Meigs Mountain Trail - Historical Information

Historical Information

Meigs Mountain is named after Colonel Return Jonathan Meigs (1740–1823), a Revolutionary War veteran who began a re-survey of the last nine miles of the Hawkins Line (the crude early border between Tennessee and North Carolina) from atop this mountain in 1802. Meigs supposedly hung a brightly colored blanket atop the adjacent mountain (which was subsequently known as "Blanket Mountain") for use as a compass reference point.

Extensive logging operations on Meigs Mountain began in the 1880s with Knoxville-based entrepreneur John L. English. English selectively logged Blanket Creek for cherry and basswood and moved the logs downstream to a mill in Blount County using a series of splash dams. Although English's operations ceased in the late 1890s after a flood washed away his splash dams, small-scale selective logging continued until the arrival of the Little River Lumber Company around 1908.

Between 1908 and 1939, the Little River Lumber Company removed most of Meigs Mountain's commercial timber. The company built two large band saw mills in Townsend and connected the mills to the Elkmont area via the Little River Railroad. Incline railways were used to reach the trees on steeper slopes, including those along Blanket Creek.

In the early 20th century, the various logging operations led to the development of a small community along what is now the Meigs Mountain Trail. Members of the Huskey and Henderson families lived in the vicinity of the Meigs Mountain Trail/Curry Mountain Trail junction, some of whom are buried in a crude cemetery just southwest of this junction. The Meigs Mountain schoolhouse was also located at this trail junction, although no part of it remains. What is now Backcountry Campsite 19 was once the homesite of Andy Brackin (1888–1924), whose sister and brother-in-law ran a boarding house for loggers at Elkmont. Legendary mountaineer Lem Ownby (1889–1984) lived along Jakes Creek at the Meigs Mountain Trail/Jakes Creek Trail junction until his death in 1984. He was the last of the park's permanent residents outside of Cades Cove.