VISIT Cades Cove Series: The JOHN OLIVER PLACE

Welcome to the first installment of our "Visit Cade's Cove" Series. There are so many stop-offs on the Cade's Cove loop that we wanted to give you an overview to help you know a little bit about them.

The John Oliver Place is located pretty close to the entrance. There are two small parking lots about 50 yards apart from one another and a pathway leading from each one up to the charming homestead. This excursion is about a 5 minute walk from the parking lot and is definitely worth the stop. We saw deer grazing in the field as we walked up.

​John and Lucretia Oliver arrived in Cade's Cove in 1818 and were among the first Euro-Americans to settle in the area. They completed the one-and-a-half story cabin that still stands sometime in the 1820's and it is one of the oldest structures in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Members of the Oliver family lived there for more than a century. Each of the 3,000 wooden shingles on the space were hand-hewn by Oliver who also used half-dovetail notches on his logs to help water drainage and protect from rot. The doors and single window were small for temperature control. The building has been carefully preserved and restored.