Around about 1800’s the first settlers moved into White Oak Flats around what is now called Gatlinburg. These pioneer’s descendants began to spread out into the surrounding coves and valleys.
By the 1900’s, Three of the Reagan’s grandsons, Alfred, Aaron and John were farming along a stream just above Gatlinburg in an area then known as “Spruce Flats”.
Around the 1830’s the Bales family settled in the area and farmed next to the Reagan’s. Many of their cabins and barns remain as a testament to these settlers and their lives at the Roaring Fork.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail:
Narrow One-way road that is open to automobile traffic that passes through the Historic District, 2 over passes and a forest!
The trail starts near the Rainbow Falls trailhead on Cherokee Orchard Rd. and then winds it way up Piney Mountain to an elevation of about 3000 feet to the first overlook! Next the road makes it’s way past a number of very large chestnut tree’s and then decending down to a parking area at the Trillium Gap Trailhead. This hiking trail leads past the Grotto Falls through the Trillium Gap to the summit of Mount Le Conte!
The road continues down past the parking lot and levels out as it enters the Roaring Fork Hollow Historic District. The road passes a number of historic buildings and then continues down to another parking area that allows a close up look of the Roaring Fork Stream. Finally the last stop before re-entering Gatlinburg is at a narrow water fall called “The Place of a Thousand Drips!”
