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The Phone Line Trail
and
The Possession Cabin
 

Park Service Trails up Mount Leconte

There are five trails up Mount LeConte:

• BOULEVARD TRAIL.  Leaves from Newfound Gap; follows the Appalachian Trail for a few miles then takes off along the spine of a finger off LeConte, past Myrtle Point, to the top of LeConte.
   

• TRILLIUM GAP TRAIL.  Longest trail.  Leaves from the Greenbrier region of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; passes the Fittified Spring, crosses Trillium Gap, and heads up LeConte.
   

• RAINBOW FALLS and BULLHEAD TRAILS.  These two trails leave from Cherokee Orchard, which is up Roaring Fork Road outside of Gatlinburg.

  • Rainbow Falls Trail follows fairly flat terrain up to Rainbow Falls, a tall waterfall over which LeConte Creek plunges in a spectacular cascade.

  • Bullhead Trail winds up the Bullhead, a finger off Leconte.
     

• ALUM CAVE TRAIL.  Leaves from the Alum Cave parking lot on Highway 441 between the Park HQ in outside Gatlinburg and Newfound Gap.  Named for the Alum Cave Bluffs that are about halfway up LeConte, this is the shortest trail up LeConte.

The Phone Line Trail

There is, however, one more trail that few people know about and that may not even be there any longer -- the Phone Line!!   Refer to the map below that shows the five Park Service trails.  Now, look at the Rainbow Falls trail where it starts at Cherokee Orchard.  Note the creek that roughly parallels the Rainbow Falls trail -- that's LeConte Creek.  The phone line follows LeConte Creek straight up the side of the mountain.

Hikers on Rainbow Falls Trail may see the phone line where it crosses the trail in a few places.  But, those of us who worked at the Lodge, knew the route of the phone line trail.  As I recall, the phone line trail went something like this:

• Start at Cherokee Orchard and follow the Rainbow Falls Trail for a mile or two.  At some point there was a big rock sticking out of a muddy bank -- at that point, I took off to the right into the woods and picked up the phone line.
   

• Follow the phone line -- it will cross the Rainbow Falls Trail in a few places.
   

• Just below the falls, follow the Rainbow Falls Trail past the falls then, at another rock outcropping, get back onto the phone line and follow it -- generally following Leconte Creek -- up the mountain.
   

• About 1/2 mile from the Lodge, the phone line crosses the Rainbow Falls Trail, the crosses it a second time.  At the second crossing, turn left onto the Trail and it's about 1/4 mile to the Lodge.

At some point, we started timing our trips up the phone line.  Now, you need to know that the "trail"  up the phone line was not a maintained trail -- it was a dim footpath through the forest that often disappeared, at which point you just kept walking uphill, or, following the phone line.

At Cherokee Orchard -- where the trail originated -- was the barn where our pack horses were kept.  In the barn was an old crank telephone that rang at the Lodge.  When we started up the phone line, we called the Lodge and told whomever answered that we were on the way -- they recorded the time.  When we arrived at the Lodge, we checked the time.  I don't recall my times going up the phone line but for several years I held the record for speeding up the phone line -- my record lasted until David Wiley arrived.

David was the same age as my brother John; they worked together at the Lodge for a couple of summers.  David was a the son of Gene and Mildred Wiley, who were members of Park City Presbyterian Church with us.  David ran track in high school and became a collegiate runner at the University of Oregon.  Speeding up the phone line was not a big challenge for David and he broke my record on his first attempt.  As far as I know, David's record for going up the phone line -- set in the mid- to late-1960's -- still stands.  I'll try to find out from my brother David's record time.

Two photos along the phone line trail.

Rainbow Falls, December 1964

LeConte Creek -- about halfway between Rainbow Falls and the top of Mount Leconte.  An old USGS benchmark -- a big copper nail -- was in the big root on the left side of the tree on the left side of the photo.  The phone line is about the center of the photo, coming in from the right and running up the creek.

USGS Bench Marks

If you look at a 1:24,000 (7.5 minute) topographic map of LeConte -- the LeConte Quad; 4355 III NW -- you will see, as you will on all topo maps, "bench marks."  These are marks that indicate points that were established years ago when the area was surveyed.  You may have seen bench marks in various places that are a heavy brass tube like these:

However, there are older benchmarks that are much more difficult to find.  These old benchmarks take two forms:

• A square, 2 inches on a side, chiseled into the top of a large, prominent boulder; and,
   

• A large copper nail with a big head driven into a root of a prominent tree.

Refer to a LeConte quad topo map and follow LeConte Creek up the mountain from Cherokee Orchard and you will see three benchmarks -- indicated by an X with numbers beside the X -- the numbers are the elevation above mean sea level.  The three benchmarks are: 

• 3109:  SW of Cherokee Orchard, between Rainbow Falls Trail and LeConte Creek.  This benchmark is a square chiseled into a large round boulder.
   

• 4326:  On top of Rainbow Falls a square chiseled into the stone at the top of the Falls right where LeConte Creek falls over the stone ledge; and,
   

• 6593:  The top of Mount LeConte; I do not recall where this benchmark is located.
   

• On my first trip up the phone line trail, I followed Brownie.  He showed me another benchmark that does not show up on the Mt. LeConte quad.  It was a large copper nail in the root of a hemlock tree alongside LeConte Creek about halfway between Rainbow Falls and the top of the mountain.

  ---

The Possession Cabin

When the GSMNP was founded, there were a few -- 3 or 4 as I recall -- small parcels of land to which no one had established title but that were to be incorporated into the Park.  The Park Service dispatched teams of Park Rangers to each of these small parcels of land where they were to build cabins, establish small farm plots, and claim the land through the homestead process.  After title was established, the Rangers then deeded the parcels of land to the Park.

These cabins were called "Possession Cabins" because they were used to gain possession of the land titles.

Most of these small cabins were temporary affairs that collapsed soon after they were abandoned.  However, near benchmark 3109 was a cabin that lasted for years and years.  The last time I saw the cabin was in December of 1964 when I went up LeConte to open the Lodge for the Calloway Family from Maryville. 

This possession cabin was constructed of chestnut logs.  The front door was a solid piece of chestnut about 2-1/2 feet wide and over 6 feet tall.  The mantle over the fireplace was chestnut and the chimney was laid up with flat stones from around the cabin, mortared in place.  Here's a picture of the possession cabin taken in December 1964.  Note the phone line passing across the photo, in front of the cabin.

In 2006, I asked my friend, Bob Rusk if he knew the fate of the possession cabin.   Bob has a company, Tennessee Mountain Management, that does surveying, reclamation, timber surveys and management, land appraisal, and anything else having to do with land and land management.  Bob has done a good bit of contract work for the Park Service in the GSMNP.  Bob told me that in the 1970's the Park Service surveyed the GSMNP for old buildings that no longer were in use, including this possession cabin.  All such buildings were marked, dismantled, and stored in a Park Service warehouse where the lumber and other salvaged pieces were used to repair buildings that are in use in the GSMNP.

As best I can figure, this possession cabin was located near geographic coordinates:

 N 35 deg 40 min 7 sec            W 83 deg 28 min 40 sec.

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