Walland, Tennessee

In October 1567, the Juan Pardo expedition is believed to have crossed Little River at what is now Walland. The expedition arrived from the east via Reed Creek and headed west along Hesse Creek, traversing part of Chilhowee Mountain and Happy Valley en route to the village of "Chalahume" on the Little Tennessee River.^[6]

By the time Euro-American settlers arrived in the area in the 1780s, Miller's Cove was part of a vast Cherokee hunting ground. Along with fertile land typical of any limestone cove, the various Cherokee trails in the vicinity drew the first settlers to Miller's Cove in the late 18th century. The Great Indian Warpath passed through Maryville to the north, and the Tuckaleechee and Southeastern Trail forked in Tuckaleechee Cove to the south.^[7] The Overhill Cherokee villages of Chilhowee and Tallassee lay the other end of Chilhowee Mountain.

The first Euro-American settlers arrived in Blount County around 1785, during a period when the Cherokee were increasingly resistant to colonial intrusion. Cherokee warriors attempted to repulse the colonists through sporadic attacks in the vicinity of the Warpath, but the foreigners successfully countered them by erecting small defensive forts.

Miller's Cove is probably named after Alexander Miller and his brother, Andrew Miller, who built cabins in the cove sometime around 1800.^[8] A few years before the Millers arrived, Swiss immigrant John Hess built a grist mill in the west end of the cove. He was followed by the Martin family, whose mill was situated in the cove's eastern section. Other early settlers in Miller's Cove included Alexander Reed and John Waters, both of whom arrived before 1810.^[9]

In 1810, Miller's Cove Baptist Church was formed from the division of Tuckaleechee Baptist Church between Miller's Cove and Wear Cove. The church remains one of the oldest congregations in Blount County.^[10]

In 1845, George Amerine (c. 1784–1866) constructed an ironforge on Hess Creek in the western section of Miller's Cove. Using two bloomery fires and a water-driven hammer, Amerine's forge was producing 15 tons of bar iron per year by 1856. At the outset of the Civil War, the forge's operations ceased.^[11]

From the early 19th century onward, Blount County was a hotbed of abolitionist activity, due in large part to the influence of Rev. Isaac Anderson of Maryville College and the Quaker community at Friendsville. When Tennessee voted on whether or not to secede from the Union in 1861, only 24% of Blount Countians voted in favor of secession.^[12]

Miller's Cove was no exception to Blount's pro-Union sentiment. In 1861, after the outbreak of the war, Union supporters held a rally in Miller's Cove, on the grounds of what is now Chilhowee Inn. Residents from the surrounding hills and mountains raised an American flag and saluted it, pledging their loyalty to the United States. Later in the war, when a Confederate Army unit passed through the cove, Maryville Judge Jesse Wallace warned them to leave the flag alone, for "the mountains swarmed with men who were deadly with their rifles."^[13] Heeding the warning, the Confederate soldiers saluted the flag and continued onward.

In 1893, the Walton and England Leather Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sent John W. Fisher to East Tennessee to look for suitable sites to build a tannery. Fisher selected Newport and Miller's Cove, both being accessible via railroad or river, and having access to seemingly endless rows of trees, the bark of which was used in the tanning process. Fisher's son, A.J., managed Walton and England's Miller's Cove tannery, and a small company town developed in the tannery's vicinity. The town was named Walland, which was a fusion of "Walton" and "England."^[14] Fisher's house still stands on Old Walland Highway, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1901, using the railroad Walton and England had constructed between Walland and Maryville, the Schlosser Leather Company initiated an even more ambitious tanning project in Miller's Cove. Using the thick bark from trees harvested in the heavily forested Little River valley, the Schlosser tannery was processing 300 hides per day by 1909.^[15] The tannery allowed Walland to modernize to some extent, bringing electricity, framed houses, and greater railroad access. The company built Chilhowee Inn in 1902 to house executives visiting the tannery,^[16] and helped complete Walland High School in 1922.^[17]

While Schlosser Leather ceased operations in the area after the tannery burned in 1931, Walland was already benefiting from the growth of tourism in the Great Smokies several miles to the south. The Little River Railroad was completed from Walland to Elkmont in the early 20th century by W. B. Townsend's Little River Lumber Company. While initially a logging railroad, the line was offering passenger service to the mountains by 1909. Several resorts sprang up in the vicinity of Miller's Cove, using the health-restoring qualities of mountain springs to lure tourists. These included Montvale Springs, on the other side of Chilhowee Mountain to the north, and Kinzel Springs at the northern tip of Tuckaleechee Cove to the south. With the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934 and the construction of US-321, Walland was able to replace the loss of tannery jobs with income from through-traffic and tourism.

In 1966, one of the first sections of Foothills Parkway was completed across the western crest of Chilhowee Mountain, connecting Walland with Chilhowee Lake. Another section, connecting Walland with Wears Valley, was opened to the public in November 2018 ^[18]