Breathing in History

Every Thanksgiving our family continues a newish tradition by renting a cabin in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. Under normal, warmer circumstances, my personal Smoky Mountain mission includes spending as much time as possible in the mountains, hiking the trails or dangling my feet in the streams, while breathing in that fresh air. I'm not a huge shopper, but when Thanksgiving roles around, the weather prevents a lot of mountain time, and forces more shopping time. To make the best of this enforced shopping hiatus from the mountains, I try to make sure we hit as many "local" places as possible - i.e.: off the beaten and suffocating strip. One of my absolute favorite places to shop when in town is Ely's Mill. Follow me as I show you around this little hidden gem of retro shopping.

One of the quickest and most effective ways to quickly get immersed in the mountain atmosphere is to follow the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Yes, I know, you drive an automobile through the mountains - a contradiction of my previous paragraph - but not so! There are MANY places to park and hike or wander through fascinating stops along this paved trail. Since the tour is within the National Park boundaries, they have preserved many little former homesteads that existed before logging and tourism changed the landscape forever. However, once you get to the very end of this trail and cross just outside the Park lines, you encounter a collection of structures that has been preserved in a very different manner.

I will not attempt to portray the long history behind the existence of Ely's Mill. There is a web site where you can learn all about it. But in a nutshell, it was begun sometime back in the 1920s by a very educated man who wanted to get as close as he possibly could to nature.....living in this small mill tucked away along a mountainside stream that has a magical beauty all its own. This man lived off of the land, but did so in an appreciative way that honored the beauty around him.

Fast forward many decades to today, and his descendants are still keeping that small little cluster of buildings full of delights and long standing mountain traditions for the curious tourist. Among the many wonderful treats that await are: hand woven rugs, table runners, scarves, etc. Antiques of all kinds. Locally made honey - which my mom has fallen in love with. Welcoming cats of all sorts. Historical tidbits, informative books and artifacts from the region. And stories/lessons galore. If the family is not giving a local demonstration of their weaving tradition, someone will be more than happy to sit a spell and explain the difference between locust honey and wildflower honey - and the specific seasonal sequence that has to occur to produce either.

This adorable hodgepodge of culture is sure to charm anyone with eyes attuned to the convergence of history and present-day traditions. I not only adore each visit for the sake of what I can buy from the present, but for the experience of wandering through an atmosphere overflowing with tidbits of the past. In fact, I feel more connected to history when wandering around Ely's than I do in the stark "preserved" homesteads within the park. Here, history is still alive in the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of a multi-generational legacy.

And besides......

Who can resist a place that has history AND kittehs?! Seriously!

P.S. Just remember, like the motor trail through the mountains, Ely's shuts down for the winter, so you best wait until spring to enjoy this special treat!

Sepia Saturday - Tree Memories

Reuss-Beyersdoerfer Clan

The suggested Sepia Saturday theme for this week, trees, inspired me to look back on my own family tree memories, and what better way to celebrate genealogy than by honoring the image of the tree. I attempted to pull some sepia images from my family collection - but as other bloggers have learned today, there are not many "tree" photos in our collections. The family image that you see to the left is my favorite "tree" image. To see this family group, standing proudly in front of this equally proud tree that towers over them demonstrates a perfect blend of history and symbolism.

My other favorite family image that includes a tree is this one of the Cox family in Pendleton County Kentucky. Most family group images we have utilize a more family focused composition. In other words, close enough to only see the people. This family photographer took a little artistic license and let the trees be even more prominent than the human subjects - or perhaps they were so new at taking pictures that they forgot to get closer.....either way, we get to see the expansiveness of the trees on this property, and not just the expansiveness of the prolific family unit!

Within my other family memories, trees have played a prominent role. I spent a huge chunk of my youth and adolescence traipsing around, climbing, drawing and adoring trees. I was an outdoors kid all the way. Nature and all of its complexity was, and still is, a dear friend. This image is from my grandparents farm in Bourbon County Kentucky - an old walnut tree that sits between a small field and the vegetable garden. That farm was not only a source of spiritual and mental health for me, almost as necessary as oxygen, but it also embodied all of the love my grandparents bestowed upon us when visiting. And don't get me started on the adventures! So many I cannot count! As a side note, this farm in the far western part of the county was certified a few years ago as home to the second largest tree in the state of Kentucky! An amazing old burr oak tree that sits in a valley, just below one of the ponds. Each tree branch is the size of a large tree trunk.....awe inspiring.

I have always regarded genealogy as somewhat of a spiritual journey. There is nothing as humbling as looking back across the generations and realizing that you are merely one addition to the long string of people that have come before you. Soon, you too will be nothing more than someone's memory. But in this realization, it bolsters my belief in life eternal. Time is ever flowing. And yet, when I think of the spiritual realm, and perhaps the place where our ancestors reside, there is no time. This final tree was captured on "film" just this past June while hiking up to Laurel Falls in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. We all learned in school that the trees we see above the soil have a duplicate existence in size and proportion below the soil in the form of roots. I can remember thinking, as a child, that had to be a load of bunk.....they were asking us to believe in something we could not see. This is just another example of nature demonstrating to us that we only understand a small portion of the world we encounter. I've also heard it said that the spiritual realm is just as real as the world we can see with our eyes, like this tree and its roots - and if our roots are as important as most genealogists believe, our journey is never finite.

Taking Time to History Hike!

For those of you heading to the FGS Conference in Knoxville next month, I'm sure you have been monitoring the official Conference blog for wonderful suggestions about what to do in the Knoxville area. They recently noted that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only 45 minutes away from downtown Knoxville. Not only is the park itself an incredible and potentially spiritual experience for nature lovers, but there are still some amazing pockets of Native American and Appalachian history within and surrounding the Park. If you decide to add this excursion to your agenda, make sure you do some homework as to the historical wealth of the region. One book I highly recommend is History Hikes of the Smokies. This item is published by the Great Smoky Mountains Association, with proceeds going to assist the Park. At 352 pages, this guide directs you through 20 trails just bursting with historic importance. You can buy it at many of the welcome centers in the area, but purchasing ahead of time is also a good idea....let's face it, how many times during travel do we get the chance sit down and leisurely read up on where to go next?

For those of you who might have ancestors lurking in the Eastern Tennessee/Western North Carolina region, you might also want to monitor another blog focused on the genealogical/historical roots of the region: Mike Maples's Blog on the Go Smokies Ning Site. I am very impressed by the surname information he regularly includes in his posts! Here is just one example that includes a history hike and all of the farming families that you would have encountered many years ago. Way to go Mike!
http://gosmokies.knoxnews.com/profiles/blogs/history-hike-in-the-brier

Even if you aren't heading to the conference this year.....if you are in the area, don't forget about this wonderful historic resource! Not only did the formation of the Park preserve the natural landscape, but it also preserved a heritage that was fading quickly. Most of the families moved out of the land claimed by the Park, but they kept their stories alive through historic structure sites, folklore, cemeteries, reunions and folk art. Our family loves visiting this region - not for the shopping - but for the vast opportunities to experience a very special part of our country. But hey, shopping and restaurants are great incentives to get the rest of the family as excited as you will be when you set your sites on all the history that awaits!

See you in the Smokies!
CD
7/8/10