October, 2018 Day 3, Eastern Tennessee

Day 3 Sunday, October 14, 2018

      Today was simply a day to enjoy the drive through Tennessee.  I pulled out a hiking guide for the state and started looking for some trails in the north-eastern corner of the state.

     It was raining when I packed up the car.  It wasn't a heavy rain, just enough to reevaluate the day’s plans.  The weather guessers were saying it would end later in the morning.  So, I decided to take a more roundabout route to the day's trailhead.

     Since the Carolina Country Inn doesn’t do breakfast, I stopped into a place called Lil’ Smokeys on my way out of town.  It’s a small diner with perhaps ten tables and a few seats at the counter.  The breakfast fare was pretty standard, but it hit the spot.  And while Jo, my waitress, was certainly friendly, she was wearing a Dallas Cowboys shirt.  I still left her a good tip.

     On the wall of the restaurant is a small sign that says, “A kind word is never wasted.” 

     From Barnsville, I easily found Hwy 197.  That would take me north to the Tennessee state line.  The drive to the state line seemed to be one serpentine stretch after another, with a steady line of riverfront towns.  Some had a discernible downtown area.  Others were just a handful of homes scattered about with at least one seemingly requisite, dilapidated barn.  No complaints.  For the most part, I seemed to have the road to myself. 

    Somehow, I missed the turnoff for Hwy 226.  It added a few more miles to my journey, but with the rain still tapering off, I was in no rush.  It also took me through the town of Erwin, a town with a dark legacy.

     For three years the city has been holding it’s Erwin Elephant Revival to raise funds for an elephant sanctuary near Hohenwald, Tennessee.   It’s in memory of Mary the Elephant.  There are even colorfully painted elephant statues scattered throughout town. 

      The festival began as a remembrance to Big Mary, a circus elephant who died in Erwin in 1916.  Big Mary was a part of a touring circus.  As the legend goes, her trainer was abusive and one day she simply had enough and stomped him to death.  Figuring a killer elephant would be bad for business, the circus owner decided to put Big Mary down.  He also decided it had to be done in public to show his circus was still safe for families. 

      The problem was, no one had a gun big enough to do the job.  Instead, she was brought to Erwin’s railroad yard.  They had a crane that was used to lift locomotive boilers.  Word got around and five thousand people showed up for the hanging of Big Mary the Elephant.  I’ll spare you the details.  But, if you really want to know, click here.

      The city of Erwin buried Mary in an unmarked grave near the rail yard.  It wasn’t exactly something they were proud of.

      Eventually, I did find my way to the town of Hampton.  That’s where I found the trailhead for Laurel Forks Falls.  It’s a 4.8 mile round trip hike to a sixty foot waterfall.  My hiking guidebook listed it as moderate.  It seemed perfect. 

     It was still lightly raining when I pulled into town.  It was also the first time since leaving Ashville that my phone chirped.  I had service, albeit one bar.  I lingered in the trailhead parking lot with a cup of coffee from Dunkin and answered some texts.  The sky had lightening a bit and the splatters on the car’s roof seemed more from dripping trees than rain.                          

     When the coffee was finished, I decided to risk it.  I shoved some rain gear in my pack and started walking.  The trail to the falls intersected with, and crossed the Appalachian Trail a few times.  My guidebook was very clear on which way to go at the trail junctures.  Just to be sure, I propped up a rock next to the trails I wasn’t supposed to take. 

    

     All in all it was an easy trail with new steep hills and only one set of stone stairs.  Considering the rain, the mud patches were few and far between.  Making great time, I came to what I thought was the last intersection of the day.  Left would connect with the AT.  Right would take me to the falls.  Or so I thought.  The trail to the right ended here:

     I followed a smaller trail upriver and it ended.  The guidebook mentioned having to “squeeze around a rock bluff” before continuing another .2 miles to the falls.  Could this be what they meant:

    After making it around the rock bluff, there was just river.  According to the guidebook directions and map, I was in the right place.  Just no waterfall.  So, back I went the way I came.  Sure, I didn’t see a waterfall, but I had enjoyed the walk through the Cherokee National Forest. 

     Oddly, I met a couple who were just starting down the trail.  They asked if I had been to the falls.  I told them my story.  We discussed my route.  It certainly sounded like the one they had used numerous times.  Very strange.  This is what I missed.

     When I left the falls, it was a straight shot north along Hwy 19E to  Elizabethton, a city with a rebellious past.  In 1772, four years before the Continental Congress declared it’s independence from Britain, a group of farmers and settlers declared their own independence, naming themselves the Republic of Watauga, after the river flowing through the region.  When the Revolutionary War began, the settlers aligned themselves with the colonies.  In 1777 their petition to rejoin the colonies was granted and the region was annexed into North Carolina.

     While all of that was going on, a man by the name of Richard Henderson was trying to arrange what would have been the largest land purchase of its time.  Henderson owned a land speculating business he called the Transylvania Company.  He was working a deal to buy 20 million acres of land in current day south-eastern Kentucky from the Cherokee.  The plan was to declare it the Transylvania Colony. 

     Henderson hired Daniel Boone as the middle man between himself and the Cherokee.  Boone went ahead and established Boonesborough, near present day Lexington as the colony’s capital.

     Henderson believed he had British law on his side.  But, the states of Virginia and North Carolina said otherwise.  They still held jurisdiction over the land.  The deal was voided.

     When the Revolutionary War ended, The state of North Carolina ceded 29,000,000 acres of land in the north-eastern corner of present day Tennessee to the new national government.  The settlers living there declared themselves the independent state of Franklin.  They petitioned the new government for statehood.  A vote was taken and seven states agreed to statehood.  It just wasn’t enough.  Franklin would eventually be folded back into North Carolina and eventually the future state of Tennessee.  

     My reason for visiting Elizabethton was their covered bridge.  Built in 1882, it’s one of the oldest still in use, though now only for pedestrian traffic. 

     Seen at a Methodist church in Elizabethton...

      From here it was a matter of picking my route north.  I was only going as far as South Kingston and the Comfort Inn.  There's another brewery in North Kingston.  But, being Sunday, they were closed.  

Coming Up, 
How the declining coal industry effects potential photo ops.