Back to Homepage of Horace Kephart: Revealing an Enigma

Online Exhibit: Hall Cabin

Our Cabin on the Smokies

Blue Line Image of Hall Cabin

Caption from back of Hall Cabin Photograph

Andy with Wild Turkey

Coiled Rattlesnake

Snake at Hall Cabin

Snake nailed to side of Hall Cabin

Topographical Map with Hall Cabin

View from Hall Cabin

View from Hall Cabin

Hall Cabin

While living at Hazel Creek, Horace Kephart reported having spent summers in this herder's cabin on the border between North Carolina and Tennessee along the ridge line of the Great Smoky Mountains. Here, with friends and fellow hunters, Kephart pursued a more frontier like existence filled with dangerous creatures and wild weather patterns.

Hall Cabin takes a prominent place in Kephart's published works and personal album. Kephart seems to have been taken with the isolation provided by Hall Cabin, miles from settlements and the encroachment of civilization.

Follow the links to learn about Hall Cabin and the few remote herder's huts along the crest of the Smokies.

Encounter with a Lost Camper

Kephart describes the Hall Cabin and during an encounter with a camper from Canada who had become lost in the Great Smoky Mountains. In the course of the conversation, he elaborates on similar cabins in the Smokies as well as the dangers of traveling without adequate preparation.

Bear Hunt

Hall Cabin figures prominently in "A Bear Hunt." Here Kephart interweaves the personalities of his companions, regional folklore, and commentary on the natural environment with the narrative account of the hunt.

Skunk Attack

In one of his more humorous accounts, Kephart describes the arrival of a skunk while he and two companions spent the night at a herder's hut. While the unpleasant outcome seems nearly inevitable, the strategies to avoid disaster make a delightful tale.

Inside Hall Cabin

Photographs of Kephart and his friends show far more than the people who shared a summer evening at Hall Cabin. Objects and architecture provide clues to the day to day life.

Snakes at Hall Cabin

Kephart remarked that even at the nearly mile high elevation, rattlesnakes thrived near the remote Hall Cabin. Photographs include live snakes, dead snakes, and snakes as entertainment.

"Blueline" Views from the Summit near Hall Cabin

Kephart laments that his photographs cannot capture the stunning mountain vistas or deep valleys seen from the summit near Hall Cabin. However, this special photograph processing technique casts a distinct haze to the Great Smoky Mountains.

Original spelling and syntax retained in all quotations within this exhibit.

 

Hall Cabin at Twilight

Cooking Dinner

Reflector Oven

Dinner at Hall Cabin

Meat Grinder

Kephart sitting on bunk inside Hall Cabin

Shoes

Kephart's map of Hall Cabin

View from Hall Cabin

View from Hall Cabin