Lumberjack Feud

The show, in its new 26,000 square foot arena, will be based loosely on this area’s logging business as the woodlands were transformed in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With three different price plans guests can choose from a show-only option, a snack-lunch ticket, or the full dinner show. The full dinner show option will include chicken breast, ribs, several sides, dessert, and a beverage.

Adjoining the theater’s retail & ticket center is the new Smoky Mountain Forestry History Center. The museum will highlight the area’s history beginning with native inhabitants continuing with the pioneers & homesteaders in the Smokies during the early days of the logging industry.

For show times and further information go to lumberjackfeud.com.

Just above the Morton Overlook the work on the retaining wall and roadbed will require flag crews to direct traffic from 8AM until 9PM. Overnight traffic will be open to both lanes. At a slightly lower location traffic lights will control traffic around the clock.

From June 11 through August 15 there will be no lane closures during daytime hours.  Overnight between 9PM and 8AM construction will again cause lane closures.

The expected completion time of this first phase of the road work project is scheduled for October 2012. An additional two phases are schedule to complete the repairs of the 15 mile stretch of road between Newfound Gap and the park entrance north of Gatlinburg with projected completion in 2016.

Two Bull Elk Sparing

Two of the best places to witness the “rut” is the Cataloochee Valley and near the Oconaluftee Vistor’s Center outside of Cherokee, NC, the closet location to The Resort. If you decide to view the “Rut” please enjoy from afar as these are wild animals.

The Cades Cove Loop Road near Townsend, is slated for repaving from March 1 through May 21. Due to the fact the road has not been repaved in over thirty years, it will need to be totally closed down as it will require total reconstruction.

Clingmans Dome Road, which normally opens April 1st, will be kept closed until around May 29th. Along with road repairs, new public facilities are being installed at the parking area at Clingmans Dome.

The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is also scheduled to be closed till May 29th.  The popular 5 mile scenic loop is in Gatlinburg.

Weather conditions will play an important factor in getting these three projects completed on time. This winter and last fall have been extremely wet causing rock slides along certain roads and making for wet working conditions. We will report any announced delays in scheduled opening dates here on our blog and also on our Twitter page.

The Walkers’ were the children of Civil War veteran John “Hairy John” Walker and Margaret Jane King who moved to Little Greenbrier in the late 1860s or early 1870s. They raised 11 children, four boys and seven girls. Six spinster girls, Margaret Jane, Mary Elizabeth (Polly), Martha Ann, Nancy Melinda, Louisa Susan, and Hettie Rebecca spent the majority of their lives living and farming in a primitive lifestyle at Little Greenbrier, thus the famed “Walker Sisters”.

The Walker house is a three room two-storied log house that was completed around 1859 and this primitive house, with neither plumbing nor electric, was lived in until 1964. The house and land were sold to the U.S. Government in 1941 for $4750 but the sisters were granted a lifetime lease until their deaths. The formation of the National Park and the sale of their property brought many visitors to the sisters, curious of their way of life. They were able to sell hand made items as souvenirs to supplement their incomes as they welcomed travelers onto their land. An article in the Saturday Evening Post in 1947 brought then national publicity. Louisa Susan was the last of the six spinster sisters to pass, as she died in 1964.

The 4.2 mile round trip hike to the cabin is considered an easy to moderate ranking by most hikers. Beginning at Metcalf Bottoms picnic area off the Little River Rd, take the Metcalf Bottoms Trail (approximately 7/10 of a mile) to the Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse. This one room schoolhouse still has blackboard and desks from when it was last used in the 1930s. On the hillside above the school house is a small local cemetery. One may also drive, conditions permitting, to the Little Greenbrier School via a one lane gravel road, cross the bridge at Metcalf Bottoms picnic area and the road will be about ½ mile on your right.

Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse

To continue to the Walker Sisters’ home take the Little Brier Gap Trail from the parking area at the Little Greenbrier School. This is considered a mile hike but is probably closer to a mile and a half.

Walker Sisters' Cabin

Adventure Mountain is billed as the largest challenge course in the country. There are four separate courses with 46 different elements plus a children’s area. The themed attraction will have much of the look and feel of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in its early years.