Cade's Cove

Cades Cove is the earliest settlement in the Smoky Mountains. Surrounded by lush green mountains, numerous rivers with brown, rainbow and brook trout, you can see turkeys, deer, elk and bears roaming about. Cades Cove was first settled by John Oliver, a frugal, ambitious man who had a dream and was not afraid to work hard to achieve it.

John Oliver (1793–1863), a veteran of the War of 1812, and his wife Lucretia Frazier (1795–1888) were the first permanent European settlers in Cades Cove. They walked over 100 miles with their infant child to make a new life for themselves in the Smoky Mountains.

The first year for the Olivers was extremely difficult. Without a place to stay, they took refuge in an abandoned Cherokee hunting shelter. The Olivers had heard stories of the natives running other pioneers off lands in nearby towns, so they were constantly in fear for their safety. After several months, John had built a small cabin for his family and they got ready to hunker down for their first winter in Cades Cove. The winter months were brutal and it became apparent to the Olivers that they did not have enough food to survive until the spring. One morning with gun in hand, John kissed his wife goodbye, told her he would be back by evening and set out for a hunt. The afternoon dragged on, then evening fell and the night grew dark with no return of John. Later, Lucretia would tell stories of how scared she was that night. Every howl of the wind, each creak in the house was magnified by her imagination. Sometime in the middle of the night, she heard voices. Lucretia mustered up the courage to peek out the window, only to find a Cherokee hunting party sitting on her front porch. Lucretia, with no husband or weapon to defend her, grabbed her infant child and hid in a corner in the opposite side of the house until morning. Only after the sun rose, did she find the courage again to look out the window. What she discovered greatly surprised and impressed her. Though the Cherokee did not want anyone settling in the mountains and were not happy the Olivers were there, they did not want this family to starve either. The Cherokee had left seeds and dried pumpkin for the Olivers on the porch and had left peacefully.

It wasn’t until evening on the 2nd day that John returned and learned of Lucretia’s experience. She quickly informed him that she was ready to leave. Determined to be successful in Cades Cove and having the foresight to what life could be like for them, John asked his wife what it would take to get her to stay, to which she responded 2 cows. 2 cows and 11 children later, Cades Cove eventually housed 700 residents. These residents lived peacefully in Cades Cove until 1940 when the last resident (Rebecca Cable, Aunt Becky) passed away and left her home and working waterwheel mill to the National Park Service who had acquired the all of the lands making up the park over the previous two decades, forcing the residents to leave or take pennies on the dollar to lease their land back from the government. A very sad story of eminent domain to be sure. The last school in Cades Cove closed in 1944 and the post office closed in 1947, although in the graves located behind the three remaining original Churches in the cove you can see burials as recent as 2010.