Joel and I love Cades Cove.  Evidentially we aren’t the only ones, because the place boasts about two million visitors a year.

That’s why we try to go in the off season.  When we’re in the Smokies, we go into the cove sometimes twice a day.  A couple of years ago, we hiked its eleven mile loop road.   If you ever get the notion, I highly recommend the walk…just be aware that the last two miles are longer than the first nine put together.

So, we don’t hike those last two anymore.  

Although we go there a lot, there seems to be no end to what you can learn about the place and the people that once called it home.

This time, Tim told us about a tree called the Pearl Harbor Tree, a sweet-gum tree with a tire rim around its trunk.  

We got on line to see if we could find any information about it and its location.  Then…we went into the Cove to look for it.  

On a hill, in a now wooded area that used to be the front yard of the Golman Myers family, stood the tree … straight and tall.

It seems that Golman Myers was listening to his transistor radio when it was announced that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor.  Golman, who had two sons eligible to go to war, went into the woods, pulled up a sweet-gum sapling, and transplanted it in the front yard. He put a tire rim around it so it wouldn’t get run over.  When he was done, all he said was, “We will remember this day forever.”  He was right.

Some years later, one of Golman’s sons had this tag made and chained it to the tree.  

So, if you’re ever in Cades Cove, and you’re not in the mood to hike that eleven mile loop, 

it’s well worth a short walk up a wooded hill to see this piece of history.