The Caughron Family: Cades Cove’s Last Life-Lease Era

It is easy to look across the open fields of Cades Cove and imagine that family life there belongs to the distant past. The Caughron story reminds us that it does not. Their connection to the valley continued well into living memory, long after the national park was established and most families had moved away.

Kermit Caughron and the life-lease era

When land was acquired for the national park, some Cades Cove residents accepted life leases that allowed them to remain under National Park Service restrictions. Historical landscape documentation identifies Kermit Caughron as the last remaining life tenant with a lease to graze cattle in Cades Cove. He died in 1999.

The Cove was still home

That is what makes the family’s story so important. Cades Cove was not simply a pioneer settlement that ended all at once. Farming, cattle, family knowledge, and the everyday use of the land continued while the school, stores, and post office closed and the old community slowly changed around the people who remained.

What remains for visitors

The National Park Service manages Cades Cove as a historic landscape. Cabins, churches, barns, cemeteries, fields, and the gristmill represent different parts of community life; they should not be interpreted as the story of only one family or one moment in time.

Explore the documented history

Continue with our Cades Cove History guide, settlement history, and Loop Road guide.

Sources

• National Park Service: History of Cades Cove
• National Park Service historical landscape documentation