_______Good day to all of you High on LeConte readers. I've enjoyed meeting several of you during the last few weeks at the lodge. Thanks for hiking up and offering your kind words. Today I'm continuing with the LeConte Lodge crew introductions in an effort to get everyone covered by the end of the season. I have the odd task of writing my own, and it's proven difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff (a life lesson I haven't mastered yet, I guess). Chris just walked by and told me that this task is preferable to writing your own obituary. Wise words. This is long but still the much abridged version. Come on up and visit. If I'm done with my work we can delve into the unabridged version, which is always better.
I'm Nathan Kirkham, the assistant manager of LeConte Lodge. I'm wrapping up my second season on the mountain after also working in 2010. I was raised in Rockwood, Tenn., and enjoyed a wonderful childhood growing up on Watts Bar Lake and rambling the ridges. My mom, Betty Jane, and my dad, the late Dick Kirkham, made sure my younger brothers Sam and Lucas and I spent plenty of time outside camping and enjoying life in Rockwood. I graduated as Rockwood High's valedictorian in 1994, spending my free time playing football and mowing yards (one of which I liked much more than the other). I've been lucky to work many different places, but I've always enjoyed coming home to Rockwood. I've visited all 50 states, but Rockwood's my favorite place, though LeConte's on the short list. During my time off LeConte, I like being home and visiting my aforementioned family plus my nephews, Grant (5) and Colton (2), and my 90-year-old grandfather, David Kirkham. The seeds for everything worthwhile I've ever done were sown in Rockwood by family, friends, the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), teachers and coaches. Rockwood gave me wings and a safe harbor to come home when it was time to land. The Key to the City of Rockwood is still one of my most cherished awards. I attended the University of Tennessee and immediately began working 50-60 hours a week to pay for my education. I ended up working 12 years (1994-2006) in the men's sports information office in the UT Athletics Department and still help out in the press box on a contract basis for home football games (with the exception of the Florida game when I'll be on LeConte). I've read that the golden age of any organization is when you were there, and that makes a lot of sense. However, I really was fortunate to be part of a winning tradition at Tennessee, serving on the publicity team for the 1998 football national championship team and directing media relations efforts for the 2001 NCAA outdoor track and field and 2002 NCAA indoor track and field champions. I was honored to be presented with national championship rings by all three of those title teams in appreciation for my contribution. I particularly enjoyed my assignment to the Tennessee track and field team (a fine group of athletes and coaches), where I served as the first publicist for future Olympic gold medal winners Justin Gatlin (100m, 2004 Athens) and Aries Merritt (110m hurdles, 2012 London). I was pleased to win the College Sports Information Directors of America "Best in the Nation" award in 2001 and 2002 for designing, planning and editing the best collegiate track and field media guide in the nation at any level, the only employee in the history of the Tennessee Men's Athletics Department to win the award in consecutive years. Also while at Tennessee, I coauthored a book about Tennessee football tradition with Mike Griffith of the Knoxville News Sentinel and Peyton Manning (foreword), quarterback of the Denver Broncos (still seems weird to write that) and Super Bowl XLI MVP. Peyton was also a pleasure to work with during his days as a Tennessee Volunteer. I think my professional work also helped me academically because I knew it was paying for my degrees. I earned my B.S. in journalism/public relations concentration, finishing as the top graduate in the College of Communications for spring 1999. If memory serves, Peyton Manning finished as top graduate for my college the spring before and skewed our graduates' starting salary averages. I brought the starting salary average back down to Earth. It took a while because I was working plenty, but I earned my M.S. in communications/public relations concentration in 2005, graduating with a 4.00 GPA. Then things really got interesting. After my dad passed away at the beginning of my senior year of high school, I learned the hard lesson that you're not guaranteed a chance to do all you want in retirement. So I hatched a plan to do some of the adventurous things I'd been dreaming of since I was a boy while my body would still let me. It was hard leaving a career track at the university, especially because I worked with some of the finest people ever to grace the Volunteer State. Since I left UT, I have worked as a horse wrangler in Hawaii (2007), Colorado (2007 and 2008), Alaska (2009) and Wyoming (2011 in Yellowstone). In Hawaii, I most remember a branding we had on the foothills of Mauna Kea on the Big Island. Almost everything was a highlight at Cherokee Park Ranch in Colorado, though it's hard to top helping our neighbors round up their cattle on horseback in the Front Range of the Rockies. Riding for Cherokee Park Ranch might have been the best job of them all. In Alaska, I most remember having to ride with a .44 magnum strapped to my chest (I never had to use it) in grizzly country while taking out moose and Dall sheep hunters on horseback. My most vivid memory in riding for the Canyon Corral in Yellowstone National Park was when a bull bison charged out of the pines after us when I was on the ground trying to repair the reins of my wonderful horse, Raven. Even with no way to steer or stop Raven, I jumped up in the saddle and took off in a hurry. Raven saved my bacon that day (among others). We ended up turning back on the bison and chased him to a safe place (for the bison and for our 20 beginner guests who would soon be riding past and didn't need an ornery bull bison goring them to improve their Yellowstone experience). Raven is the best horse I've ever worked, and he deserves his long winter vacation in Montana. I've taken on a few more adventurous jobs I really enjoyed. In 2009, before I left for Alaska, I spent the spring semester working at an environmental education center for elementary and middle school kids. I did everything from pass around ball pythons in the herpetology class I taught to helping belay and coach scared kids on our high ropes elements. Last spring, I worked as a crew trainer at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., teaching space science and teamwork to kids from around the world. I most remember being assigned with another crew trainer to take charge of a group of Puerto Rican students for a couple of days who couldn't get home after the disastrous tornadoes that tore through Alabama in late April 2011. We didn't have lights, hot water or hot food, and the rest of Space Camp was shut down, but those Puerto Rican students graduated on time under the space shuttle. I was honored to receive the Right Stuff Award for my winter training class, an award given to commemorate the qualities of the first U.S. space pioneers. Most recently, I worked in January and February at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. I worked in the galley doing some rather unglamorous jobs, but I got to spend about seven weeks working at the end of the world. I was happy to be there. I was awarded the Antarctica Service Medal by the United States government for civilians (me) and military members who support U.S. science exploration on The Ice, the most difficult of continents. The medal probably didn't cost $2 to make, but I'm proud of it. I left Antarctica and returned straight to LeConte for the 2012 season, which, like the 2010 season at the lodge, has been a good experience with an excellent crew. Sometimes I take for granted how good my coworkers are until I start to think of the thousands of people they've sent home happy. Wednesday saw a high of 65 and low of 55 with 0.47 inches of rain. Past results not being an indication of future performance, but most of Thursday morning has been beautiful with plenty of sunshine, cumulus clouds building in the valley and blue skies overhead. The weekend forecast calls for a pronounced chill in the air on LeConte, so check the weather and pack accordingly if you're coming up. Beginning Friday, Allyson and I will both be off LeConte for a few days in a scheduling rarity. So this will likely be the last High on LeConte update until Tuesday. I know it's been long (I hope long enough to get you through until Tuesday). Thanks for reading. Happy trails. Happy Hump Day to everyone. Hump Day isn't one of our most noted celebratory days on LeConte, as we continually stay open from mid-March through November, but I hope you all have a good one. I guess you could say our Hump Day on LeConte was in mid-July, the halfway point of the season. The next full day we'll be closed is Thanksgiving (most of us will hike off the mountain the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving). Plus, LeConte rates a majestic mountain and no mere hump.
Today I'm writing about the LeConte Lumber Company, no real company but the moniker for the sawmill that operated at LeConte Lodge in the past. Let's get this out of the way first: the sawmill operated cutting up deadfall in the past. We don't cut down anything anymore and haven't for decades. Our current mandate is to let nature take its course. We even plant more native fir trees around the lodge to replace some of the ones killed by the adelgids. Before the lodge installed the current propane heaters, we used kerosene heaters and, before that, wood heat. Each change was made to be more environmentally friendly. In those days of using wood heat (perhaps some of you visited LeConte in the fireplace days and would like to share your story in the comments section), crew members would hitch up a horse (I profiled Blackie the wonder horse earlier this year) and pull deadfall out of the woods around the lodge. This deadfall had to be cut into useable pieces, so a sawmill of some kind existed near the summit since the lodge was built until the "LeConte Lumber Company" was shut down in the mid-1970s. Al Bedinger, a LeConte Lodge crew member in the early 1970s, has been a wealth of information about the days of LeConte past and has been generous enough to share his stories and photos of the "LeConte Lumber Company" for this update. In 1973, when these photos were taken, the sawmill was located below the dining room deck, near where the propane tanks are located now. With that, I'll turn the update over to Al, who wrote the following. --------- "The engine was a Lycoming water-cooled, straight 6 taken from a 1925 Gardner automobile. The carburetor was from a tractor. The sawmill had a hand push-through carriage. Herrick Brown [LeConte Lodge manager in those days] would push the logs through the last little bit using a stick [as seen in the above photo]. Sometimes one of the lodge cats [no pets of any kind are allowed at the lodge now] would ride (who knows why?) on the carriage as we were cutting wood, and Herrick would comment that we would be having cat burgers for lunch. Fortunately the cat would jump off before the 48-inch diameter saw blade made the burgers. The saw was the 48-inch diameter ring tooth type. The teeth were removable for sharpening. Once while I was running the engine and a large log was being pushed through there was suddenly a very loud screech. Knowing something was wrong I quickly ducked behind the engine. Of course I was way too slow, only lucky as were the other sawmill crew members because the blade hit a 20-penny nail on the diagonal and most of the teeth spit out. I am sure the very high tip speed of the saw blade was such that the teeth were long gone before any of us were able to duck. It could have been a disaster – not unlike getting shot with a 50-caliber machine gun. I still have one half of that nail. The saw blade was driven with a large canvas and leather belt wrapped around a pulley on the engine and a similar size pulley on the saw blade shaft. The sawmill crew would run beside the mill holding the belt. The engine operator would have the clutch depressed and the engine in second gear. When the saw blade reached a suitable RPM the clutch would be popped and if all went well the Lycoming would fire up. We would cut in third gear. The water tank [seen to the left of the bears in the below photo] was an old water heater tank. The engine water pump pumped water to this tank and the water was cooled via natural convection. If the water became too hot we would drain off some and replace it with cool water. Herrick, being a child of the Depression, never liked wasting anything so one day he hooked up the tank of hot water to the shower in the laundry [one of the crew quarters] for a “free” shower. Well, the water was quite hot and also quite black so no one used this “free” hot water. The normal shower water was heated via a wood-fired hot water boiler. Wood chips from the wood yard were used for fuel so the showers were essentially free anyway. I was not on the mountain when a saw log was “launched” but Herrick called me to give me a full report. While pushing a large log through the saw blade the effort was not properly coordinated and the log was slightly skewed and the powerful blade caught the log and launched it over the laundry [the building, not a clothes line]. To my knowledge this was the only attempt to launch a fir log into sub-orbital flight." ---------- Thanks to Al for those fine stories and photos from the LeConte Lumber Company in 1973. It makes me appreciate the propane we use now. Tuesday marked another day without much temperature swing -- 61 for the high, 56 for the low. We received 0.07 inches of rain. Wednesday morning has been cloudy but the rain returned this afternoon. Happy trails. I hope everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. Things were a little damp up on LeConte, but that's really a good thing. Our spring is running a little better, which is beneficial. I think Saturday ranked as the busiest day of the holiday weekend. One time I was headed through the dining room during a rain shower and wasn't sure whether I was at the lodge or Grand Central Station. The lack of trains finally gave away my location, but there were plenty of bustling visitors to the top of Tennessee.
The clouds insulated us Monday and kept the temperature range quite narrow--a high of 60 and low of 56. We totaled 0.20 inches of rain. One of our favorite visitors of the weekend arrived in the person of Henry Neel, longtime assistant manager of LeConte Lodge. Henry's name came up in one of the High of LeConte updates in the comments section a while back, so I'll give you a little update on Henry. Henry came up to help out with lodge duties during a busy Labor Day weekend. We were a little short on crew help and pride ourselves on being able to offer hospitable service regardless of how many crew members are on off days. We were glad to welcome Henry back to help us meet that goal. Henry worked 15 seasons at LeConte Lodge, from 1995 until his retirement at the conclusion of the 2010 season. His tenure was interrupted in 2005 by military service in Iraq. His 15 years of lodge service puts him in an elite group of people with that many years on Mt. LeConte. Henry still does some income tax work, but is otherwise enjoying his retirement at his home in Jefferson City, Tenn. Henry told me he particularly enjoyed doing some recent traveling to visit his family. Henry's never been stingy with his stories, and held forth last night in the kitchen with tales from LeConte Lodge past, growing up in Mississippi and serving in Iraq. We appreciate his help and look forward to his return visit to LeConte. We were also glad to welcome the folks who scaled LeConte for the Ed Wright Memorial Hike on Saturday. Ed passed away in 2009 after hiking LeConte more than 1,300 times. Stop and read that number again--more than 1,300 times. A group of Ed's family and friends celebrated what would have been his 87th birthday on Sept. 1 on his favorite mountain. He passed away before I joined the crew, but I've heard some good Ed Wright stories from others and enjoy his accounts of his hikes to LeConte. We were also fortunate to welcome the Sabos back to LeConte. They've been up to visit several times this year and are always a pleasure. They brought up some ribs for the crew, which we devoured with Sunday lunch. Folks have been kind enough to haul up fresh fruits, vegetables, cookies and chocolate, but that's the first time to my knowledge the crew has been gifted ribs. I've said it before, we have the best guests in the Smokies. We enjoyed hosting plenty of guests during the weekend and hope they left the lodge happy and ready to return. Happy trails. In Sunday's update I wrote about the 72nd anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's address at Newfound Gap to dedicate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Since we're celebrating Labor Day by laboring, Monday's update will be a little lighter fare. In honor of the 72nd anniversary, I had a fortuneteller channel a conversation between Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt upon visiting Sevier County en route to Newfound Gap in 2012. I've included the top nine most interesting items of conversation.
9. (Upon reaching Newfound Gap) "Those hikers coming down from the Boulevard Trail sure look tired for it to be an 'easy' eight miles." 8. (Upon being stuck in Labor Day traffic in Gatlinburg) "I was elected president of the United States four times. Where's my motorcade?" 7. "You know, Eleanor, if we have time on our way back I really need to stop and pick up a new 'No. 1 Grandpa' ballcap." 6. (While driving through Pigeon Forge at night) "Franklin, that TVA idea must have worked. It appears they have a little bit of electricity around here." 5. (Upon seeing the plethora of go cart tracks and miniature golf courses) "These people must be really serious about driver training to start them so early. And I'm never going to take a golf bet with anyone from Sevier County. They practice every day with dinosaurs to distract them." 4. "That Dolly lady and this Elvis fella must be good." 3. "Franklin, I think we need to come back down here and open up a pancake house. I notice a distinct shortage of pancake houses in Sevier County." 2. "I can't believe it. They were looking in the wrong place all those years. Eleanor, for the life of me, I never would have dreamed they'd discover half the Titanic in such remarkable shape in Pigeon Forge, Tenn." 1. (Upon returning to Newfound Gap and taking in the vista of the Smokies unfolding before them) "There was nothing easy about it but dedicating the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was a fine idea. This is every bit as special a land as it was 72 years ago. It's worth protecting." Now for the LeConte Lodge weather report and a return to reality. Our Sunday high reached 67 degrees with an overnight low bottoming out at 55. We enjoyed a welcome sound on our roof last night--a healthy rain. We registered 0.53 inches overnight. The forecast is pretty soggy, so maybe we'll get caught up a little bit over the next couple of days. We'd be glad to have you hike up to see us. Just make sure you're prepared for wet weather and slick trails. Happy trails. Hello to all of you. Today marks a special anniversary in Great Smoky Mountains National Park history. On Sept. 2, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Great Smoky Mountains National Park with an address at Rockefeller Monument at Newfound Gap as dignitaries from Tennessee and North Carolina met at the state line in celebration. If you've ever hiked the Boulevard Trail to LeConte, then the Rockefeller Monument is the stone plaza you see on your left at the Newfound Gap trailhead before you begin on the Appalachian Trail en route to the Boulevard.
Efforts to create a national park in the Smokies began long before FDR took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With plenty of work by a host of pre-park heroes in the rear view mirror (and even more heavy lifting to come), Pres. Calvin Coolidge signed a bill that provided the framework for the establishment of national parks in the Great Smoky Mountains and Shenandoah in May 1926. The National Park Service has plenty of interesting information on that effort on its website at www.nps.gov/grsm/historyculture/stories.htm. Thanks to them for providing that to all of us. In preparation for this High on LeConte update I read the full text of Pres. Roosevelt's speech. The tenor and language used in the dedication address at Newfound Gap is amazing. I realize it was September 2, 1940, a little more than 15 months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but I was surprised at the martial tone of FDR's speech. This was a man clearly preparing the nation for war in what I thought was a most unlikely setting at the Smokies' dedication. I guess he knew what was coming. I also realize that it was 72 years ago, but I couldn't believe FDR's frontiersman versus Indian comparison made to the upcoming struggle of the United States against the Axis powers. The reality on the ground (especially if you were Native American) wasn't quite so cut and dried. I can't imagine President Obama or Mitt Romney making such a comparison in 2012. Times change, often for the better. I'm not trying to make a political statement either (this is not the place for that). Both Roosevelt presidents, Franklin and earlier Theodore, were huge advocates for the national parks (and they both represented different parties). I'm a fan of both Roosevelts, but the full text of FDR's address surprised me. If you imagine hard enough you can hear him deliver it in that "Fireside Chat" voice. At any rate, John Woolley and Gerhard Peters of The American Presidency Project have made the full text of FDR's Smokies' dedication address available online at www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16002. My thanks to them for that. You can read the address and draft your own opinion. I have included a few excerpts below if you don't have time to read the whole thing. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sept. 2, 1940. "There are trees here that stood before our forefathers ever came to this continent; there are brooks that still run as clear as on the day the first pioneer cupped his hand and drank from them. In this Park, we shall conserve these trees, the pine, the red-bud, the dogwood, the azalea, the rhododendron, the trout and the thrush for the happiness of the American people." -------------- "It is our pride that in our country men are free to differ with each other and with their Government and to follow their own thoughts and express them. We believe that the only whole man is a free man. We believe that, in the face of danger, the old spirit of the frontiersmen that is in our blood will give us the courage and unity that we must have. We need that spirit in this hour. We need a conviction, felt deep in us all, that there are no divisions among us. We are all members of the same body. We are all Americans. The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mountains, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic—have always blown on free men. We are free today. If we join together now— men and women and children -to face the common menace as a united people, we shall be free tomorrow. So, to the free people of America, I dedicate this Park." That's pretty hard to follow with the LeConte weather report, but here goes. Saturday's high topped out at 70 with a low of 56. Our brief showers totaled 0.05 inches of rain, but at least we didn't get shut out. We were lucky to have a fortuneteller come up to visit us on LeConte recently (sometimes I lie). In honor of the 72nd anniversary of Pres. Roosevelt's dedication of the Smokies, I asked the fortuneteller to channel what Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt would say if they drove through Sevier County today on their way to Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In tomorrow's update (unless something changes), the readers of High on LeConte will get the exclusive on that conversation between the Roosevelts in 2012. After being mobilized by FDR to meet the menace today, we'll keep it a little lighter on Labor Day. Happy trails. A fine day to all of you. First of all, I need to apologize to the great Bill Monroe for taking liberties with the song title he made famous. The bluegrass legend was singing about a blue moon in Tennessee's neighbor to the north--a fine land where racehorses fuel up on bourbon (and then run around the track backwards).
However, last night we were fortunate to witness the last blue moon until 2015 on LeConte. Most of you all are probably aware that a blue moon is when you're lucky enough to get two full moons in one month, which is exactly what happened at the beginning and end of August. It took a while to make its appearance as patchy clouds shuttled across the mountain. At times the blue moon scuttled behind a patchwork of clouds looked like a turtle had swallowed a lantern and the light oozed through the partitions of his shell. However, about 10:30 p.m. I took the above photo through a thin veil of clouds and with a Fraser fir framing the shot. Allyson would have taken a better photo, but it is what it is. She has a fine camera and the talent to use it. The camera (and talent) I use is a little less complicated--the Idiot 300X-DUMB model. It's the only camera I know where you adjust the settings to take a night photo and a prompt comes up that says: "Do you really think this is going to work or are you just going to end up apologizing for the photo?" At any rate, as I took in the beauty of the full moon over High Top, I couldn't help thinking about the legendary U.S. space pioneer Neil Armstrong, whose memorial service was also held Friday. I'm sure many have remarked on it, but it is quite a coincidence that we honored the bravery and dignity of the first human to set foot on the moon on the same day we viewed our last blue moon until 2015 (according to the good folks at SPACE.com). In spring semester 2011, I worked as a crew trainer at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp, teaching space science and teamwork to kids from across the world. I just missed getting to meet Neil Armstrong by a month (I think he visited the U.S. Space and Rocket Center that January, and I arrived in February). There aren't a great many kids who know much about any octogenarians other than family, but you could tell from the photos they were thrilled to see Neil Armstrong. An aside, Neil Armstrong was always adamant that his legendary words as he touched down into moondust were: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." In the audio transmissions, you can't hear the "a" before "man." However, Mr. Armstrong wasn't chosen as the commander of the most important space exploration mission in human history because he was haphazard. I imagine he knew exactly what he wanted to say if he was lucky enough to survive his lunar descent. I'll take Neil Armstrong at his word. It's been a rough 15 months or so for the U.S. space program. The last space shuttle mission touched down flawlessly last summer--the fleet now consigned to museums and grounded for eternity. Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (the crew of Apollo 11) would probably be amazed if you told them at the height of the Cold War in 1969 that the only way a U.S. astronaut could get to the International Space Station in 2012 was to hitch an expensive ride with the Russians. History moves quickly. In addition to Neil Armstrong's passing on Aug. 25, U.S. space pioneer Sally Ride died on July 23. Sally Ride became the first U.S. woman in space in 1983, smashing a lofty glass ceiling. The Russians put their first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) in space in 1963. Also in 1983, the U.S. not only broke the gender barrier in space but also the color barrier as Guy Bluford became the first African-American to enter orbit (we did beat the rest of the world on that pursuit). Hard times or no, Americans have always been passionate explorers and there will be others farther down the line (I hope one of those little kids at Space Camp) who Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride would be proud to call a U.S. astronaut. Now back to our atmosphere for the LeConte weather report. Friday's high was 72, the hottest day since Aug. 2. It felt warmer than that because the air was stagnant for much of the day. The low was 54, and we totaled 0.04 inches of rain. We still need some more rain (and have received a couple of short showers on Saturday), but every little bit helps keep the spring flowing. Happy trails. |
LeConte LodgeWelcome to the official blog of LeConte Lodge. We hope you find the information provided here both helpful and enjoyable. Thank you for visiting the site, and we hope to see you on the mountain! Archives
March 2024
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