holston Conference for Cherokee c.1840-1885. School established 1850. Missionary's house Stands 50 yards north. — Map (db m12719) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Fifty Years of Mountain Logging |
| | Commercial logging became widespread in the Smokies around 1880, about fifty years before the establishment of the national park. Loggers using hand tools an animal teams took maple, poplar, cherry, walnut, and other choice woods.
Mechanized logging began in the early 1900s and often included clear cutting of all trees over ten inches in diameter. By the 1940s when the last large tracts had been bought, nearly 65 percent of the forest had been cut.
Logging is prohibited in the park. Today . . . — Map (db m20043) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Great Smoky Mountains National Park |
| | United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization MAB
Program on Man and the Biosphere
By Decision of the Bureau of the international coordinating council of the program on man and the biosphere, duly authorized to that effect by the council
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
is recognized as part of the international network of biosphere reserves. This network of protected samples of the world's major ecosystem types is devoted to conservation of nature and scientific . . . — Map (db m20061) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Land of Blue Smoke |
| | Shaconage, the Cherokee name for this area, means "land of blue smoke." A smoke-like natural bluish haze, and mist-like clouds that rise following a rainstorm, provide the inspiration for the name Smoky Mountains. During the growing season, the Smokies' lush vegetation emits large quantities of moisture and organic compounds. Together they form the natural haze, which is thickest on calm, sunny, humid days. But the misty veil is not all nature's work. Air pollution contributes too. In recent . . . — Map (db m20058) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Land of Diversity |
| | Few Places in North America sustain a greater variety of life than the Great Smoky Mountains. The forests, streams, and meadows here support more than 100 types of trees, 58 kinds of fish, some 1,500 flowering plants, more than 200 bird species, and an array of mammals that includes black bear, red wolf, and gray fox.
Such abundance is a function of topography and climate. Varying elevations provide endless combinations of moisture, temperature, wind, sunlight, and soil types. Most plant . . . — Map (db m20053) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Mountain Farm Museum |
| | Most of the buildings on a mountain farm related
to the most basic of all needs; preserving food.
The historic buildings at the Mountain Farm
Museum were moved here from throughout the
national park in the early 1950s. These buildings
reflect the challenges faced daily by every
mountain farm family.
John Davis spent two years building this
house near Deep Creek, North Carolina.
It was completed about 1900. The log
walls are "matched"; Davis split chestnut
logs in half along their . . . — Map (db m12747) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — People of the Mountains |
| | The rugged terrain of the Smoky Mountains determined patterns of human settlement. Residents of the Smokies - be they native Cherokees or European emigrants and their descendants - gravitated to valleys or coves. Settlement was confined to areas far less rugged than what you see here; few people lived at high elevations like Newfound Gap.
One of the greatest problems facing those who lived in these mountains was finding land that would sustain them. The settlements that are part of Great . . . — Map (db m20054) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Sequoyah |
| | This statue honoring Sequoyah. The Cherokee genius who invented the Cherokee Alphabet. was sculpted from a single great California Sequoia (Redwood) Log which was donated and shipped by Georgia-Pacific.
This is sculptor Peter wolf Toth's 63rd statue across the United States and Canada Commemorating the Contributions of Native Americans. Toth was invited to sculpt the Sequoyah Statue by Chief Robert S. Youngdeer and Museum Director Ken Blankenship.
Dedicated: 30 September 1989 — Map (db m19736) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Sorghum Mill and Furnace |
| | Sorghum cane, a corp grown on many mountain
farms, was used to produce sorghum molasses.
The cane fed between the rollers of the
animal-powered cane mill, which squeezed out
the juice.The juice was then boiled over the
furnace until it turned into thick,dark,stringy
molasses.Ten gallons of juice yielded about one
gallon of molasses."Long sweetening,"as it
was called,was used in dozens of recipes and
as syrup. — Map (db m12814) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — The Appalachian Trail |
| | You are standing alongside the Appalachian Trail, one of the longest continuous footpaths in the world. The trail winds more than 2,150 miles through 14 states. Few stretches are more remote or difficult than the section through the Great Smokies. Here the trail follows some of the highest ridges in the Appalachians, paralleling the Tennessee-North Carolina border for 70 miles.
Hiking the trail is not easy and neither was building it. Here in the Smokies during the 1930s, hundreds of . . . — Map (db m20064) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — The Great Smokies |
| | (Side One):
The Great Smokies: scenic, diverse, culturally rich.
The scenic view here are well known; lesser known is the abundance of life. The Smokies' rugged topography creates a diversity of species found in few other places in North America. And the Smokies' rich human heritage includes the Cherokee, decades of mountain culture, and a unique national park story.
The best experience the Smokies you must leave your car. Walk the trails, visit the historic sites, and enjoy the . . . — Map (db m20066) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — The Meathouse |
| | This building protected one of the most valuable commodities on a mountain farm: the meat supply. The most common meat was pork. Without refrigeration, salting and smoking were the most common means of preserving meat and protecting it from insects and bacteria. Butchering took place in late fall. Cool temperatures were required to keep the meat from spoiling during the initial stages of the preservation process. — Map (db m12753) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Q 56 — Thomas's Legion |
| | William H. Thomas led Confederate "Legion of Indians & Mountaineers." Cherokee companies raised nearby in 1862. — Map (db m12714) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Cherokee — Where Man Is Only a Visitor |
| | In front of you is a very special place - part of the park's "backcountry," a place without roads, wires, houses...
Here you - or your children, or theirs - may walk for days, largely free of the sights, sounds, and smells of the everyday world.
There are few such places left in America, and none in the East matches the wildlands of the Smokies. A beautiful scene, a great scientific resource. But perhaps the most profound value of the park lies in its quality as Sanctuary - for people, as . . . — Map (db m20049) |
| North Carolina (Swain County), Great Smoky Mountains National Park — Horace Kephart's Last Permanent Camp |
| | On this spot
Horace Kephart - Dean of American Campers
and one of the Principal Founders of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park -
pitched his last permanent camp. — Map (db m12751) |
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