Carter Shields Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service
Hasty D, Wheeler B, Fogelquist S. 2012. Carter Shields Homestead: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 550127. NPS Southeast Regional Office. Southeast Regional Office/CLI Database
The Carter Shields Homestead is a .8-acre component landscape of the Cades Cove District, part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Eastern Tennessee. The homestead is located south of the Cades Cove Loop Road that circumnavigates the valley, and it is accessible by a nonhistoric footpath adjacent to the visitor pull-off parking area. The landscape features a log cabin and biotic remnants from the historic period. In addition, two topographical remnants remain from the pre-Park period: earthen mounds on the west side of the cabin that outline most of the old vegetable garden, and a depression near the chimney where the cellar was probably located (both recalled by the last resident of the property, Russell Whitehead). Along with other homesteads of the cove, the Carter Shields Homestead reflects early settlement patterns and the ongoing evolution of the southern Appalachian farming community. It also exemplifies vernacular architecture of farm buildings in the area. The period of significance for the site begins in 1863, when Nathan Sparks acquired the property from J. L. Reagan. Sparks’s son Wil built the present cabin around 1880, and in 1885 Nathan Sparks sold the property to William H. Oliver. The Oliver family would remain here for over a decade before moving to the Tipton-Oliver Homestead. Following this, the property changed ownership several times until being sold the homestead’s namesake, George W. “Carter” Shields, in 1910. Shields sold the property in 1919. 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" period of settlement. The homestead was not included as a cultural exhibit in early Park Development Era maps, yet the cabin serves as a good example of log construction. Because the NPS decided to make Cades Cove an "Outdoor Museum of Mountain Culture," the current condition of the landscape has been altered from the historic landscape. Historic photographs of the cabin from the 1930s indicate that the NPS removed later additions to the structure. The old loop road came closer to the cabin, and the split rail fence is an undocumented reconstruction. Rehabilitations to the house were made between 1956-1962. An open fescue field is maintained around the site, which is surrounded by dense woods of white pine and tulip poplar with hemlock in the understory.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hasty, David; Wheeler, Beth; Fogelquist, Sara
- Date of Issue
- 2012-09-18
- Publisher
- NPS Southeast Regional Office
- Units
- GRSM , SER
- Keywords
- 1938 Master Plan, Agriculture, Appalachian Mountains, Blount County, conservation movement, Earthen Mounds, Farming Community, Landscape architecture, Laurel Creek, Log House, Loop Road, Nathan Sparks, Park Development Era, Settlement, Tennessee, The 1930's: Era of Public Works, topographical remnants, Vernacular Landscape, William H. Oliver