At the beginning of our stay, we visited an early 1900s drug store and the museum of a famous canning company. On this day, even though it may not have been at the top of his list, my husband gladly went along with my idea to visit a salt and pepper museum. After a thirty minute drive to Gatlinburg and with the help of our GPS, we found the small museum. As one may expect, the building housed a massive collection of salt and pepper shakers. What I didn’t expect was one person having a collection of over 20,000 salt and pepper shaker sets with another collection, the same size, at a second location in Spain. The owner began collecting pepper mills in 1984, but soon turned to collecting salt and pepper shakers. She opened the first location in Cosby, TN in 2002, but moved to Gatlinburg three years later. Her Alicante, Spain location opened in 2010.

Shakers made of glass, pottery, china, plastic, silver and tin were organized in various ways, mostly by theme. We were amused with the shakers that had fun features such as wind-up robots. The most creative designs were not the average shakers with holes in the top. Instead of handles on the drawers on a treadle sewing machine, there were tiny holes with S on one and P on the other. Each shaker slid out like opening a drawer. The beaters in an old-style white electric mixer were the shaker. The rollers on a wringer washing machine and two drawers on a cash register were, you guessed it, salt and pepper shakers. Mercedes Benz, Jaguar and MG Midget salt and pepper sets were part of a car display. The Smokey the Bear display, or as renamed in recent years, Smokey Bear, was a little sobering to see. The bears stood with buckets or shovels in hand around two melted blobs of glass with rusty caps. A nearby label read “2016 Gatlinburg Wildfire Survivors.”

The set I found most fascinating was a glow in the dark set, made of uranium or Vaseline glass, which was popular from the 1880s until the 1920s. This set let off a fluorescent lime green glow when a button was pushed to light a bulb beneath them. The sign said the emissions from the glass were slightly stronger than what a person receives when standing in sunlight.

Over 1,000 new salt and pepper shaker sets were offered in the outer room with the museum’s three dollar admission fee applied to any purchase. For some reason, pictures could not be taken in this area, but were welcome in the museum. Almost anything one could imagine was likely displayed in salt and pepper form at The Museum of Salt and Pepper Shakers.

A boulder-strewn creek borders Chimney’s Picnic Area in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Photos by Beverly Kehe-Rowland

Since we were staying on the cusp of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we were able to visit the park a few times. On the first visit, we traveled on a paved road that followed an abandoned railroad bed. Timber had been moved over the rails in the early 1900s. Along the way we stopped at The Sinks, an area on Little River with a man-made waterfall. The river was used to float timber to the mills before there were trains in that area. During a flood in the late 1800s, loggers used dynamite to free a massive log jam formed in a bend of the river. The explosion caused a deep hole creating The Sinks, which altered the course of the river.

Although The Sinks was a beautiful spot, three warning signs were posted in the area. In large letters, the first sign warned of drownings and spelled out with many words how the dangerously strong currents can push swimmers beneath hidden underwater ledges. It told how very strong swimmers could not break free and pleaded with the reader to not allow themselves or a friend or family member to become the next drowning victim. It went onto say that swimming wasn’t recommended anywhere in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and drowning was one of the leading causes of death within. There was even a picture showing highly-skilled teams using specialized equipment and the caption told how they have had to work late into the night to recover the bodies of some drowning victims.

Nearby was a second warning sign. It explained that the river’s smallmouth bass contained levels of contaminants believed to increase the risk of cancer in humans. On the rocks, down near the river’s edge, a third sign warned to take extreme caution because the swift moving water contained strong down currents. It went on to say serious injuries had occurred. Even though these warning signs couldn’t go unnoticed, there were still many young people swimming and diving in this spot.

We drove on to the Cade’s Cove area, possibly in a little more somber mood than when we left our timeshare. The main access to this area is an 11-mile, one-way loop road. Since two million visitors drive this loop every year, it is slow going, but since there is much to see, the motorist has no need to become impatient.

Cade’s Cove was a small community for 100 years prior to its acquisition by the federal government. The National Park was established in the 1934. Many farmers willingly sold their land, but some resisted. Those who agreed to accept less money could remain on their land until they died, but their descendants could not. By 1944, the last school in the Cove was closed because so many families had left. The post office closed in 1947. A few of the houses, barns and churches remain and have been somewhat maintained.

It is not uncommon to see many forms of wildlife and on the day we drove through the cove we saw a mother black bear with two cubs. It is estimated that over 1,000 black bears make their home in the Great Smokies. When the vehicles on the loop road slow to a snail’s pace, it is a sure sign there is wildlife within view. Numerous pull-offs allow for stopping.

Our second visit to the park took place on a day when a sunny sky held many fluffy white clouds, but it was after the area had received some heavy overnight rain. We had read that Newfound Gap Road was a scenic drive, not that most roads in the Smokies aren’t scenic. We stopped at Chimney’s Picnic area which was bordered by a boulder-strewn river.

As we continued our drive, we came upon an elevated viewing area overlooking Newfound Gap. After climbing 15-20 stone steps, we discovered the patio was flooded with five to six-inches of water, so we returned to our minivan and drove on the winding road toward Clingman’s Dome, which is on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. This road is closed between December and March due to snow and winter conditions. We watched the temperature drop as we ascended the highest peak in the Great Smoky Mountains. A steep half-mile paved path led from the parking lot to the top of the Dome, where the elevation is 6,643 feet. The path leads onto a long winding ramp which ends on an observation tower that overlooks the treetops allowing for a breathtaking view.

This was our second time to visit Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It is the most visited of all of the parks in the system. Before the federal government purchased the land, which is almost evenly divided between Tennessee and North Carolina, it was privately owned. Eighteen lumber and pulpwood companies had owned more than 85 percent of the land and had logged two-thirds to three-fourths of it. Only an estimated 30 deer remained at that the time the park was created.

During my first visit to the park, I decided it was my favorite National Park, but in the nine years since, we have visited many more and I have to say the red/orange National Parks of Utah drew me in. I’d also forgotten the beauty of Grand Canyon National Park until I returned five years ago. Each park is beautiful and unique in its own way.

To be continued.