The misty, cloudy day cloaked the mountain peaks in cotton, softening and silencing the landscape.
It was a cloudy, rainy day, but from time to time the clouds cleared a bit, allowing us to look down the valley of the Little Pigeon River toward Gatlinburg.
At the summit, the North Carolina/Tennessee state line bisects Great Smokie Mountains National Park, giving us a perfect photo op!
Newfound Gap is also the crossing point for the Appalachian Trail. Starting in Georgia, the 2,200 mile trail continues on to Maine, following the spine of the Appalachian mountains. Donna met and talked with a group of ladies in their 60's (plus) that were embarking on a hike to Maine! At least we can say that we hiked (200 feet) of the Appalachian Trail....
Shortly before dropping into the town of Cherokee, we stopped at Mingus Mill, one of only two water-powered mills still operating in the park. Today was an off day, but normally a miller grinds corn and wheat to make cornmeal and flour "for the tourists".
Water is diverted from a nearby creek and sent to the mill via a flume.
The water drops into a tall structure just outside the building (the dark vertical area in the photo). The weight of the column of water provides pressure to turn a cast iron drive shaft, turning the grinding wheels and powering the mechanism that cleans and grades, according to size, the flour or cornmeal.
We dropped down into the community of Cherokee, NC, following the Oconaluftee River. Cherokee is indeed a Cherokee Indian Reservation named Qualla Boundary. Evidence of human habitation goes back thousands of years. The first inhabitants of this area are believed to have come south from New England and enjoyed a sophisticated agriculture-based life. First encountering Europeans in 1540, when Hernando de Soto led an expedition through Cherokee Territory, the Cherokee were friendly, but in the late 18th century, Scotch-Irish, German, English and others arrived in significant numbers. The Cherokee retreated to the Blue Ridge Mountains and adapted to European ways, adopting a written legal code in 1808 and creating a written alphabet for the Cherokee language. A Cherokee silversmith named Sequoyah started a system of "schools" and by 1810 nearly all the Cherokee could read and write.
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Removal Act, calling for the relocation of all native peoples east of the Mississippi to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. The Cherokee appealed to the US Supreme Court and won their case before the country's highest tribunal. President Jackson ignored the decision and ordered the forced removal of the native peoples. Some 13,000 Cherokee marched to Oklahoma along what has become known as the Trail of Tears, where about one-third died en route.
A handful of Cherokee disobeyed the government edict, however, and hid out in the hills around the site of present day Cherokee. In 1889, they regained legal title to 56,000 acres of ancestral lands. The area stagnated for years, surviving clear-cut logging operations that ruined the eastern forests, encroaching farms, and racial bias. These days, tourism and gambling provide income for the 10,500 Cherokee descendants that live on the reservation.
After a lovely lunch at Granny's Kitchen, and several grand hours of conversation with Richard and Jan, we headed back over the mountain. We were able to get another photo of the Little Pigeon River valley.
Crossing the divide, we noted the extreme southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, some 469 miles from where we visited at mile zero a few days ago.
A wonderful day, with good friends, and beautiful country to see. What more could we possibly want?
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