Roaring Fork

Roaring Fork Review

You can visit several preserved mountain cabins and other buildings in the Roaring Fork area near Gatlinburg. Roaring Fork was settled by Europeans in the 1830s and '40s. The land was rocky and steep and not particularly well suited to farming. At its height around the turn of the 20th century, there were about two dozen families in the area. Most lived a simple, even hardscrabble existence, trying to scrape out a living from the rough mountain land. The Noah "Bud" Ogle self-guided nature trail, on Orchard Road just before entering the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, offers a walking tour of an authentic mountain farmstead and surrounding hardwood forest. Highlights include a log cabin, barn, streamside tub mill, and a wooden flume system to bring water to the farm. Among historic structures on the Motor Nature Trail, all open for you to explore, are the Jim Bales cabin, the Ephraim Bales cabin, and the Alfred Reagan house, one of the more "upscale" residences at Roaring Fork.