Gateway to Fall

Southern Living, Oct 2003 by McKinney, Wanda

"It's 5 to 10 degrees cooler up here," said our guide, ranger Tommie Sue Watkins. Indeed, on this crisp October day, I resembled the Michelin man, layered in three shirts, two jackets, and double socks. The fog swirled.

"Imagine," Tommie Sue continued. "The first couple who moved up here, Sherman and Nicey Ann Hensley, were only 21 and 17 years old when they came here in 1903. They and several other families survived by making sorghum, lye soap, growing crops, and brewing moonshine."

They needed something to keep them warm up on this remote mountaintop. But the blazing beauty here was staggering. The buildings, preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, have withstood a century of blizzards and storms. Sherman Hensley was not only the first inhabitant, but also the last, and he finally left the mountain in 1951. At one time, 125 people lived, labored, and even went to school here. But World War II and the lure of better paying jobs off the mountain put an end to the community.

Tommie Sue took us into the oneroom schoolhouse and invited us to write on the chalkboard. "I made it to God's country," I wrote. On the way back to the van, still amid a swirling fog, I spied two deer standing like statues and a wild turkey ambling by. During the drive down the long road to the Visitor Center, we saw a rarity-a baby black bear clinging to a tree. Before we could get out our cameras, it had clambered down and skittered away in the leaves.

It's another world on that mountaintop, another time-more Daniel Boone's than mine. The colors of the season never seemed more brilliant than in that unearthly mist. And my co-worker was right. I even forgot my fear of heights on that special day. Settled back in Pine Mountain State Resort Park that night, I marveled at this gateway to the West, where Boone and other settlers once walked. And I was grateful that present-day travelers can bask in the glories of an Appalachian autumn just as those pioneers did so long ago.