“Under the Apple Trees”, an original play by Duay O’Neil, is playing in Cosby at Carver’s Orchard April 24, 7:00 p.m., April 25, 7:00 p.m., and Sunday afternoon, April 26, 3 p.m. Tickets are $10.00.

This is an outdoor performance, weather permitting, or we go to the apple barn if the skies are inclement. Rain or shine, the show goes on.

The set is an old log cabin. There are 31 members of the cast. The story is of the Carver Family, early settlers in the area, and their journey to their present orchard 75 years ago when the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was formed and their land was bought by the park.

Mountain music opens and closes the show with Dave McClary on the old time banjo with his band. Seven of the Carver family are cast members.

If you enjoy storytelling and lore of the mountains, you will feel as though you have gone backstage yourself…not behind the set, but backstage into the memories of the Carver family from before the Civil War, through the depression, and to the years they left their home in the Park and resettled at the present orchard site. Secrets are shared.

My reaction to the play was to call my aunt the day after opening night April 17th and ask for some more of her stories. She is 88 and I want to know all that she can remember, not just from her lifetime, but from the stories she heard as a child from her grandmother.

Janice Haynes
Creekwalk Inn Bed and Breakfast and Cabins at Whisperwood Farm, Great Smoky Mountains, Cosby, TN

Gatlinburg bed and breakfast Great Smoky Mountains Ramsey Cascade Waterfall

The Great Smoky Mountains is my home. My inn is nestled in a little valley, in a little town that doesn’t even have a mayor, or any incorporation. Yet I am within 20 minutes of 4 Great Smoky Mountain National Park entrances and I love to hike.

I am just 30 minutes from Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This photo is one of the challenging hikes for my inn guests who are fit and ambitious…eight miles round trip to a gorgeous waterfall, Ramsey Cascade, in the Greenbrier section of the Smokies, between Cosby and Gatlinburg. I love to pack lunches for my hiking guests. The last thing I want for them is for hunger to strike when they could be relaxing on the top of a mountain or at the foot of a waterfall. This photo was sent in by one of my guests. I love the stories at night of the trail. I have hiked from Cades Cove to Cosby and then on to Hot Springs, NC, planning day trips. I love winter hiking. Right now the spring flowers are leaping out of the ground. We have trilliums, mayapples and flocks up everywhere along the creek bank next to our bed and breakfast. I grew up in New Hampshire in the same beautiful chain of mountains, just moved south to a different climate. I’ve been in the south since I was 10. The plants in the park are the same, the teaberry leaves to chew that taste like wintergreen. I chewed them as a child and still love to crunch the leaves and make sure it is the right plant so I don’t poison myself, then have woods candy, as I told my children when they were little, too.
We have waterfalls all over the park and the spring rains make wonderful sprays of water, even more magnificent than the summer falls.

Janice Haynes
Pedestrian (hiker), innkeeper, Creekwalk Inn
Great Smoky Mountains, Cosby, Tennessee