I hiked trails that started across Little River from the Metcalf Bottoms picnic grounds at 8 a.m. The route went up Metcalf Bottoms trail .6 miles to the Little Greenbrier School. This trail would be considered moderate, with a rather steep climb on the second tenth of a mile, and three-foot log bridges to be crossed.
The first classes in the Little Greenbrier School started on New Year’s Day 1882. School was usually only two to three months a year, and at a time when the children were not as needed on the farm. Reading, penmanship, spelling, and arithmetic were the subjects taught. Members of the community furnished the materials to construct the building and built it. Sevier County furnished the teacher. Some of the logs used to build the building were so large and heavy that it took two oxen to get them to the building site.
From the school, the next mile and a tenth was on the Walker Sisters trail to the Walker Sisters’ cabin, which was located on 122 acres. Six unmarried sisters lived there their entire lives. They had no running water, electricity, indoor plumbing, or bathroom. In the early years, the sisters bought only salt, sugar, coffee, and soda. They farmed and had chickens, ducks, turkeys, cows, sheep, and hogs; and they made their clothes.
When the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established on 15 June 1934, the sisters were asked to leave their property; however, public pressure persuaded the National Park Service to allow them to live out their lives in their home…