elkmont ghost town

Tonight, most of our group went to downtown Gatlinburg, where they took a VIP tour of Sugarlands Distilling Co., complete with shots of moonshine and gift bags, all arranged through my grandpa's liquor store. The tweens, teens, and older kids all went too, and explored the shops downtown while the adults were occupied. Then they all went to the Mysterious Mansion haunted house. Since Mike was more interested in moonshine than I was, I volunteered to stay behind with the littler kids (Max, Henry, Gracie, and Elly) and have our own little adventure. Matt and Katie and J and his girlfriend, Carleen, opted to accompany us, and off we went in search of the abandoned town of Elkmont. Elkmont was a logging town until the 1930s, when Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established. The national park is made up of a lot of public lands in Tennessee and North Carolina, but to join them all together, the states had to buy up a bunch of property from individuals too, which is where Elkmont comes in. Most of the property owners got lifetime leases from the government when their land was purchased, so there were still some people living here as late as the 1990s, which I find fascinating. What must it have been like to be the last leaseholder living here, with tourists and hikers all around, checking out the dilapidated buildings that used to belong to your neighbors? I can only imagine that it was a tough thing to bear witness to.

Like a lot of things around here, Elkmont isn't really advertised much, and there was little signage, so we had to stop more than once to ask for directions, but eventually we found it and started exploring. Most of the buildings have signs outside saying you can't enter (because they are old and falling down), but that didn't stop us from peering in windows and doorways to get a glimpse of hearths and other features. We stuck to one main street and explored up one side and down the other until the sun went down, then we made our way back to the cabin for dinner.