What is the history of Gatlinburg, Tennessee?
The area including the modern city of Gatlinburg was originally used primarily as hunting grounds by the CherokeeCherokee Indians, though it was sparsely populated by various indian peoples. Founded as “White Oak Flats” (due to the large number of White Oakwhite oak trees in the area), the first white settlers in the vicinity of today’s community arrived at the turn of the 19th century, largely American Revolutionary WarRevolutionary War veterans given 50-acre tracts of land in turn for their service in the war. It is commonly accepted that the widowed Martha Jane Huskey Ogle was the first official white settler, bringing her seven children over from South Carolina to live in an area her late husband had described to her as a paradise. Most of the original homesteads arose along LeConte Creek (then known as Mill Creek), Baskins Creek, and Roaring Fork Creek, including the Ogles’, whose homestead still stands today. The community’s name was officially changed to Gatlinburg in 1855 by th
