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One of the historical attractions in the Great Smoky Mountains is Walker Sisters Place. The Walker Sisters are some of the greatest legends from what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Walker Sisters Place is only one of the many historic attractions hidden within the Great Smokies. Other attractions include whole ghost towns (like Elkmont) lost in the forest and reclaimed by nature.
The Walker Sisters Place is located just next to Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg (and neighboring Pigeon Forge) is an adventurous resort town with endless entertainment, family fun, and attractions. Learn about the legendary diehards who refused to leave the Great Smokies and called it home long after the national park was established.
The Smoky Mountain Home Of The Walker Sisters
The Walker Sisters Place is a historic homestead that belonged to five spinster sisters who became local legends. They became famous for their adherence to traditional ways of living in the Appalachians. The surviving structures today include the cabin, springhouse, and corn crib.
Today visitors can see their historic homes as well as the historic Little Greenbrier schoolhouse.
Hike to the Walker Sister Place and stand on the porch and let one's imagination go to what life would have been like. When the sisters were there, the homestead was a much-loved homestead with farm animals with gardens and orchards. Today they have gone, but the now-vacant homestead remains.
The structures are composed of the cabin, springhouse, and corn crib.
- Walker Cabin: 20-Foot by 22-Foot
- Walker Springhouse: 8-Foot by 10-Foot
- Walker Corn Crib: 25-Foot by 20-Foot
The Walker Cabin is an L-shaped log cabin, and the cabin's kitchen is believed to date from the 1840s. The larger Walker corn crib was built by Wiley King in the 1850s and is one-and-one-half stories. Both of the cabins were built out of hewn logs with half-dovetail notching.
The Legendary Story Of The Walker Sisters
They were living in the region before the Great Smoky Mountains National Park existed. When it was formed in the 1930s, they were given a lifetime lease so that they could live the rest of their lives in the park. The last of the sisters died in 1964, and control passed to the National Park Service in 1976. The remaining structures were added to the National Register of Historic Places.
While most of the hundreds of people who called the Great Smokies home before the creation of the park moved immediately, the six spinster Walker sisters were some of the few to get lifetime leases.
Their story is seen as an incredible story of strength, hard work, and love for the beauty of the Great Smokies.
Their father, John N. Walker, was a veteran of the Civil War who married Margaret Jane King in 1866. He served as a Union soldier and was imprisoned by the Confederacy. He obtained a house and land in Little Greenbrier Cove and produced fruit, chickens, sheep, goats, hogs, and more on his farm.
- The Sisters: Margaret, Polly, Martha, Nancy, Louisa, Sarah Caroline, and Hettie
- Children: Seven Girls & Four Boys Reached Maturity
Of the children, all the surviving boys left home or married, while one of the seven sisters, Sarah Caroline, married. The other six sisters stayed on the farm and eventually inherited the farm after the death of their father in 1921. They managed the farm and homestead for more than 40 years.
Hiking The Metcalf Bottoms Trail To The Walker Sisters Place
To see Walker Sisters Place, there is a 2.4-kilometer or 1.5-mile-long (out and back) trail to the old homestead. The Metcalf Bottoms Trail is considered generally an easy hike and takes around 38 minutes to complete. The trail is located near the gateway to the Great Smokies, Gatlinburg, Tennessee.
- Length: 1.5 miles or 2.4 kilometers (Out and Back)
- Duration: Approx. 38 Minutes
The Metcalf Bottoms Trail is very popular, and visitors can expect to see other people on the trail.
It is only 0.7 miles from Metcalf Bottoms to the Little Greenbrier School (it was built by the Walkers Sister's father, John Walker). From the school, it's another 0.6 miles to where the path goes over a footbridge and then another 1.1 miles to a side trail that leads to the Walker Sisters cabin 0.2 miles down the track.