Tombstone reaches 100

 

Tombstone reaches 100

 As many of you know for a little over a year now I have been “photo” documenting the National Park cemeteries. Park records indicate 151 cemeteries – so I hear. I am hoping to find out more about that soon as I plan to speak with some park personnel about the subject. I have found no published list of the 151 known cemeteries and would like to get it. My list includes 146 so I am missing a few. Most of what I have left lies on the North Carolina side of the park with much of it being across Fontana Lake.

A few weeks back I crossed the 100 plateau and am now at 107 cemeteries visited. Having read about the controversial “Jennifer” stone, I had to hike up Gabes Mt. trail and see it for myself.

I went beyond the stone and did see some home site remains. I know that Mike Maples has found no record of a Jennifer living in that area and many GoSmokies readers think it is bogus or stolen. However, the website I have found many of the cemeteries on states that they obtained the data from the Park Records and this “Jennifer” grave is listed among them. Another mystery I hope to unravel soon. I again visited the Sally Sutton grave that same day.

I have made a couple trips to Cataloochee recently and now only need to visit 2 cemeteries there.

My first trip was July 4^th weekend with my wife. We camped in Cataloochee and went to the Maggie Valley “Red White and Boom” Festival on the 3^rd. This was a really fun time with live music all afternoon right up to a pretty good fireworks display following. The festival is free (unless you want to ride the rides).

On the third I went to the Palmer Family Cemetery and the Hannah Hoglan Cemetery. The first is up the hill behind the Palmer Place. The second is off the dirt road (Highway 284) that goes to Big Creek. There is actually a sign for this one! There are 12 graves but only 3 inscribed. It is a half mile roundtrip from the road.

On the 4^th I went to the Palmer Chapel cemetery across the road from the Palmer Chapel. I decided to take the dirt road to Big Creek and along the way found the Lawson Jenkins Cemetery. It is about a half mile round trip and there are two stones with one simply reading “Jenkins 1902.”

I heard rustling a couple hundred yards off the cemetery and it turned out to be a bear. Unfortunately, he was to far away and pretty well hidden so I did not bother for any blurry bear pictures.

I somehow passed the Negro Graveyard trail and by the time I got to Mt. Sterling trailhead a storm was brewing so we headed on home.

I returned to the area on July 10 via Big Creek and started my day at the Mt. Sterling trailhead. This was my quest to find the McMahan Grave that they could not locate in the Lott study. A half mile up you turn on the Long Bunk trail and head down about a quarter mile.

I found it interesting that on my Garmin map the Long Bunk trail is in a different location. Either Garmin is wrong or perhaps there is a manway there that once was the Long Bunk trail. Another mystery.

Around the quarter mile mark you see a clear trail on the left.

The path quickly ends in an area that does look like a cemetery. To the right in my picture below are two stones that I am thinking is the McMahan Grave.

By the way, I take no credit for this discovery. I thank Kevin U. for telling me where this was located. It also looks like a great area to look around in the winter.

I returned the same way and drove down past the Little Cataloochee trailhead and found the Negro Graveyard trail. It is actually signed for the Asbury trail with a set of steps leading up.

It is a steep but fairly short climb up to where the Asbury trail goes left and the Negro Graveyard is on the right. There are 4 uninscribed stones and it is said that one of them belongs to a white man named Taylor.

I returned back to the Little Cataloochee trail and headed down a mile to the other end of the Long Bunk trail. 2/10 of a mile up it is the Hannah Cemetery.

Over 50 graves and all but 3 are inscribed.

As I was finishing my photographing, the skies were darkening and the feel of impending rain filled the air. My plan had been a much longer hike to the Little Cataloochee Cemetery, some home sites and the Burris Child grave. This would have completed all the cemeteries in Cataloochee for me. But it wasn’t just the rain that had me headed back up a mile to my car. A bit earlier I had slipped on some wood and took a nasty downward fall on the trail. I am no stranger to taking a fall and I usually walk away unscathed other than a scratch or two. But this time I jammed my big toe as I fell and it got worse as the day progressed. In fact, it got a lot worse. So I decided I had best make my way up to the car and of course it DID rain all the way back. Five minutes down the road and the sun was back out!

I decided to go the scenic route back and continued past Big Creek and the state line where it becomes Highway 32 to Cosby.

I happen to remember Dr. Joey Phillips blog about “Tobe” being buried across the street from the Jonas Phillips Family Cemetery.

Being a glutton for punishment, I parked and found the trail right across the street as Dr. JP said.

I limped my way up what was only 500 feet of trail to the two graves.

Jonas Tobias Phillips and his wife Sarah.

Thank you Dr. JP for your blog and sharing another mystery of the mountains. It looked to me like a very unmaintained trail continued past the cemetery. Possible winter exploration. Today, it was limp back down and head home. I left my boots on to give my foot more support as of course it was my right foot. It was shear pain removing that boot when I returned home to Maryville. In fact, I decided I best make a trip for x-rays to see if it was broke. Thankfully it was not and I should return to my normal hiking self in 2-3 weeks. So for the moment ol’ Tombstone is out of commission!