Elijah Oliver Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service

Hasty, David; Wheeler, Beth; Fogelquist, Sara

The Elijah Oliver Homestead is a 1.5-acre component landscape of the Cades Cove Landscape, a part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Eastern Tennessee. The homestead is located .5 miles west of the Cades Cove Loop Road that circles the valley floor, and the site is accessible by a historic trace road extending from the loop. The landscape contains features typical of a Cades Cove farm, including a log house, clustered agricultural outbuildings, fields and other biotic remnants, and historic road traces. Like other structures of Cades Cove, the Elijah Oliver Homestead is significant as an expression of the early settlement and development patterns of a southern Appalachian farming community, as well as for reflecting the National Park Service (NPS) Park Development Era interpretations of the Cades Cove “pioneer” culture. The Olivers were one of the founding families of the Cades Cove community. Before John Oliver relocated from Carter County in northeast Tennessee in the year 1818, there were no permanent Euro-American settlers in the cove. Elijah Oliver, one of his sons, established the farm at the west end of the cove, which was eventually acquired by his grandson, John W. Oliver. Around the year 1865, Elijah bought the farmstead property and constructed a log house, barn, smoke house, corn crib, and springhouse at the site. The Oliver family owned the land until 1935, when the property was involved in an extensive condemnation lawsuit that went to the Tennessee Supreme Court three times before being acquired by the NPS. The period of significance extends to 1942 to include the Park Development Era improvements. The existing landscape character primarily depicts the Park Development Era 1938 master plan and its interpretation of the cove "pioneer" settlement. The homestead, featuring one of the most intact dispersed farmsteads in Cades Cove, was proposed as part of the trail of roadside “field exhibits of mountain culture.” As part of this plan, the landscape scene has been altered from the historic period, with the paling fence that once enclosed the cabin was taken down and water rerouted so it is no longer flowing from the spring into the springhouse. Also, the views that once existed out into the valley floor have been obscured by successional vegetation. The Hugh Myers barn, a 1930s frame barn that was built by an agricultural leasee, is located adjacent to the historic approach road and approximately .3 miles from the Elijah Oliver farmstead. An open fescue field is maintained around the barn. The Hugh Meyers barn is approached through woodlands, separating it from the cleared space of the homestead. The area surrounding the cabin and outbuildings is badly eroded due to increasing visitation over the years. However, steps have been taken to mitigate this erosion, and nearly all the structures were rehabilitated, restored, or reconstructed during the period 1955-1970. Thus, the features continue to contribute to the historic landscape, both of this particular farmstead and the entirety of Cades Cove.

Elijah Oliver Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service

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