Gatlinburg

The Ogle logs

William Ogle notched the logs in 1803 and never came back to use them

William Ogle of Edgefield, South Carolina, cut and notched logs in the flats with help from the Cherokee. He went home for his family, and a malaria epidemic took him in 1803. His widow, Martha Huskey Ogle, crossed the Indian Gap Trail around 1806, and the logs were waiting. The cabin they raised still stands near the heart of town.

The namesake

The town took the name of a man its neighbors forced out in 1859

In 1856 a post office opened in Radford Gatlin's general store, and the town took his name. He bickered with his neighbors, and by 1857 a feud had erupted between the Gatlins and the Ogles. A Confederate sympathizer in a mostly pro-Union town, Gatlin was forced out in 1859.

Burg Hill

Confederate soldiers built a small fort on Burg Hill

Gatlinburg tried to stay neutral in the war. Then a company of Colonel William Holland Thomas' Legion occupied the town to protect the saltpeter mines at Alum Cave, and built a small fort on Burg Hill. Federal forces marched south from Knoxville and Sevierville, and the outnumbered Confederates retreated across the Smokies.

Six houses

A hamlet of six houses met 500,000 visitors within a year

In 1912, when the Pi Beta Phi fraternity opened a settlement school, Gatlinburg had six houses, a blacksmith shop, a general store and a Baptist church. In 1934, the park's first year, an estimated 40,000 visitors passed through. Within a year the number was 500,000.

40,000visitors in 1934, the park's first year

November 2016

In November 2016 a wildfire reached Gatlinburg and fourteen people died

A wildfire that began at Chimney Tops in the park spread into Gatlinburg in November 2016, driven by gusts up to 87 miles per hour and by drought. About 14,000 people were evacuated that evening. More than 2,400 structures were damaged or destroyed. Fourteen people died.