Cataloochee

Fringe standing erect

The name comes from the Cherokee Gadalutsi, fringe standing erect

Cataloochee comes from the Cherokee word Gadalutsi, which means fringe standing erect, probably for the tall rows of trees along the ridges. The Cherokee used the valley as a hunting ground. The trail through it had been worn a foot deep in places by the time traders arrived.

A night of panthers

In the 1830s two women kept fires roaring against panthers on the roof

In the 1830s Mary Ann Caldwell and Allie Bennett were each home alone, cooking dinner, when panthers smelled the fresh pork. The animals jumped on the log cabins and tore at the shingles and the chimneys. Each woman stayed in her own house and kept a big fire roaring.

The school fire

Three men burned the old schoolhouse in 1906 to get a new one

By 1900 Cataloochee had 764 people and its school was too small. Officials in Waynesville refused a larger one. On the way home Hiram Caldwell, George Caldwell and Steve Woody decided to burn the schoolhouse, then asked again. Attendance laws left the officials no choice but to comply.

764people in the valley by 1900

The applehouse

Apples were the cash crop, and one applehouse now stands in Oconaluftee

Apples were Cataloochee's main cash crop in the early 20th century, because the valley's cool climate suited the trees. Will Messer built a large communal applehouse around 1910. Its foundation can still be seen in Little Cataloochee, and Messer's own applehouse is at the Mountain Farm Museum in Oconaluftee.

1928

In 1928 the valley was told it lay inside the park boundaries

In 1928 Reverend Pat Davis told the residents at Palmer's Chapel that the valley lay inside the proposed park and they would have to sell. Hattie Caldwell Davis remembered women crying and men threatening to dynamite the roads. Restrictions on farming and logging then forced most people out by 1943.