'09 Art's Birthday Trip

Lunch Monday just before heading down Cades Cove Road

John Oliver Cabin, Cade's Cove

We had brought our bikes, and hoped to bike the trail, but an officer of some kind said we couldn't take the bikes off the road, couldn't even walk them up to the house (see parking lot in the background) so we loaded them back up and walked up to the house instead; we didn't ride in Cade's Cove.

This church was closed during the Civil War because they were Union sympathizers. Later the church split over the issue of missions and the Missionary Baptist Church was formed.

The Primitive Baptist church, with our car (carrying bikes) out front. The Cemetery is in the back, and many of the early settlers are buried there.

Art "preaching" at the Primitive Baptist Church.

Twin sisters Lura and Lora. Lora died the day she was born and Lura lived to be 93, dying in 2004.

Interesting cause of death - probably the Civil War.

John and Luren Oliver, first permanent white settlers of Cade's Cove. Their house was the first one we visited. The Oliver family was not thrilled about being forced out by the government when the park was formed.

The Methodist Church, built in 115 days for $115 by J. D. McCampbell, a blacksmith and carpenter who later served as the minister for many years. The Civil War and Reconstruction divided this church, and dissidents formed the Hopewell Methodist Church on the opposite side of the cove; it no longer stands. The church has two front doors, not because women and men were seated separately, but because the church whose plans they borrowed did segregate the sexes.

Art "preaches" for the Methodists too. Notice that this building is painted. Most or all of the other buildings we saw were unfinished wood.

The Cades Cove Loop provides many amazing mountain views.

View of the loop road from the road up to the Elijah Oliver place. Elijah was the son of John Oliver. He moved out of the cove before the Civil War, but after the war he bought this property and moved his family back in.

Log bridge over a creek, common construction in the cove. On the road up to the Elijah Oliver house.

On the left - sign to horse trail . . . on the right - no horses allowed sign

Main living area, Elijah Oliver house

The little room off the porch is the "stranger room" or what we would call a guest room today, for when non-family members visited.

Spring house. Even long after Elijah Oliver's time, only one family in the cove had water piped from a spring into the house. A few had faucets outside the house, but most carried all water from the spring.