Cades Cove in near Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge TN is full of historic sites. Many houses that the first settlers lived in are still standing today. While visiting Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge plan a day trip to Cades Cove. Take a cooler and some sandwiches and have a picknic.

The settlers started building houses on the north east side (where the drive through begins) of the cove. John and Lurany Oliver were the first people to settle in this area of the Smoky Mountains. Even though there was not a treaty between the Cherokee and the Oliver’s the Cherokee helped them through their first winter in the cove. One year after the Oliver’s settled in the cove the Calhoun Treaty gave white people the right to settle there. The Oliver’s officially purchased their land in 1826.

The Oliver’s original cabin stood almost fifty yards behind the cabin that is now said to be their cabin. (the cabin still standing is identified as the Oliver’s cabin is really the cabin their family built for their son when he got married. The Oliver’s are buried at the Primitive Baptist church inside Cades Cove.

Elijah Oliver, the son of John and Luraney Oliver was actually born in the original cabin in 1824. When he married he brought his wife to the cabin in the cove that has his name. Elijah had a cozy cabin, smokehouse, corn crib, springhouse and a barn. Elijah grew up in the cove when God, family and neighbors were important. Elijah was a man that built a room on his front porch for strangers to stay when they had nowhere else to go.

The Gregg-Cable house had two places in Cades Cove. Becky Cable died in her Cades Cove cabin at age ninety-four in 1940. During that time she lived in her house on Forge Creek Road but after she died park services made the decision that the Cable Mill area was a better located for her house. Becky Cable ran a boarding house and her brother’s farm, while raising his four children. She had gardens, cattle and food for her family, herself and the people staying with her. Becky Cable’s house is known as the Gregg-Cable house because it was built in 1879 by Leason Gregg. The house was the first frame house built in the cove. Leason Gregg’s family opened a store in the downstairs area while they lived upstairs. Eventually the Cable’s bought the land and the house from the Gregg’s and turned the store into a boarding house.

There are many historic houses inside Cades Cove and the Henry Whitehead Place is no exception. Matilda Shields Gregory and her son were abandoned by her husband, but her brothers built her a small mountain cabin. The cabin was one of the most rustic looking cabins in the cove. Soon Matilda was remarried to Henry Whitehead, who built her a nice log cabin in 1898. The cabin had a brick chimney, which was uncommon in the cove at the time. The finished house was one of the most modern in Cades Cove. The Henry Whitehead Place is still the only square-sawed log cabin in the cove or in the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Dan Lawson married Peter Cable’s daughter and built his cabin on property he bought from Mr. Cable. This cabin also had a fine brick chimney. The original cabin was made of hewn logs but was later fixed with sawed lumber. Before he died he eventually owned a large strip of land, stretching from ridge to ridge.

The Tipton Place in Cades Cove is another wonderful house to visit. Lucy and Lizzie were daughters of Colonel Hamp Tipton, who built the two story cabin after the Civil War. The land included a smokehouse, a woodshed, a corn crib, a blacksmith shop, cantilever barn and a bee farm. In 1878 the house was rented to James McCaulley, a blacksmith, who was trying to live in the cove. He eventually built his own home along with a blacksmith and carpentry shop. He worked in Cades Cove for a quarter of a century.

The Carter Sheilds Cabin was built in 1910 and Carter Shields lived there until 1921. Shields retired after being crippled in the Battle of Shiloh. This cabin is still one of the most beautiful in the cove, with dogwood trees blooming every spring.

After you leave Cades Cove you should have a wonderful cabin to go relax in. Call Cabins For You today to reserve your ideal cabin.