Elizabeth Whaley grave at Plemmons Cemetery

See the Greenbrier Region web page for an interactive location map.

The Plemmons Cemetery is one of the largest in Great Smoky Mountains National Park with over 700 graves. To find it, drive down Greenbrier Road and take a left on Ramsey Prong Road, which is a little ways past the Greenbrier Picnic Area. As soon as you make the turn you will cross a small bridge over a creek and then a second bridge almost immediately after that. No farther than the distance between the two bridges is a pullout that leads to a dirt road with a chain across it to block vehicle access. The cemetery is a half mile down this road.

I assume the road is only used by those who have family members buried in the cemetery, so everyone else must walk. The paved road takes you halfway before ending at a cul-de-sac-like parking area, and even those who were able to drive this far must now continue on a narrow trail. Both the road and the trail are easy to hike, with negligible inclines at worse. Anyone who can walk a mile (round trip) can make it to the cemetery. Plan to spend about an hour for the visit.

Road to the Plemmons Cemetery

On the way you will pass the ruins of some sort of structure where rows of cement columns protrude from the ground. There is nothing at the site identifying what once stood here, but while doing research I found a reference that claimed this was a former school. However, a church was supposedly in this area, so perhaps these are the church ruins.

Ruins of an old school

Ruins of an old school

The cemetery will first strike you as way too large for one or two mountain families, which means it was most likely a church cemetery. If you take a look at the tombstones, you will notice many familiar names: Whaley, Mayes, Ownby, Cantrell, Husky, Bohanan, Rayfield. What you won’t find is any Plemmones. It turns out that the cemetery name comes from David Plemmons, the last preacher of the church that once stood here (thus the theory that the earlier ruins are the former church). He donated the land for the cemetery expansion not too long before everything was bought up by the state government. When the National Park was created, Plemmons Cemetery is the name the National Park Service gave this burial ground. It was originally called the Greenbrier Cemetery. Most of the cemetery names have evolved since the National Park was established, and it is not uncommon to find a cemetery referenced by multiple names.

There are some pretty neat tombstones located here. My favorites are the “budget” memorials that look like the inscription was hand chiseled on a river stone. The guy etching it would run out of room and have to cram the last few letters together to fit everything on one line. Some were inscribed by people without much education, indicated by backward letters and misspellings like “borned.”

S. B. Whaley (4/2/1885 to 8/11/1901)

John M. Pate (12/23/1874 to 9/13/1876)

D. M. Pate (3/6/1877 to 10/16/1887

R. P. Cantrell (7/16/1896 tp 9/1/1896)