Renovation of the Palmer Barn in Great Smoky Mountains National Park/Photos by Camilla Calnan

To me, one of the most fascinating areas of Great Smoky Mountains National Park is Cataloochee. It's a smaller version of Cades Cove, and more intimate because it doesn't attract the crowds that the cove does.

This little-known cousin to Cades Cove actually was one of the region’s most thriving communities a century ago, counting 1,200 residents in 1910. Today, though, it draws no crowds to its historic buildings, rolling orchards, meadows or forests, which do, however, attract elk, wild turkeys, and black bear. 

Nestled near the park’s eastern border, you must negotiate a winding 11-mile gravel road found near Dellwood, North Carolina, to reach Cataloochee. Make the journey, though, and this road will carry you back into a 19th- and early-20th century landscape rimmed by 6,000-foot mountains and clutching some of the park’s best examples of historic frame buildings from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Fortunately, there's a great group of volunteers who have been working to see that those historic buildings endure. The park recently received help to restore key elements of the historic Palmer Barn. Asheville building contractor Sean Perry and his crew partnered with the park and Friends of the Smokies to preserve the structural integrity of the barn and improve visitor safety through the renovation project in Cataloochee in the North Carolina section of the park.

“We are grateful for partners like Sean Perry who volunteered their expertise to help us make much-needed repairs to the Palmer Barn this year and the Cook Cabin last year,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “This is a great example of a private-public partnership that has enabled us to better care for these special places.”

The circa 1902 three-story Palmer Barn sits near the Palmer House in Cataloochee which is one of the most frequently visited locations in the Big Cataloochee area of the park. Perry’s team helped renovate the large timber bridge leading into the barn, replaced a 26-foot long section of a 6x6 sill beam on the back of the barn, replaced support posts and select siding, and made other structural improvements.

"Our restoration work is a gift to the Smokies, our community, and to those who had to leave their homes behind due to the creation of the park,” said Sean Perry. “It felt amazing each day to drive the 2.5 miles from our campsite, along fields of elk, to our job site where all that mattered for a week’s time was completing this single project. Each day we'd look at the day’s accomplishments with true joy and inspiration.”

The Palmer home place is treasured by park visitors, many of whom who enjoy exploring the massive barn, walking back in time as they enter the barn’s second level by way of the unique, 30-foot long, locust timber bridge. The house includes an exhibition that provides interpretation to the history of the Palmer family site, complete with black and white photos of its past residents. The Friends of the Smokies funded repairs last year to the Palmer House, including a new shake roof, rot repairs, and new paint.

In 2017, Perry and his crew spent a week camping in Little Cataloochee performing significant restoration work on the 19th century Cook Cabin. In 2017, after Matt Bush of Blue Ridge Public Radio News ventured out to the remote Cook Cabin site and subsequently aired a story about the Hands of Sean Perry Co.’s work there, Friends of the Smokies supporters Rich and Leigh Pettus stepped forward with a significant financial donation, earmarked for renovation materials for the Palmer Barn, a place the Pettuses treasure as well.

“The Hands of Sean Perry Co.’s donation of a week’s worth of highly skilled crew labor, combined with the Pettuses’ financial gift for materials is reminder of how lucky we are to have such a unique partnership and we at Friends of the Smokies and Great Smoky Mountains National Park are thankful for their generosity,” said Friends of the Smokies North Carolina Director Anna Zanetti.

Friends of the Smokies is an official nonprofit partner of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and has raised more than $60 million to support critical park programs and maintain the Smokies as a crown jewel of the National Park Service.