After we managed to detach (løsrive) ourselves from the circus in Pigeon Forge on Wednesday (8th), we finally found the mountains.
The Smoky Mountains get their name
from the Cherokee Indian name Shaconage -
translated “the land of blue smoke” after the color of the fog/mist (den blÃ¥ røgs land efter farven pÃ¥ tÃ¥ge/dis). We went back to the mountains again on Thursday (9th).
Especially on Thursday we experienced why the Indians picked that name 😊.
Most people know the song “On top of old Smoky” (at least most of the ones over 50 😊).
(Also known as "on top of spaghetti" or "man starter som lille" in Danish, but that is totally irrelevant in this context!😊). We went to see Old Smoky on Thursday. It was VERY smoky! The mountains real name is Clingmans
Dome, and even though we were up 6,643 ft./2025 m, we could not see much other
than “smoke”.
We saw lots of water in the park. Most of the roads we drove
on, ran alongside streams. Sometimes they were calm, but mostly they were
rushing down the mountain, over lots of rocks.
There was still a little fall color left😊
(We have been so lucky – moving south with the colors. We have been surrounded
by red, yellow and orange for over a month now. We haven’t managed to be
anywhere at the very peak of color, but we have enjoyed every tree we
have seen.)
The park information said that we had a fair chance of being
able to see some of the animals, who live in the area. We have heard that so
often, but rarely have we seen much wildlife. These 2 days were different. We saw
deer (hjorte), but didn’t get close enough to get a picture. We also saw wild
turkeys (two different times) and a bear. These we did manage to capture on
pictures. We were especially excited to get so close to the bear (without
having to be scared, because we were in our car😊).
We didn't only see nature in the park. We also found a bit of history. This history was at a much more "everyday" level, than some of the museums and battlefields, we have seen.
Between 1820 and the 1930's (when the national park started buying the land), there was a town in the middle of the mountains. It was called Cades Cove, and at one point, there were 125 families living here. There were 4 churches, a couple of schools, even at post office, among other things. People were self- sufficient (selvforsynende) here. (Some even grew their own tobacco and cotton - not to sell, but to use for smoking and clothing.)
Today, there are only remnants (rester) of the town. We saw lots of log buildings. (I (Mary) really liked this, because she has helped re-build houses like this in a class she had at school - called Historical farm.) We got a good idea of how primitive life was here, but also how free it must have been. Here are a few of the things we saw....
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| One of the first cabins in the town |
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| Farming equipment from the mid 1800's |
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Mill - used especially for corn (the main staple of the diet).
They ate a lot of corn bread |
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| Corn crib and wagon |
Written by Mary and JJ
P.S.
At the beginning of our trip I (JJ) made a statement about how bad the roads are. Well they are - some of them. We have also driven lots and lots of miles on nice roads. But what really impresses me is the standard alongside the roads (rabatterne). They are so well kept. In many places you can see that they are regularly mowed (klippet).(We have seen a lot of mowers as we drive).There is no litter (affald). First of all I think that the Americans learned as they grew up not to throw stuff from the cars (its an engrained (indgroet) mentality),and second of all because litter (the little there is) is picked up by the authorities.
Many stretches of the roads have been adopted (adopteret) by people/organizations/companies who are sponsoring the cleaning and in return get their name on a sign on the side of the road. Denmark and the Danes could really learn something here!!
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| Not an unusual sight at all |
