Cataloochee Reunion

Even today getting to remote Cataloochee Valley in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park involves driving a dozen miles on a dirt road across the Cataloochee Divide from the Waynesville, NC side toward the Tennessee state line.  It is difficult to imagine the travel and access issues faced by the earliest settlers when they began to move into the valley in the early 1800’s.

Even the Cherokee people used the valley as a hunting area rather than permanently living there.

In the 1900 census there were 54 farms in the big valley occupied by 112 families with a total of 768 people.  Yes, those families were very large; more working children made survival easier.

Cataloochee’s Palmer’s Chapel Methodist Church with reunion attendees gathering.
Nearly 500 people gathered on this 81st year.

The terrible destruction of the logging era followed by the advent of the Great Depression left these families in great hardship by the time the idea for the National Park became a reality.  By the time the Park was established in 1934, except for a small number of residents with lifetime tenancy, the population of the valley had moved away, selling their land for the National Park.

This year only two people were present who were born in the Valley.  The hundreds who were gathered are still affirming their family history and love of that beautiful place.  

The event starts with a church service in Palmer’s Chapel presided over by Steve Woody, descendent of the Steven Woody family.  The church is named for my Uncle Gudger Palmer’s family, who donated the land where it stands.  After church, there is a great time of eating and visiting, then goodbye until next August.

Trish in the yard of my Uncle Gudger’s childhood home.
The Palmer house is now a National Park Visitor Center.