Hiker discovers abandoned Tennessee town untouched and over 100 years old

dailymail.co.uk ^ | october 3, 2014

[lowbridge]

One man made the discovery of a lifetime while out on a recent hike.

Jordan Liles, who currently lives in San Diego, California, was in Tennessee back in May 2013 when he decided to take some photos  during a trek through Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Those photos turned out to be incredibly interesting when the young man managed to stumble across a seemingly forgotten town in the woods.

[theneanderthal]

"I was once hunting deep into the Eglin AFB reservation. I was several miles back in the woods and began wondering if another human being had ever been in that particular spot."

I guess we're neighbors. I have been all over the Eglin rez and I am still astounded by the number or vacant homesteads and forgotten communities out there.

The takeover of private property by the fed for the war effort of WW2 is just, just, infuriating!

Sat views of the rez are very cool. There is so much preserved wilderness and history out there that I have to conclude unintended consequences sometimes yield good things.

[cva66snipe]

Was that near Indian Boundary?

Indain Boundary is about about 40 miles southwest of Indian Boundary on the same mountains. Elkmont is up inside the park itself outside of Marryville/Townsend.

Indian Boundary is actually in Cherokee National Forest near the town of Tellico Plains in Monroe County right off the new highway to Robbinsville, NC. You go down to Sweetwater on the interstate and go through Madisionville to Tellico Plains.

[Aliska]

Sounds great. I'll have to take your word for the ought 40. I think my adventuring days are over.

I would be happy to drive all around the northern end of a county in N IL. I have a farm which is in the southern part and more populated (actually pretty sparse in the country now) but the map shows no towns, looks like sparsely populated.

I think it's very hilly and pretty in that part, too, unless it's a hot or hot and humid summer day which I can't take any more.

BTW, there was a scene in his video of a cardinal flower. There were hummingbirds feeding off it. I managed to winter sow some and got a few plants from seed, was slow in transplanting so they bloomed in the trays.

So I carefully transplant them and they didn't come back the following year.

Now you have my yearning for adventure kicking in again. Ever since I heard of the Appalachain Trail I thought how neat it would be to hike it the whole way, not keen on burying poop now lol. I couldn't make it the first mile. I don't know what older people do when they can't squat any more.

There is one more thing I still might be able to do. Get a moped. I think it would be good to have. I had a nice older one that was just right with two baskets I could put groceries in. I think my son sold it when I wasn't paying attention. The newer ones are heavier. I will have to see if that might be feasible and where I could lock it up; I guess the garage but the door sticks so I need to get that fixed.

[cva66snipe]

ARGH!!! Indain Boundary is about about 40 miles southwest of Elkmont on the same mountains.

[logi_cal869]

Absurd is right.

[BBell]

[cva66snipe]

I read your post wrong. Spence Field {the quickest route to hike there} is to go to the back of the Cades Cove Picnic Area near the visitors center. The trail from there is about 5 miles one way up to Spence Field. It intersects with The Appalachian Trail up on top. Going northwest about a mile and a half on the AT puts you crossing what hikers call Rocky Top and past that Thunderhead Bald with the best view looking down into Cades Cove area from atop of the mountain.

There is another way up Bote Mountain Trail that Rangers use to drive on but it is a 10 mile hike to Spence Field One Way. Done it that way once LOL.

[wardaddy]

Not directed at you but this story is cock and poppy

[Smokin' Joe]

What did the Senate race look like?

[eyedigress]

If on a trip into the mountains get here by 9AM.

Your days will be excellent.

USDA Forest Service, Cherokee National Forest
250 Ranger Station Rd
Tellico Plains, TN 37385

[cva66snipe]

It’s poorly written by the Brit. Parts of it is 100 or so years old. An old vacation lodge built a few decades before the parked was officially formed. It was lived in however up into about the mid to late 1990’s. That is why it still more or less is standing.

[eyedigress]

My BIL caught a 5lb brown out of 3 feet of rushing water. It was sweet. Of course he catches fish in his sleep, so it wasn’t to surprising.

[tumblindice]

Vampires can clean a town out fast.

[eyedigress]

We call them lightning bugs around here. They won.

[holyscroller]

"Incidentally, it’s hardly a discovery. It’s part of the park, and is an abandoned resort. It’s not untouched at all. The entire story is absurd."

I agree. Those pictures show bare well-used trails. If they were really unused they would be overgrown and gone within a few yesrs.

[tumblindice]

Any Type I grandfathers? Those guys are almost impossible to kill.

[Liberty Valance]

and this is a surprise?

[eyedigress]

I takes a very tiny stake to stab through their heart.

Then you can sell it to the local FD.

[eyedigress]

You see those Kudzu zombies on the right eh?

[RegulatorCountry]

Kudzu will pull down and destroy a building covered up like that in a decade or less. Whenever you see a spot like that, you know you’re on an old road. DOT in a number of states planted it for roadside erosion control. That it did, but it didn’t stay put. It was better suited for our climate and soil than it was in Asia and it ran rampant.