A patch of Flat in a world of Mountain

Obligatory mountain shot, with help from Photoshop.

 Visited Cataloochee in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee on Thursday. At one time a bustling little mountain neighborhood with more than 1,200 people, the town was home to farmers and apple growers, as well as those who boarded tourists and other visitors.  It's hard to imagine grinding out  a living in this beautiful but rugged patch of Flat surrounded by a world of Mountain.

The Cataloochee school.

The town is in the middle of the mountains with no easy way to get there except for the winding, 65-mile drive-- sometimes a gravel, single lane road-- from Gatlinburg or 35 miles from Cherokee. Many of the old buildings have been preserved, including homes, a school and a couple churches.

Quiet streams slide down the mountainside.

The Palmer home is still papered--somewhat lightly because of vandals-- with newspapers writing about president William Howard Taft, who was president in 1909.

A bull chase

Within the last 10 years, the Park Service released more than 50 elk into the area, and elk viewing has become almost a sport in the late afternoon and evenings. Animal lovers bring their lawn chairs, sit on their cars or trucks and observe the elk, guessing which bull has the gumption to chase the others away from the females. Their bugling is heard throughout the valley.