Elijah Oliver cabin
See the Cades Cove Region web page for an interactive location map.
The Elijah Oliver Place in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is located at the end of a .5-mile long trail (1 mile, round trip) that begins halfway around the Cades Cove Loop Road. The trail is a gravel path with only a few minor hills. Plan to spend no more than 45 minutes for the hike and to see Oliver’s cabin and out buildings.
Half-mile trail to the Elijah Oliver homestead
Elijah was the son of John Oliver, whose cabin was the first you come to when entering into Cades Cove on the loop road. Elijah married and moved out of the Cove only to return after the Civil War. He built many structures in addition to the cabin: spring house, smokehouse, corn crib. These are still standing on the property, but they are not identified so I cannot say which is which.
Elijah Oliver homestead out building
Elijah Oliver homestead out building
Elijah Oliver homestead out building
The barn you will see along the trail before getting to the cabin was not built by Oliver, but by subsequent owners of the property in the early 1930s just before everything was acquired by the government for the new Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Notice that the barn is made of lumber just like you would purchase today, whereas the cabin is made of hand-sewn logs. Machine sawed lumber didn’t become standard in Cades Cove until the late 1800s.
1930s barn along the trail to the Elijah Oliver homestead
Another interesting feature is the wooden pipe that runs from the springhouse. As with the barn, this was constructed by subsequent owners and used to bring water to the main house. Only three sections of the pipe remain, and it seems odd that the National Park Service neither removed this since it is falling apart, nor restored it. As a result, you see the pipe and springhouse just as they were the day the property was abandoned, as if the owners simply vanished off the face of the earth.
Spring house and water pipe
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Last updated on March 14, 2020
