Busted Bear

The local media outlets have reported that a bear was menacing a lady who lives up in Townsend. According to the News Sentinel's Bob Wilson, authorities trapped the bear in Sevier County Friday afternoon. In addition to the M&M's that baited the trap, the bear is being treated to a nice trip to Cherokee National Forest where he can hopefully find better food to eat than household garbage.

Fire on the Mountain

There's been a fire burning in the mountains for the past several days, and the smoke from it has been visible via the webcam at Look Rock Tower off of Foothills Parkway. I read somewhere that a wildfire is burning in the area that was hit by a tornado this spring, and the authorities are letting the fire burn up some of the debris.

Restaurant Review: Becky's Grocery & Grill, Maryville, Tennessee

A year ago I said I wanted to have a meal at Becky's Grocery and Grill, 3856 Laws Chapel Road, Maryville, Tennessee, and last week I finally got around to it. I found it using MapQuest, but it took me a couple of tries, because it is way out in the country in the eastern part of Blount County. One of the roads you travel on to get there is unmarked, so look for the signs to Laws Chapel. Parking is also pretty tight, but it is worth the drive, which is part of the experience. To be honest, I'd never been in that particular part of the county before, and it is quite beautiful, consisting of rolling farmland at the very foot of the mountains.



Upon the recommendation of many, my first meal at Becky's was a hamburger, which I had with milk. The milk was poured from a gallon jug, and the hamburger was quickly cooked to order on a grill that was in plain sight. I noticed a sign on the wall boasting of a 100% health department score, and everyone was friendly and welcoming. I overheard the proprietor, Becky, tell another first-timer who commented on the long, winding drive, "The road gets straighter and shorter every time you drive it." There was also a friendly patron in the place showing a photograph of a raccoon he caught in a coyote trap on his property nearby. It doesn't get much more country than that. He said he eats there about every day, and highly recommended the macaroni and cheese, which Sarah will like.



I thought Becky's place was wonderful, and the prices were about what you'd expect to pay for lunch. The drive from the justice center was about twenty minutes, not counting the time I spent wandering around lost. They are open 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays and 11:a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturdays. The business is yet another Blount County treasure.

Satellite Image of the Smokies

This is an image from Landsat 7. According to NASA's Earth Observatory website,

This Landsat scene shows the park, with its southern boundary along Lake Fontana. The central high ridgeline through the spine of the park is evident, with the light green forests of the lower lands and slopes giving way to the darker green regions of the ridges and peaks. The lower region forests are dominated by deciduous leafy trees (which strongly reflect near-infrared radiation, which is colored green in this image). At higher altitudes, deciduous forests give way to coniferous trees like Fraser Firs, which are less dramatically reflective at near-infrared wavelengths, and so appear darker in the scene.

Mountain Springs Chalet

While Sherry was in Nashville visiting Jake and Joey and Grams, Sarah and I spent the weekend at La and Stew's new rental chalet on Ski Mountain, which Laura has dubbed Mountain Springs Chalet. The place is already renting, but they plan to install a hot tub to sweeten the deal. Although Sarah and I strolled Gatlinburg, spent money on tacky merchandise (see her purchases below) and visited the Noah "Bud" Ogle home, we spent most of our weekend in the chalet. La and Stew haven't added it to their website yet, but they can be contacted about renting any of their three cabins with the information listed there.

Sarah waives a greeting from the front steps.

They see you.

You shall not pass!

The spring on the property is really just a trickle, but Sarah had a good time exploring the ditch through which it flows along the driveway. She found a salamander, which pleased her greatly.

A Happier Story From Citico Creek

Citico Creek

The News Sentinel reports this morning that the United States Forest Service offers a program in the Cherokee National Forest on Citico Creek that teaches children to snorkel so that they can observe the abundant life in the river. A similar program has been available on the Conasauga River on the southern end of the National Forest since 2000.

The program at Citico Creek offers the opportunity to see three rare fish, the eponymous Citico Darter, and the Smoky Madtom and Yellowfin Madtom. Of course, if you don't want to drive to Monroe County to look for these fish, then you can drive up to Abrams Creek here in Blount County to see them.

Book Review -- John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder: A Sequel to The Rearguard of the Revolution

John Sevier ("Nolichucky Jack")

While we were at the beach I finished reading John Sevier as a Commonwealth-Builder: A Sequel to The Rearguard of the Revolution by James R. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke), which was first published in 1898. I was in a hurry at the library and wanted to quickly select a couple of books on John Sevier to take on vacation, and I did not learn until I got the book home that it was a sequel, so I may go back and read The Rearguard of the Revolution. The sequel tells of Sevier's activities in the attempt to establish the State of Franklin, which died in infancy, his role in successfully establishing the State of Tennessee and his leadership of Tennessee until his retirement and death.



The author is an unashamed admirer of Sevier, and the book struck me as terribly biased in favor of Sevier and against anyone adverse to him. I recently had a conversation about bias in our modern media and made the point that such bias has been present since the nation was founded, and Commonwealth-Builder certainly shows that such bias was in existence at the time it was published in 1898. I am as big a fan of John Sevier as anyone, but I suspect advocates for his adversaries, John Tipton and Joseph Martin, would present the facts differently.



I learned something about a couple of my favorite campgrounds that I did not know from this book. Apparently Abrams Creek, which flows into the Little Tennessee River just below the campground, was named for a friendly Indian (Native American, if you prefer) called Abraham, who lived in the area. Indians massacred the family of a man named Kirk, who lived on the Little River. Another man, Hubbard, known for his hatred of Indians, arranged through Abraham to assemble the Cherokee chief Old Tassel, of whom I have read before, and several of his lieutenants at a cabin on the south side of the Little Tennessee River just across from where Abrams Creek flows into it. Settlers surrounded the cabin with the Indians inside it and Hubbard allowed Kirk to tomahawk the native to death. I've camped on that side of the river many times without knowing it was the site of such atrocity. I now have a story I can scare the kids with next time we go up there.