Cades Cove is a cove (an isolated valley) located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of far eastern Tennessee. The valley was once home to numerous settlers, the last of which only recently having died out, before the formation of the national park around it. Today Cades Cove is the single most popular destination for visitors to the park, which is itself the most visited national park in the United States, attracting over two million visitors a year, due to its well preserved homesteads, scenic mountain views, and abundant display of wildlife^*.

Geology

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Cades Cove is a "window" through older rock, called so because of heavy erosion, causing to the older layers of sandstone and phyllite to be pushed over the younger limestone below, conversely to traditional younger over older piling standards.

History

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The origin of the name "Cades Cove" is not known. One story is that it was named for the wife of a prominent Cherokee Chief: Kade (the word "Cade" is a misnomer), who lived in the valley before white settlement.

The story of white settlement in the coves has its roots in the War of 1812. Veterans of this war were given land grants on, what was then, the western frontier. Josiah Jobe, an entrepreneur of the day, went around and bought many of the grants from veterans who did not wish to move. He then convinced John Oliver, his wife Lucretia and young daughter to be the first to live in the cove to prove that it could be setteled. They arrived in the fall of 1818 and barely survived the winter. In the spring Josiah Jobe returned and was only able to convince the Olivers to stay by giving Mrs. Oliver her own milk cow. At the peak of civilization in the cove, in the mid 1850s, there were about 125 homesteads and 700-750 residents who could each tell the name and age of nearly everyone in the cove. The close-knit rural community thrived in the cove until the 1930s, when the area was sold into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but not without much controversy among local residents.

The U.S. government negotiated with the cove residents during the process of buying land into what became the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, repeatedly assuring them that they would not be forced out of their homes by eminent domain. Most of them were, however, though a few were able to stay for a nominal annual lease. The Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church even maintained a small congregation until the 1960s, and the last resident died in 1999.

For about one-hundred years before the creation of the national park, much farming and logging was done in the valley, as the main source of economic development for the peoples living in the cove, both leading to massive deforestation. At first the National Park Service planned to let the cove return to its natural forest state, but it soon realized the attraction of a preserved community. Nonetheless, on the advice of contemporary cultural experts, it demolished the modern structures leaving the more primitive cabins and barns. As a result, a visitor to the cove may leave with an impression of a technologically backward community remniscent of Snuffy Smith stereotypes. However, in its day, the cove was as well-educated and progressive as any rural community in local Blount County, Tennessee.

Touring

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Cades Cove, though an historically isolated cove, is today a massive tourist destination in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A one-way, 11 mile (17.7 kilometer) paved loop road around Cades Cove draws thousands of visitors daily, and can take over four hours to traverse during heavy tourist seasons. The cove draws such attention moreso from its reputation for enumerous black bear sightings than any other single source, although many enthusiasts make the trip for the abundant hiking access and well-preserved old homesteads of the 19th Century. In addition to hiking and general sightseeing, horseback and bicycle riding are popular activities in the cove, as each are provided to visitors by park operators.

Blount County, Tennessee | Coves | Great Smoky Mountains National Park