Cable Cemetery: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service
Hasty D, Wheeler B, Fogelquist S. 2012. Cable Cemetery: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Great Smoky Mountains National Park - Cades Cove Subdistrict, National Park Service. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 550205. NPS Southeast Regional Office. Southeast Regional Office/CLI Database
The Cable Cemetery is a .25-acre component landscape of the Cades Cove District, part of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Eastern Tennessee. The property is accessible by a gravel road extending south from the Cades Cove Loop Road that circles the valley. The site features a family cemetery bounded by a post-and-wire fence. Whether a body was interred in a private or church cemetery, the burial was commonly a community affair. When there was a death in Cades Cove, a family member or neighbor would ring the church bell to summon individuals, many of whom participated in burial tasks like coffin-making, dressing the body, or “sitting up” with the dead while the family slept with neighbors. The Cable Cemetery, like other cemeteries and sites in the cove, demonstrates the early settlement patterns and evolution of a southern Appalachian farming community. Developed by the John P. Cable family, the cemetery is one of fifteen known burial plots (twelve of which were family cemeteries) in Cades Cove. The period of significance for the site begins in 1871, when the earliest recorded burial took place. The last burial occurred in 1974; as of 1997, there were 46 documented graves in the cemetery. The period of significance extends to 1942, to include the Park Development Era improvements. The Cable Cemetery was not included as one of the cultural exhibits along the loop road, but it is maintained by NPS maintenance personnel as an important cultural landscape in the cove. The cemetery was identified as a component landscape due to its size and degree of integrity compared to the other family cemeteries, and to its association with one of the most well-known families of the cove. It is also the only family burial plot to be mentioned in the 1972 Development Concept Plan. Additionally, park staff are conducting a comprehensive cemetery survey that will include all the extant cemeteries. Grass is maintained within the cemetery. The area surrounding the cemetery is mostly flat with tulip poplar, pine, and oak as the dominant species, indicating that it was probably cleared at one time.
- 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, 1972 Development Concept Plan, Appalachian Mountains, Blount County, conservation movement, Family Cemetery, Farming Community, Landscape architecture, Loop Road, Park Development Era, Park Development Era, Settlement, Tennessee, The 1930's: Era of Public Works, Vernacular Landscape