Passengers on the way to Hazel Creek admire the view from the boat ride from Cable Cove.
Bone Valley Cemetery is named as such because of the bones of frozen cattle from a blizzard could be seen there. Confederate soldiers are among those buried.
Some guests explore at the Hall Cabin observing the 150-year-old structure.
Larry Griffin
lgriffin@thesmokymountaintimes.com
A group of people with the North Shore Cemetery Association spent Sunday, June 25 at Hazel Creek decorating ancestors’ graves, making merry and celebrating the past.
They met at Cable Cove’s boat dock and took a boat ride across Fontana Lake to the Hazel Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which was once the site of several small townships and communities along the river, including Proctor, Medlin, Bone Valley and others.
Cemetery Association member Henry Chambers helped lead the event. Chambers is an encyclopedia of information on the ride to get to their campsite, pointing out various points that used to be peoples’ homes and other areas – a school, a power plant, old railroad tracks, areas where the lumber would be collected.
He points out where the rich folks lived, on Struttin Street, and where working folks lived, on Calico Street, a few yards away. He points out the ruins of one house by a walnut tree.
“There’s lots of small stuff to look for, if you know where to look,” he said.
Asked why he was committed to coming out to the park once a year, Chambers seemed to think it was obvious. “It’s about heritage. It’s family history.”
Many of those who attend the event have either been coming for years or have long familial ties to the area.
“We’re here to honor and respect the people that lived here,” said Cemetery Association member Karen Marcus. “We want to celebrate their lives and enjoy the history of this area.”
Chambers said by email that the Cemetery Association’s work every year involves mowing the graves, cleaning them and putting flowers on them.
At the Bone Valley Cemetery, American flags and decorative flowers make the gravesite a colorful place. One of the park rangers points out a hole in the ground, saying a bear had been there and had dug out a bees’ nest that was there.
By noon, the work was done, and the members of the Association held a church service in the forest and then dined on a large potluck including ham, cheese, crackers, salad and some desserts.
93-year-old Carrie Laney was the oldest of the group. It was especially poignant since Carrie had been sick recently and was glad to be back.
“This is my 32nd year [decorating the graves],” she said. “I like to honor the people that are gone. It’s wonderful. I had a big family. Fourteen people – I’m the only one left.”
A sense of wonder
Rob “Treeman” was in awe of a massive tree near the site where they were all setting up.
“This was all fields [back when people lived here],” he said. “A farmer decided to leave a little seed and it grew into this tree. This is probably 150 years old. This is 150 feet tall.”
He said he wanted to measure the circumference of the tree and find out for sure.
The day was full of similar moments – people just being in awe of their surroundings, taking pictures and enjoying the camaraderie of being near history.
At the historic Hall Cabin, built around the year 1880, siblings Judy Miller and Steve Shelton, descendants of one of the families from the area, explored the park that they hadn’t both been to together in more than 50 years.
Shelton said he comes back often, but Miller hadn’t been there since the two of them were under 10 years old, decades ago.
“You come out here and you just get in touch with yourself,” she said. “With the land, too, but also with yourself.”
To get to the Hall Cabin, visitors have to take a bus through around a 30-minute stretch of bumpy, narrow roads, including several sections where the wheels go over the open water of the creek.
The cabin itself is the original one from 1880, preserved and kept up – though, it’s been moved from its original location. There, Miller, Shelton and other family members took photos and wandered through the quiet desolate area.
New generations
Some of the other visitors were younger – Jordan Laney is a descendant of that family, and said she always enjoys coming to visit the area with her family.
“I enjoy coming back to where traces of their houses were, the ball fields, the churches,” she said. “I call it the phantom landscape. It’s a nice place to come to.”
Likewise, Ava Richesin-Dodd, there with some family, said it was an interesting model for a family reunion. Especially this time when she said she realized how special the area and event were.
“The biggest thing is, I don’t think the history sank in for me until more recently,” she said. “It made the trip more meaningful – not many people can say they go to a place where peoples’ houses have just become nature now. You go to family reunions all the time, but I don’t think many are like this.”
Future decorations
In an email, Chambers said despite the few younger people at Sunday’s event, most of the time, younger generations don’t coming out. He said maybe they’d feel differently in the future – and said anyone is welcome to join them on their various decoration days through the year.
“There were a lot of things in life I wish now I had done differently,” he wrote. “When we used to go to Hazel Creek, I wish I had listened more closely to the stories told and not made fishing my priority. I guess it hit me in my late 40’s: where did I come from and what will I leave behind.”
The next cemetery decoration is taking place this Sunday, July 2, at Proctor & Bradshaw cemeteries. The boat will again leave from Cable Cove, with one leaving at 9 a.m. and another at 10 a.m. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to just show up and board the boat, and more information can be found on the North Shore Cemetery Historical Association Facebook page.