Gracie Latrelle

Tag: fiction

  • Cherokee Indians Use This Plant to Make Blow Darts!

    Did you know that thistles are not only a great snack for your bird friends but are also used to make blow darts!

    It’s true! The Cherokees use thistles and a wooden shaft to help create the dart.

    First, they would harvest the thistle, and you don’t want to pick the thistle while it’s still purple, as you will see in the photo, but you want it instead to be brown. If you pick it while it’s purple, it will more than likely mold.

    Now you all might be wondering why thistle? Thistle is the best material for fletching which is the feathers on a dart or arrow. However, some use cotton if necessarily.

    To make the fletching, you must take a dry thistle bulb and remove the brown seed part from the pod but be sure not to remove the fluffy white down from it as that will form the fletching. Next you have to find a straight wooden rod or skewer and notch it on the top. River cane is a major source for this.

    After that, take quilting thread and knot it on one end and place it inside the notch. Place the downy part of the thistle pod against the stick and wrap the thread around the downy to attach it to the wooden rod or skewer which is now your arrow.

    Tie the end of the thread where the downy ends on the arrow. Roll the arrow in your hands to get rid of any loose downy or seeds and you have officially made yourself a blow dart!

    Keep in mind that some might think that a hard puff of air is required to shoot a dart, but this is actually not the case at all, and all you have to have is a quick burst of air to shoot the dart off.

    Information provided by the Cherokee Phoenix (The original Cherokee newspaper).

  • Is There an Underground City Below Cades Cove?

    Alot of rumors have been passed from generation to generation as to where and if there is an underground city below Cades Cove.

    On Monday, March 27th, 2017, the National Park Service performed maintenance on the John Oliver Cabin. The cabin was one of the first cabins to ever have been built inside of the cove.

    A crew member by the name of Brian Crimmins was cleaning the cabin’s fireplace when suddenly the floorboards where he standing began to buckle under his weight.

    While giving an interview with the local media outlets, Crimmins explained what he just happened.

    “I’m a pretty big guy, so I don’t think the old wood floors were accustomed to supporting someone with my build. When I knelt down to start cleaning the fireplace, I started to hear a cracking sound, and before I knew it, I had fallen through the boards. I was pretty embarrassed at the time, but now I’m really happy that it happened.”

    After Crimmins was safely removed from below the floor, crew members were shocked to find a tunnel under the broken boards. This discovery prompted the National Park Service to bring in the help of Dr. Dennis Poliferno, a noted archaeologist and historian from the University of Tennessee. Under Dr. Poliferno’s direction, a series of expeditions were made in the tunnel from March 28th to March 31st.

    Some believe that the mile long tunnel beneath the cabin leads to a large underground city that was inhabited by the Cherokee tribe.

    Now this story sounds very convincing. There’s only one issue this news which was first published by experiencecadescove.com and the story is indeed just an April 1st joke.

    No one ever has reported nor discovered an underground city if there is one, but I bet a lot of you now are like me and are really wondering if there is an underground city and if so, where is the city’s location?

    For now, it is just a joke but who knows what the future holds! There’s always new Cades Cove history discovered!

  • The Last Person to Live in Cades Cove Tennessee!

    Kermit Caughron was born on May 5, 1912. He was the fifth generation descendant of John and Lurany Oliver and the Shield family who were known as some of the earliest Cades Cove pioneers.

    Screenshot

    Only just 4 years out of his entire life did Kermit Caughron not live inside of Cades Cove and that was only when the National Park Service took over the cove.

    4 Years after the National Park Service took over Cades Cove, Kermit and his wife Lois returned to live out the rest of their lives in the cove after negotiating their return since he and his wife Lois had a 5 year lease on the old homeplace.

    To the millions of visitors who visited Cades Cove Kermit was known as “Mr. Cades Cove”.

    Kermit spent his days inside of the cove tending to cattle and keeping bee hives. He and his wife Lois also welcomed two sons and two daughters while living inside of the cove. Their names were Rex, Roy, Ruth and Kay.

    Rex recalled spending time with his father hiking and fishing inside of the cove recalling that his dad caught his fair share of 20 inch trout over the years!

    Kermit was known by some folks as the “bee man” due to him visiting his former neighbors that once lived inside of the cove quite often to provide them with the best of that year’s honey.

    One event that Kermit remembered and recalled was when he and a fellow family member were outside “working the bees”. The event took place at around sunset as a very interested visitor stopped his car and then leaned against the split rail fence, waving for Kermit and the fellow family member’s attention.

    Kermit’s family member that went to approach the stranger and inquire whatever need that he needed. The family member then returned back. Kermit went to ask him “what did he want?”. His family member responded “he wanted to take your picture.”

    Kermit agreed and once he had finished all of the work that he needed to do with the bees he went on to begin to walk across the field and then he came back to “work up the honey”. Kermit told his family member “whistle at that guy”. So the family member did as he was told and whistled at the guy who was still leaned up against the fence.

    The guy then proceeded to walk away from the fence and got in his car and drove off.

    The family member asked Kermit “what was that for?”, Kermit replied “That feller is crazy! He wanted to know how we got the bees to come home at night.”

    Kermit permanently left the cove on April 5, 1999, but his story has never left these mountains!