Sources |
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 25 Apr 2009.
'I walk in their footsteps:' Heritage Center film tells story of people of mountains
By Iva Butler
of The Daily Times Staff
Approximately 100 people attended the premier of a new short film, “Peace of Ground,” about the heritage of the people and the landscape of the Smokies Thursday night at the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center at Townsend.
Steve Dean, creator of "The Heartland Series," and Linda Billman, who worked on the series, shot the film over six months. They worked with a lot of people who told the stories of their families and their life history, working around the schedules of those people.
"We wanted to show as many different seasons as we could," Dean said.
Dee Haslam who is a board member of the Heritage Center, said Dean and Billman are fine producers and storytellers.
In the 24-minute film several local people are featured as well as re-enactors from the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area.
Inez Adams, of Walland, talks of living in Cades Cove and of her ancestors.
"I walk in their footsteps. I see the same mountains they saw," she said.
The film points out that the Smokies are part of one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world.
Gladys Oliver Burns talks about living in four different locations in the area. Including living in a railroad set-off house in Tremont. Little River Railroad and Lumber Company provided its employees housing in little houses which were moved by flatbed railcars from locations where timber was being cut.
Geneva Sarten said she is happy that the Cardwell cabin, which was built in 1896 and housed generations of her family, was moved to the Heritage Center grounds for people to enjoy. She talked of walls papered with newspaper.
"We used to read off the walls. We were just comfortable and happy to be there."
Civil War stories
The film highlights the mountain area as a Civil War battlefield and being changed forever by the conflict.
Mary Gregory talks of her grandfather, Russell Gregory, living in Cades Cove in the fall of 1864 when Confederate Army renegades were raiding and terrorizing the mountain people.
He heard the raiders near his home, went out to see one of his cows being butchered, was shot trying to stop the men and later died from the wounds. His wife and granddaughter found him lying on the ground.
That was a catalyst that banded the people of Cades Cove together to fight the menacing raiders, according to the film.
The place where he settled and raised livestock now bears the name of her grandfather, Gregory Bald.
She talks of divided family loyalties, with one of Russell Gregory's sons, Walter, fighting for the Union and another, Charles, for the Confederacy.
The film stresses the fact that many in East Tennessee fought for the Union, while many from Western North Carolina supported the Confederacy.
Logging industry
Nothing changed the mountains more than the logging operations.
W.B. Townsend created Little River Lumber Company in Tuckaleechee Cove in 1901 and named the headquarters
Townsend.
A total of 300,000 acres of virgin timber was toppled beneath cross cut saws and pulled off the mountains and hauled to the lumberyard by rail. This created much needed jobs for the mountain people.
Another impact still evident in the Smokies is the work done by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The building of the national park was a way to keep people working through the CCC. They built bridges, rock walls and improved roads.
It briefly details the existence of the first people in the mountains, the Native Americans. It talks of the powerful Cherokee nation being struck in the 16th century with smallpox introduced by the Spanish conquistadores.
While the native people changed their environment little, living under the canopies of the virgin forest, the European settlers altered the entire landscape. They came through Pennsylvania and Virginia down the Appalachians to Roanoke, Va., and from there branched out to East Tennessee and western North Carolina.
The people carved a life here, building homes of logs, barns, churches and abundant rail fences around their gardens.
Remarkable past
Producer Dean said, "It is most gratifying to have a job where you collect and pass on the stories of a region. For too long the remarkable past of this region has mostly been shared only within families or perhaps neighbors.
"Our ancestors lived notable lives and we should all take comfort in that. We take comfort in the telling of our past, and in the process we find other people find our stories just as enchanting. And we find that they don't laugh at the way we dress or our accents so much anymore but instead marvel at the toughness, compassion, humor, spirituality and grit that created us," Dean said.
Bob Patterson, director of the Heritage Center, said the 24-minute film will run in an endless loop in the center auditorium along with the national park film that has been shown to visitors since the center opened.
Copies of the film are available at the Heritage Center for $10.99.
Sponsors of the project are the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area at Middle Tennessee State University, BankEast, Tennessee Arts Commission and Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
|