Gatlinburg TN in the Smoky
Mountains
The Great Smoky Mountains have some deep rich
history dating back to the 1700's. The first European settlers found
themselves amongst the Cherokee Indians. After adopting much of the
European culture, the majority of the Cherokee were forcibly moved
to land in Oklahoma. The Cherokee that remained or made their
way back are the ancestors of some that lived on the reservation
where the The Great Smoky Mountains National Park are located today.
By the 1900's life was much easier than it had been when the area
was first settled. People had lived off the land; farming, hunting
for food, cutting the trees down for building, and raising
livestock. Many areas that had at one time been forest were turned
into pastures and clearings for towns.
By the 20th century things had changed again in the Great Smoky
Mountains. Agricultural lifestyles gave way to lumbering. Within a
span of about twenty years most people did not depend on agriculture
as their main stay - people were dependent upon manufacturing,
lumber and store bought items. Lumber and logging boom towns sprang
up all over the place, some of them still in existence today:
Elkmont, Proctor, Smokemont and Tremont.
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