Woody House (photo by Smoky Dan)

A hike is required to reach the Woody House. It is located about one mile down the Rough Fork Trail (2 miles, round trip), which starts at the end of the dirt road that leads to the Caldwell House. For a location map, visit the Cataloochee Historical Area web page here on National Park Planner.

The Woody House started off as a small log cabin. It takes its name from Jonathan Woody, though the cabin belonged to Mary Ann Caldwell, widow of Levi Caldwell. Jonathan, whose wife had died, married Mary Ann and moved in with her after the Civil War. When he died in 1894, his son Steve took over and renovated the cabin into its current form between 1900 and 1910. Log cabins had gone out of style, but instead of tearing them down and starting from scratch, wood siding was added to both the outside and inside, essentially entombing the original log structure. Thus, part of the current house is a log cabin and part is a house built with more modern techniques. From the outside it is hard to tell which is which.

The house and grounds are open to visitors. The area was once a farm, and there were other outbuildings on the property, but today all that remains is the house and the spring house, which is where food that needed to be kept cool was stored. A spring house was built over a cold, fresh-water spring, and the flow of the water through the building kept the inside cool.

Spring House (photo by Smoky Dan)

Back to the Top