Caching in Pigeon Forge...........Again 3/28/2009

Well guess what it's still raining here and we decided to go caching anyways. Like I said yesterday if we sat home every day it rained we would be inside all the time lately. So off we went to Little Cove Baptist Church located in the Smokies on a back road as all these little churches have been that we have found caches at. In fact friends of ours who did some of these small church caches talked to one of the members at one of them and she told them that they had a larger than usual crowd at services the previous Sunday....they had 9 people......that's right 9 instead of the usual 7 or 8. Then it was off to the Hurst Chapel Baptist Church Cemetery and a cache located along the fence in the cemetery.
Next we drove to the Gatlinburg Welcome Center and a cache that had to do with Wiley Oakley who was renowned as the "Roamin' Man of the Mountains" and the "Will Rogers of the Smokies". Wiley Oakley was born on Sept. 12, 1885 to Henry Coleman and Elmina Conner Oakley at the base of Mount LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountians. He was one of nine children born to the mountain family and they made their home in a simple cabin farm. A disaster suddenly struck the Oakley family with the death of Elmina while Wiley was still a young boy. His mother’s passing had a profound affect on Wiley and, to deal with his grief, the child began wandering the hills and hollows of the mountains as if looking for her. In his later recollections, he would speak of trying to climb the highest peaks to see if he could catch a glimpse of her in heaven. Thus began the story of the "Roamin' Man of the Mountains". In his own words, he...."liked to hunt, fish and hike" the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and into North Carolina. By the 1950s, Wiley Oakley had achieved almost legendary status among the region’s natives. From the city of Gatlinburg to the inner reaches of the Cherokee Nation, the mountaineer was regarded as the principal source of information on the mountains. His reputation among the Cherokee was particularly noteworthy as he was, for all intents and purposes, regarded by many of them as an unofficial member of the tribe, who wandered freely on the Reservation. It was always his talents and abilities as a guide in the Smoky Mountain wilderness, however, that earned him his greatest reputation and a place in the annals of American history. He was a guide to many well known visitors of the time, including Henry Ford. On Nov. 18, 1954, Wiley Oakley quietly passed away and was laid to rest in White Oak Flats Cemetery in his beloved Gatlinburg.
Next cache was located in one of the Gatlinburg city parks and was dedicated to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Service. Then it was a cache that was at a motel that the couple who placed it had their honeymoon. Our last cache was again in a small cemetery called Cartertown Cemetery. After we found the cache we looked around and saw many grave sites of Carter's and even a few Parton's.
Then it was back to the coach and we had lunch, I did our logs and Mom went shopping at a few of the outlet malls. By this time it had stopped raining and the sun was actually out but only a brief respite as we were supposed to have thunderstorms later in the evening. We had dinner and watched TV the rest of the evening. Well time to say until next time we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad


Picture List:1,2-Wiley Oakley "Man of the Mountains", 3,4-Little Cove Baptist Church, 5,6-Huskey Grove Methodist Church, 7,8-Cartertown Cemetery....notice how all some of the grave markers are are flat rocks with no inscriptions on them. How they knew which grave was which is beyond us.