Greenville Magazine - August 2008 - (Page 63) if history’s your thing… Around the turn of the 19th century, William Ogle selected a building site for his new home in “paradise.” After cutting the logs for the cabin, he returned to South Carolina to get his family (not quite a one-tank trip for him). While making preparations to move, however, the patron died, leaving his wife, seven children and brother-in-law to continue without him. Following his directions, they found the site and completed the cabin, settling the area and effectively founding what came to be known as Gatlinburg. And, because it still stands, you can visit the cabin that started it all. Ogle Cabin is found at Arrowmont Campus on the Parkway. Also of historic interest, the city’s oldest, continuously operated woodworking business in Gatlinburg’s history was stared by Elijah Lawson Reagan in 1910. According to the City’s Web site, “For over a decade, he practiced his craft with simple hand tools, but in the 1920s, he harnessed the power of the Roaring Fork to operate his new electric power tools,” installing a water-powered turbine and generator to power his shop. Following his death in 1968, his son and son-in-law took over the business, and today you can still visit the shop at 149 Poplar Lane, where another son-in-law keeps the shop in operation, still making fine furniture in the Reagan tradition. For other sites of historical interest, check out: the Pi Beta Phi Settlement School, First Baptist Church, and Ogle Store. See the City of Gatlinburg’s Web site, www.gatlinburg.com, for directions. auGust 2008 | Greenville MaGazine 63 http://www.gatlinburg.com
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