Visitors learn history of Park as Wildflower Pilgrimage winds down

Wildflowers are a part of every Wildflower Pilgrimage hike, even when the focus of the hike is the rich history of Great Smoky Mountains National Park according to The Mountain Press story by Candice Grimm - click here

But on a hike to the Walker Sisters' cabin and Little Greenbrier School, not even Pink Lady Slippers could steal the spotlight from the history of these hardy mountain women.

All during the moderate hike from the Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, leader Raymond Palmer pointed out places where buildings had stood and events had taken place.

Although some participants struggled a bit with the heat and the climb, all seemed refreshed by a short lesson learned while seated at a desk inside the cool, dimly lit Little Greenbrier School.

Through pictures of past classes, and long-told stories from students who had attended the school, hike participants learned what it was like to have attended the little log school, as well as some history on how the Park acquired the property.

The lesson was enough to lure the hikers on up the trail to the Walker Sisters' cabin, where Palmer described the lives of the five women who became famous for the way they lived - no running water, electricity or central heat, and by growing what they needed on the 122-acre farm.

Their fame was sealed after a writer mentioned in a 1936 National Geographic article about the new national park that he had come upon two women sitting on their porch paring apples, and they told him they made all their own clothing. The story did not include the women's names, but it had to have been the Walkers, and from then on thousands traveled the narrow road to their cabin to see them, visit, and buy their handmade items.

Walker Sisters of Little Greenbriar - Smokies Store - click here

Little River Road - Sugarlands Welcome Center to Townsend and Cades Cove - Click here