If you are familiar with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you might recognize this cabin south of Gatlinburg in the foothills of Mt. LeConte. It's located on the Motor Nature Trail, a one-way road that winds through the mountains between Cherokee Orchard and Roaring Fork. The sign in front records it as the Jim Bales or James Bales home site. If you note the similarity between our last names you might think there was a connection.
Indeed, you would be right.
Jim Bales was my great grandfather. My grandfather Homer Daniel—born January 5, 1899—grew up at this site along the creek. He eventually married my grandmother Pearl and moved over the ridge to the Baskins Creek watershed. There they had four children, the last of which was my father Russell.
In 1929, the Bales family sold their 200 acres for $2,000 and the parcel became part of the new national park. Two thousand dollars was a lot of money for poor folks.
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