Tour Cades Cove via a one-way 11 mile loop road.

Joshua Jobe family became one of the first families to settle in Cades Cove in 1821. Cherokees hunted and roamed around in the area but there is no evidence of any Cherokee villages. By 1850, population reached 685, then later diminished to less than half as many in 1860. Maybe it was because of the hard farming life, illnesses, and/or lure of Western lands. Population rose again in 1900 to 708 though.

National Park Service banned grazing on the balds in 1934, the year the park was officially established. Tennessee and N. Carolina bought most of the land and gave it to the federal government to use. Many residents did not resist and sold their land. Some did resist though - John Oliver fought the state in court for 6 years, even went to Tennessee supreme court three times before he lost. He moved in 1937. Those who stayed, agreed to accept a little less money for their land so that they could remain until they died - descendents could not.