Gatlinburg

For centuries Cherokee hunters used the Indian Gap Trail, a footpath following the West Fork of the Little Pigeon River through the site of the town and over the crest of the Smokies; US 441 follows much the same route today. The first permanent settler was meant to be William Ogle of South Carolina, who cut logs for a cabin but died of malaria in 1803. Around 1806 his widow, Martha Huskey Ogle, crossed the mountains with her family and built the cabin, which still stands near the centre of town. The settlement became known as White Oak Flats, and in 1856 a post office opened in Radford Gatlin's store, giving it its name, although Gatlin, a Confederate sympathiser among pro-Union neighbours, was forced out in 1859.

Logging arrived around 1900, and in 1912 the Pi Beta Phi women's fraternity founded a settlement school, the root of today's Arrowmont craft school. At that time Gatlinburg was a hamlet of six houses, a blacksmith, a general store and a Baptist church. The campaign for a national park succeeded, and the park opened in 1934: some 40,000 visitors came through in its first year and 500,000 the next, and land prices later soared.

Tourism brought wealth but also urban sprawl and poorer air. In 1992 a whole downtown block burned down, and in November 2016 a wildfire that began at the Chimney Tops in the park was driven by gusts of up to 87 miles per hour into Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the surrounding hills. About 14,000 people were evacuated, 14 died, and more than 2,400 structures were damaged or destroyed, although the centre of the tourist district escaped heavy damage.

Gatlinburg's culture is Appalachian craft and mountain tourism. The settlement school staff of the 1920s found a national market for local weaving and baskets, and Arrowmont still teaches ceramics, woodworking, basket weaving and other crafts, while the studios of the Arts and Crafts Community keep traditional mountain crafts alive along their country loop. The English folklorist Cecil Sharp came to the region after the First World War to collect Appalachian ballads.

Music runs through the area, from Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain themes at Dollywood in nearby Pigeon Forge to the songwriting couple Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, writers of "Rocky Top", who lived in Gatlinburg from 1978; their house is now a museum.

The town is also known as a wedding destination, because Tennessee marriage licences are easy to obtain, and as a place for family holidays. In winter the Winterfest lights decorate downtown, with trolley tours of the displays. The convention centre hosts the Gatlinburg Regional, a week-long bridge tournament that is the largest outside the national championships in the United States. Locals' pride is bound up with the park, its history and the families — Ogles, Reagans, Ownbys — whose descendants still live in the valley.

Gatlinburg is a very small town: 3,577 people lived there at the 2020 census, with a median age of almost 48. Yet it receives millions of visitors, and nearly everything in the local economy depends on them — attractions, restaurants, shops, cabin rentals and the convention centre. About two-thirds of the town's housing units were counted as vacant at the census. The police department is large for a town of this size because of the number of visitors.

The town lies in a valley surrounded on all sides by high ridges, with Mount Le Conte rising to the south and the river running through the centre. Children attend Pi Beta Phi Elementary and Gatlinburg-Pittman schools in the Sevier County system. Daily rhythms follow the tourist calendar, and the town's roads and services are often pushed to the limit on peak holiday days.

The 2016 fire still shapes local life. After it the town was closed as a crime scene and held under curfew for more than a week; charges against two juveniles accused of starting the fire were dropped in 2017, and residents later sued the federal government over their losses.

Gatlinburg eats like the mountain South, heartily and casually. Pancake houses are a familiar sight on the Parkway, serving breakfasts to people heading into the park. Southern staples — biscuits with gravy, grits (boiled ground corn), cornbread and fried chicken — appear on many menus in the grills and family restaurants downtown, and sweet shops and food stands fill the gaps between the attractions on the Parkway.

Moonshine is a Gatlinburg speciality. Corn whiskey was distilled illegally in the Smoky Mountains for generations; today licensed distilleries downtown run copper stills in full view of visitors and pour samples at the counter. Tennessee is also known for its whiskey, filtered through maple charcoal, and a brewpub on the Parkway makes its own beer.

Sweet tea, as everywhere in the South, is the everyday drink, and coffee comes bottomless with breakfast. The settlers of the Sugarlands, just south of town, once tapped sugar maples for syrup to sweeten their food in the days before cane sugar was easy to buy.