A Brief History Of Gatlinburg, Tn

Gatlinburg, Tennessee has become a very popular tourist attraction. It is also known as the “Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains.”

For hundreds of years, Native American and then Cherokee hunters used Indian Gap Trail as an access route to hunt the plentiful game of the Smoky Mountains.

It is thought that numerous American and European fur trappers and hunters probably traveled through or camped where Gatlinburg is now located. William Ogle, of a town called Edgefield in South Carolina, was the first individual who decided to settle permanently in the area. The Cherokee assisted Ogle as he worked gathering and preparing the lumber he needed to build his cabin.

He returned home to grow one last crop to raise funds for purchasing his supplies and gather his family. Regrettably, shortly after he arrived in Edgefield, malaria swept through the area and Ogle passed away in 1803.

Martha Jane Huskey Ogle (his widow) moved their family to the state of Virginia because her relatives lived there. Several years later Martha decided to take a journey with her brother over Indian Gap Trail heading to the area where William’s prepared lumber was located. This area is named ‘Gatlinburg’ today.

Not long after they arrived, they built the cabin near the convergence of the W Fork of Little Pigeon and Baskins Creek. The cabin is still there today.

Gatlinburg was initially called White Oak Flats. In the ten years after the Huskeys and Ogles arrived in what was then called White Oak Flats, settlers began moving there as well.

The first post office in the area was established in 1856. The store that belonged to Radford Gatlin was the location for the post office. This is how the town got its name of ’Gatlinburg.’

In spite of the town being named after him, Gatlin had only been in the area for two years and was constantly at odds with some of his neighbors. An intense feud had emerged between the Ogles and the Gatlins. It is thought that the feud was probably because of Gatlin attempting to redirect the main road of the town.

Gatlin became a Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War and because the majority of the residents were pro-Union, in 1859 they decided to force Gatlin out. Gatlinburg had strong sentiment against slavery, but remained neutral throughout the Civil War.

The 1880s in Gatlinburg saw the development of a band saw. In 1901, the Little River Lumber Company was established by Colonel W.B. Townsend. Lumber interests started to purchase logging rights of the Smoky Mountain forests.

In 1900, Andrew Jackson Huff became a pivotal figure when he decided to erect a sawmill in Gatlinburg. This assisted the local residents who started to supplement their income by renting accommodations to the loggers. Tourists started to trickle into Gatlinburg because the Smoky Mountains captivated them. Writers such as Horace Kephart and Mary Noailles Murfree had written extensively about the natural beauty and wonderment of the region.

The extensive logging that occurred in the early part of the 1900s led to an increase in calls by the environmental activists for action from the federal government. Therefore, Congress obliged the conservationists and approved the Weeks Act in 1911, which allowed land to be purchased for creating national forests.

Natural wonders
People interested in establishing businesses in the Knoxville area and various renowned authors requested that a park be created in the Smoky Mountains. In 1926, 76,000 acres were purchased and the creation of the park became possible.

The park came to fruition in 1934; approximately 40,000 tourists visited Gatlinburg that year. By the next year, the visitors had increased by 460,000! From 1940 through 1950, Gatlinburg’s land had increased dramatically from $50/acre to $8000/acre.

An entire block that contained the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum, a haunted house, arcade and souvenir shop were totally consumed by flames in 1992 because of faulty wiring in a fixture. Fortunately, the fire was brought under control prior to it having the ability to consume the Gatlinburg Space Needle. This block was entirely rebuilt and then reopened for tourists in 1995.

Very few artifacts were salvageable from the Ripley’s Museum. The ones that were are marked very clearly in the rebuilt museum. This fire prompted a series of new building codes downtown and even a new fire station.

Ripley’s has had two more fires since it reopened in 1995. One fire in the year 2000 and then again in 2003. Faulty fixtures were also to blame for those two fires.

By: Brad Work

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If you are planning a trip to the “Gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains”, consider at one of the best Gatlinburg resorts in the area, Appleview River Resort. Book your stay now for October and receive two free tickets to the Apple Valley Corn Maze in Gatlinburg. You can also get 4 nights for the price of 3 for a limited time.