This elk was in front of the Palmer Chapel. George Palmer arrived in Cataloochee in 1838 and settled at the eastern end of Big Cataloochee. Family tradition recalls that Palmer had lost a fortune drinking and gambling in Waynesville and decided to move to Cataloochee. Mary Ann Palmer, a direct descendant of George gave the land to the Methodist church in 1898, and the building went up in the same year. Preachers were supplied by the Western North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Most of them were circuit riders who visited about one Sunday each month.