The other side of the Smokies, and whose land it is
Cherokee sits at the North Carolina end of Newfound Gap Road, where US-441 comes down off the ridge and follows the Oconaluftee River out of the national park. The town is the heart of the Qualla Boundary, land the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians bought back in the 1870s and that the federal government now holds in trust for the tribe. The Eastern Band is a sovereign nation, and its people descend largely from Cherokee who stayed in these mountains when most of the Cherokee Nation was forced west on the Trail of Tears in 1838 and 1839.
That’s what sets the day apart from anything on the Tennessee side. You get the national park’s southern gateway, Oconaluftee, with its visitor center, pioneer farm and one of the park’s named elk-viewing areas, and then, a couple of miles on, a town where the Eastern Band tells its own history. The welcome signs carry the Cherokee syllabary alongside English.
Nothing here costs money to see except the museum and the village, which sell tickets, and the park’s parking tag if you stop at Oconaluftee. The town itself also has the tribe’s Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort and the usual gateway strip of motels, restaurants and souvenir shops.
A day that works: gap, elk, farm, museum, village
Leave early and drive the gap first. From downtown Gatlinburg, the drive to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center takes about an hour without stops by our routing estimate. It’s a little over 30 miles of mountain road across the whole park. From Pigeon Forge, add around 15 minutes. There’s no gas station in the park, so fill up before you leave town. Stop at Newfound Gap on the way over, when the view is usually at its clearest.
Look for elk as you come down into the valley. The big fields beside the road near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center are where the herd often grazes, especially early in the morning and late in the evening, and on cloudy days. Elk were wiped out in these mountains long ago and brought back to the park in 2001. Watch from the road edge and never walk into the fields. It is illegal to willfully approach within 25 yards (75 feet) of an elk, or any distance that disturbs or displaces it, and along the river trail the park asks you to stay 50 yards from elk and all other wildlife. Pull over only where all four tires fit off the road.
Walk the Mountain Farm Museum. It sits right behind the visitor center. Most of the buildings date from the late 19th century and were brought here from around the park in the 1950s. At the center is a log house built by John E. Davis around 1902, alongside a barn original to the site, a meat house, a chicken house, an apple house, a springhouse and a working blacksmith shop. The park calendar lists any events at the farm. The path is paved or firm gravel, so strollers manage it. The Oconaluftee River Trail leaves from here too: a flat, wide, graveled walk of about 3 miles round trip along the river to the edge of Cherokee.
Then drive into town for the museum. The Museum of the Cherokee People, on Tsali Boulevard, was established in 1948 and describes itself as one of the longest-operating tribal museums in the country. It shares the history, culture and stories of the Cherokee people, and it took its current name a few years ago, having long been the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. It’s open every day apart from a few days around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, and admission is charged. A few steps away, Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, founded in 1946, sells baskets, pottery, carvings and beadwork made by its Cherokee members. It calls itself the oldest Native American cooperative in the country.
Finish at the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Run by the nonprofit Cherokee Historical Association, it’s a re-creation of an 18th-century Cherokee village with guided tours of 45 to 60 minutes, craft demonstrations and dance. Guided tours run from spring to the end of October, not on Sundays or some Mondays, and it sells tickets. Allow one to three hours. In summer the same association stages Unto These Hills, an evening outdoor drama about Cherokee history at the Mountainside Theatre. Its dates change from year to year, so check its site first.
The trade-offs: the road, the season and the length of the day
Everything hangs on Newfound Gap Road. It’s open all year, weather permitting, but winter storms close it between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, and storm damage has closed it for weeks at a time. Check the NPS road status the morning you go. The fallback is the long way round: I-40 east, then US-19 through Maggie Valley into Cherokee. Our routing estimate puts that at more than two hours each way from Gatlinburg, which turns a day trip into a day in the car. I-40 through the Pigeon River Gorge has run with reduced lanes during long storm repairs, so check DriveNC before counting on it.
Mingus Mill is closed for now. The 1886 gristmill half a mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, unusual for running on a water-powered turbine rather than a waterwheel, is shut for preservation and rehabilitation work. At our last check the NPS gave no reopening date.
The cultural sites follow a season. Once the village’s guided tours end in October, much of the reason to come for many families goes with them until spring. The museum and the park side keep going through the winter.
It’s a long day. Two hours or more of mountain driving, several stops and a tired drive home over the ridge. Visitors on a two- or three-day trip will get more from the Tennessee side. With four days or more, and a clear forecast, Cherokee is the day trip we’d pick first.
