Abandon Abandon Town of Elkmont, Tennessee...
This week, we explored an abandoned town located in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The town, which was known as Elkmont, now known as the Elkmont Ghost Town, was first settled in the 1800s. One of the first cabins built in Elkmont is thought to be that of Robert Trentham who built his home in 1845. His son, who was a mountaineer and store owner, Levi Trentham, also known as “the prophet of the Smokies”, inherited his father’s land in 1905 and would also become the mayor of Elkmont. Levi had his land surveyed and then sold plots to sport hunters and an industrialist named W. B. Townsend. Townsend and his large-scale logging enterprise would start the Little River Lumber Company that he established in 1900. He and a fellow group of Pennsylvanians bought 80,000 acres of land to start the company. The company would be a big success and was going strong for about 40 years cutting 560,000,000 board feet of lumber out of the Great Smoky Mountains. With the lumber company and the expansion of the Little River Railroad the town of Elkmont and other nearby towns boomed. Elkmont even had a train, “Elkmont Special”, that cost $1.90 that was a scenic tour that lasted 2 ½ hours.
As time went on, wealthy visitors enjoyed taking day trips there and began to want to stay. In 1910, 50 acres would be sold by the railroad company to a wealthy group of Knoxville businessmen called the Appalachian Club. The club was for men to get away and go hunting or fishing as well as for family’s to go on weekend or summer excursions. This would lead to a clubhouse and cottage being built in the area to make the land more family-friendly. Since the club’s membership was quite exclusive, three brothers from Knoxville bought 65 acres also from the railroad/ logging company and would open the Wonderland Hotel in the same year as the purchase of the land, 1912. The Wonderland area would also become a club and the two clubs would become a favorite vacation spot for many wealthy families to get away from the summer heat. There was even a local song called “Elkmont Will Shine” that was often sung at parties. Elkmont would turn into four neighborhoods collectively consisting of 70 buildings. Elkmont Campground would also open in 1961 and would bring in people from all over the country which is still open to this day.
The club members were key in protecting and preserving the land in the area and creating the national park that is now the most visited national park in the country. The Railroad/Lumber Company in 1927 sold 76,507 acres for the park. They needed more land for the park but people were living on it. Many people were forced to leave their land and homes by either taking the full price of what their land was worth to leave immediately or sell for half the price for a lifetime lease till their passing. The park and the clubs were able to stay by negotiating a lifetime lease with President Franklin D Roosevelt that dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 2, 1940, “for the permanent enjoyment of people”. However, the leases would change in 1950 to 20-year leases to placate power companies who wanted a guarantee the cabins would be there if they committed to expanding power to the area. They would be renewed in 1972 but in 1992 the National Park Service declined another renewal and took over the land which included Elkmont causing the town to be completely abandoned.
As of today, only 18 of the 70 buildings are being preserved by the National Park Service. The National Park Service reestablished the Appalachian clubhouse and Spence cabin for today’s use in addition to four cabins that preservation work was completed in 2017. The rest of Elkmont that once stood has now deteriorated and several homes are marked for removal. The Wonderland Hotel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places but collapsed in 2005 and the Wonderland Hotel annex site completely burned down in 2016 when wildfires devastated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Gatlinburg. Today, all that remains of a lot of Elkmont is stone chimneys and stone steps and foundations from the cabins and houses that once stood there that can be seen as you hike the area. Parts of the neighborhood of Daisy Town in Elkmont that has been preserved are still there for tourists for those who want to take a step back in time.
