Cataloochee

Cherokees named this area Ga-da-lu-tsi, meaning "standing up in ranks," for the seemingly endless stands of timber that lined the ridges, and settlers later corrupted the word to Cataloochee. For more than 100 years Cataloochee grew and prospered, and the 1910 census recorded 1,250 souls in this mountain valley, the largest single community in what would become Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The road into the valley follows portions of the old Cataloochee Turnpike, a route that was first an Indian trail and then an avenue for cattle drovers. Permanent settlers arrived in the 1830s, building homes, churches, schools, and roads. Since 1936 annual reunions of former residents and their descendants have kept the memory of Cataloochee alive, after most residents left by the 1940s to make way for Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

North Carolina · United States