page_title: The Sugarlands
section_title: The Coming of the park
hierarchical_section_title: The Sugarlands / History / The Coming of the park
caption_attribution_description: Ruins at the site of the Civilian Conservation Corps Camp in the Sugarlands, GSMNP, in East Tennessee. These ruins are found along a bend on the Old Sugarlands Trail, just east of the US-441. The camp housed conscientious objectors during World War II. Along with the CCC, they built many of the trails in the area.
context_page_description: The Sugarlands is a valley in the north-central Great Smoky Mountains, located
  in the Southeastern United States. Formerly home to a string of small Appalachian
  communities, the valley is now the location of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  headquarters and the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Lying just south of Gatlinburg, the
  Sugarlands is one of the park's most popular access points.
  The Sugarlands area stretches roughly from Grapeyard Ridge and Roaring Fork in the east to the slopes of Sugarland Mountain to the west. Mount Le Conte rises 5,000 feet above the valley to the south and southeast. The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River, its source high in the mountains, slices through the Sugarlands, draining much of the valley.
  When the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 19th century, they named the valley after the many sugar maple trees growing in the area at the time. Syrup was made from the sap in these trees and used as a sweetener in the days before the availability of cane sugar. While these trees were cleared by the early settlers, the sugar maple is still common throughout the park.
context_section_description: In the 1800s, mountain areas became popular vacation destinations, especially since large urban areas were often wanting for clean air and scenery.  Mineral-rich mountain springs were thought to have health-restoring qualities, and the cool air of the higher elevations lured people seeking relief from allergies and hay fever.  Colonel W. B. Townsend — the owner of the Little River Lumber Company — began to see the value of creating recreational areas on land that had already been stripped of its wood.  In 1909, after the Elkmont area had largely been cleared, the company's train, the Little River Railroad, began offering daily train service from Knoxville to Elkmont in conjunction with Knoxville's Southern Railroad.  Tourists also began pouring into Gatlinburg, especially after Andrew Huff opened the Mountain View Hotel in 1916.  With the arrival of tourism, Sugarlanders found a wider market for their furs and produce.
  During this period, many Sugarlanders became legendary as mountain guides.  Wiley Oakley (1885–1954), the most famous of these guides, lived on the northern slopes of Mount Le Conte in an area known as the Scratch Britches (now traversed by the Rainbow Falls Trail).  Known as the "Roamin' Man of the Mountains," Oakley's navigational instincts and extensive knowledge of area plant and animal life and oral traditions would later prove invaluable to park service scientists and anthropologists.
  When various entities began buying up land for the national park in the 1920s and 1930s, most of the inhabitants of the Sugarlands were displaced.  Russell recalls:
  Most folks were happy with the prospects of selling their rocky fields and hillsides for more money than they estimated it to be worth, but some felt they didn't want to be driven from their old homeplaces at any price.
  While most Sugarlanders accepted buy-out offers, a few had to be forced out via condemnation suits.  Shortly after the formation of the park, the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed a camp along the West Fork which operated from 1933–1942, and would build roads and trails in the area for the park service.  The ruins of this camp remain along a bend in the Old Sugarlands Trail.  The closing of the CCC camp after World War II was the end of permanent human habitation in the Sugarlands.  The forest quickly reclaimed the farmland, and other than a few small mountain cemeteries and the occasional odd clearing or pile of stones, few signs of the former inhabitants remain today.
caption: Sugarlands CCC Camp ruins
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