Prehistory Native Americans have likely been hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains for 14,000 years. Numerous
Archaic period (–1000 B.C.) artifacts have been found within the national park's boundaries, including projectile points uncovered along likely animal migration paths.
Woodland period ( - 1000 A.D.) sites found within the park contained 2,000-year-old ceramics and evidence of primitive agriculture. The increasing reliance upon agriculture during the
Mississippian period (–1600 A.D.) lured Native Americans away from the game-rich forests of the Smokies and into the fertile river valleys on the outer fringe of the range. Substantial Mississippian-period villages were uncovered at
Citico and
Toqua (named after the Cherokee villages that later thrived at these sites) along the Little Tennessee River in the 1960s. Fortified Mississippian-period villages have been excavated at the McMahan Indian Mounds in
Sevierville and as well as mounds in
Townsend. Most of these villages were part of a minor chiefdom centered on a large village known as
Chiaha, which was located on an island now submerged by
Douglas Lake. The 1540 expedition of
Hernando de Soto and the 1567 expedition of
Juan Pardo passed through the
French Broad River valley north of the Smokies, both spending a considerable amount of time at Chiaha. The Pardo expedition followed a trail across the flanks of
Chilhowee Mountain to the Mississippian-period villages at Chilhowee and Citico (Pardo's notary called them by their
Muskogean names, "Chalahume" and "Satapo").
Cherokee By the time the first English explorers arrived in southern Appalachia in the late 17th century, the
Cherokee controlled much of the region, and the Great Smoky Mountains lay at the center of their territory. One Cherokee legend tells of a magical lake hidden deep within the range but inaccessible to humans. Another tells of a captured
Shawnee medicine man named Aganunitsi who, in exchange for his freedom, travels to the remote sections of the range in search of the
Uktena. The Cherokee called Gregory Bald
Tsitsuyi ᏥᏧᏱ, or "rabbit place," and believed the mountain to be the domain of the Great Rabbit. Other Cherokee place names in the Smokies included
Duniskwalgunyi ᏚᏂᏍᏆᎫᏂ, or "forked antlers", which refers to the Chimney Tops, and
kuwahi ᎫᏩᎯ, or "mulberry place". Most Cherokee settlements were located in the river valleys on the outer fringe of the Smokies, which along with the
Unicoi Mountains provided the main bulwark dividing the
Overhill Cherokee villages in modern Tennessee from the Cherokee Middle towns in modern North Carolina. The Overhill town of
Chilhowee was situated at the confluence of
Abrams Creek and the Little Tennessee, and the Overhill town of
Tallassee was located just a few miles upstream near modern
Calderwood (both village sites are now under Chilhowee Lake). A string of Overhill villages, including
Chota and
Tanasi, dotted the Little Tennessee valley north of Chilhowee. The Cherokee Middle towns included the village of
Kittowa (which the Cherokee believed to be their oldest village) along the Tuckasegee River near Bryson City. The village of Oconaluftee, which was situated along the
Oconaluftee River near the modern Oconaluftee Visitor Center, was the only known permanent Cherokee village located within the national park's boundaries. Sporadic or seasonal settlements were located in
Cades Cove and the
Hazel Creek valley.
European settlement European explorers and settlers began arriving in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the mid-18th century. The influx of settlers at the end of the
French and Indian War brought conflict with the Cherokee, who still held legal title to much of the land. When the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British at the outbreak of the
American Revolution in 1776, American forces launched an invasion of Cherokee territory. The Middle towns, including Kittuwa, were burned by General
Griffith Rutherford, and several of the Overhill towns were burned by
John Sevier. By 1805, the Cherokee had ceded control of the Smokies to the U.S. government. Although much of the tribe was forced west along the
Trail of Tears in 1838, a few—largely through the efforts of
William Holland Thomas—managed to retain their land on the
Qualla Boundary and today comprise the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. In 1802,
Edgefield, South Carolina resident William Ogle arrived in White Oak Flats where he cut and prepared logs for cabin construction. Although Ogle died shortly after returning to Edgefield, his wife,
Martha Jane Huskey, eventually returned with her family and several other families to White Oak Flats, becoming the first permanent settlers in what would eventually become Gatlinburg. Their children and grandchildren spread out southward into the
Sugarlands and
Roaring Fork areas. Two Cades Cove settlers, Moses and Patience Proctor, crossed over to the North Carolina side of the Smokies in 1836 to become the first Euro-American settlers in the
Hazel Creek area. The
Cataloochee area was first settled by the Caldwell family, who migrated to the valley in 1834. Like most of southern Appalachia, the early 19th-century economy of the Smokies relied on
subsistence agriculture. The average farm consisted of roughly , part of which was cultivated and part of which was woodland. Early settlers lived in log cabins, although these were replaced by more elaborate log houses and eventually, as lumber became available, by modern frame houses. Most farms included at least one barn, a
springhouse (used for refrigeration), a
smokehouse (used for curing meat), a
chicken coop (protected chickens from predators), and a
corn crib (kept corn dry and protected it from rodents). Some of the more industrious farmers operated
gristmills,
general stores, and
sorghum presses. Religion was a central theme in the lives of the early residents of the Smokies, and community life was typically centered on churches. Christian
Protestantism—especially
Primitive Baptists,
Missionary Baptists,
Methodists, and
Presbyterians; dominated the religious culture of the region.
American Civil War While both Tennessee and North Carolina joined the
Confederacy at the outbreak of the
American Civil War in 1861,
Union sentiment in the Great Smoky Mountains was much stronger relative to other regions in these two states. Generally, the communities on the Tennessee side of the Smokies supported the Union, while communities on the North Carolina side supported the Confederates. On the Tennessee side, 74% of Cocke Countians, 80% of Blount Countians, and 96% of Sevier Countians voted against secession. In the North Carolina Smokies—
Cherokee,
Haywood,
Jackson, and
Macon counties—about 46% of the population favored secession. While no major engagements took place in the Smokies, minor skirmishes were fairly common. Cherokee chief
William Holland Thomas formed a Confederate legion made up mostly of Cherokee soldiers. Thomas' Legion crossed the Smokies in 1862 and occupied Gatlinburg for several months to protect
saltpeter mines atop Mount Le Conte. Residents of predominantly Union Cades Cove and predominantly Confederate Hazel Creek routinely crossed the mountains to steal one another's livestock. Residents of Cosby and Cataloochee did likewise. One notable Civil War incident was the murder of long-time Cades Cove resident Russell Gregory (for whom
Gregory Bald is named), which was carried out by
bushwhackers in 1864 shortly after Gregory had led an ambush that routed a band of Confederates seeking to wreak havoc in the cove. Another incident was George Kirk's raid on Cataloochee, in which Kirk killed or wounded 15 Union soldiers recovering at a makeshift hospital.
Logging , 1910 While selective logging occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains throughout the 19th century, the general inaccessibility of the forests prevented major logging operations, and lumber firms relied on the lowland forests in the northeastern United States and the
Mississippi Delta in the southeast. As timber resources in these regions became exhausted, and as the demand for lumber skyrocketed after the Civil War, entrepreneurs began looking for ways to reach the virgin forests of southern Appalachia. The first logging operations in the Smokies, which began in the 1880s, used
splash dams or
booms to float logs down rivers to lumber mills in nearby cities. Notable splash dam and boom operations included the English Lumber Company on Little River, the Taylor and Crate operations along Hazel Creek, and the ambitious operations of
Alexander Arthur on the Pigeon River. All three of these operations failed within their first few years, however, after their dams and boom systems were destroyed by floods. Innovations in logging railroads and band saw technology in the late 19th century made large-scale logging possible in the mountainous areas of southern Appalachia. The largest logging operation in the Smokies was the Little River Lumber Company, which logged the Little River watershed between 1901 and 1939. The company also established company towns at Townsend (named for the company's chief owner and manager, Wilson B. Townsend),
Elkmont, and
Tremont. The second-largest operation was the
Ritter Lumber Company, which logged the Hazel Creek watershed between 1907 and 1928. Ruins of Ritter's lumbering operations are still visible along the Hazel Creek Trail. Other lumbering operations included Three M Lumber and Champion Fibre, both of which logged the Oconaluftee watershed. By the time all operations ceased in the 1930s, logging firms had removed two-thirds of the virgin forests from the Smokies. According to the National Park Service, 80% of the Smokies was clear cut in the early 20th century.
National park Wilson B. Townsend, the head of Little River Lumber, began advertising Elkmont as a tourist destination in 1909. Within a few years, the
Wonderland Hotel and the
Appalachian Club had been established to cater to elite Knoxvillians seeking summer mountain getaways. In the early 1920s, several Appalachian Club members, among them Knoxville businessman Colonel
David Chapman, began seriously considering a movement to establish a national park in the Smokies. As head of the Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission, Chapman was largely responsible for raising funds for land purchases and coordinating park efforts between local, state, and federal entities. The creation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park proved much more complex than the creation of its predecessors, such as
Yellowstone and
Yosemite, which were already federally owned. Along with convincing logging firms to sell lucrative lumber rights, the Park Commission had to negotiate the purchase of thousands of small farms and remove entire communities. The commission also had to deal with the Tennessee and North Carolina legislatures, which at times were opposed to spending taxpayer money on park efforts. In spite of these difficulties, the Park Commission had completed most major land purchases by 1932. The national park officially opened in 1934, with President
Franklin D. Roosevelt presiding over the opening ceremony at
Newfound Gap. ==Culture and tourism==