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Autumn always tugs at me to dedicate time shooting the fall colors, preferably somewhere in the mountains.  My best bud Carl and I have been doing this for the past 8 years.  This year Carl, Brent, and I planned a trip to the Smokies.  It has been years since I’ve visited, in spite of the fact it is so close to home, relatively speaking.

We drove from Atlanta, and the scenery through the north GA mountains and into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was outstanding.  We arrived a little beyond color peak.  Some areas, particularly in the highest elevations, were already barren.  But by and large, the color was wonderful.

One of our first visits was to Cades Cove.  We visited on Friday, which was smarter than we realized.  We returned on Saturday, and cars were bumper to bumper and often standing at a dead standstill.  There were more leaf peepers than leaves!  But our first visit on Friday was very well paced and leisurely.

The first stop was the John Oliver cabin.  The Olivers bought land in the Cove in 1826 and this cabin site remained in the family until the Park was established. The house is typical of many found on the eastern frontier in the mid-1850s, and reflects the skills and techniques brought into the mountains by descendants of British and European immigrants.  The round logs were scored first along their length with a felling axe, then hewn with a broad axe. The notched corners need no pegs or nails, as gravity locks them together. Chinks (open spaces between the logs) were filled with mud to seal out wind and rain. The stone chimney was laid in mud mortar. Windows and doors are typically small, to conserve heat, and maintain the strength of the building. Split wooden shingles, the most common material used here, cover the roof.  The structure was quite unbelievable given it’s time period and for being almost 200 years old.  It took a year and a half to build.

The split rail fence in the foreground is near and dear to my heart.  My dad built one of these around our home property in Tennessee when I was a small boy.  I remember fondly driving out to the countryside to find and pickup the rails, then driving them home and helping put them into place.  The fence created an icon of sorts that represented our home in the small town where I grew up.

John Oliver Home - Cades Cove

Brent, Mark, and Carl

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