- May 18, 2001
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Yesterday a buddy and I hiked to a place called Lost Cove.
This is the only reference I can find to Lost Cove on the whole internet.
Lost Cove was a small ghost town close to the town where I live in Tennessee. It is located high in the Appalachian Mountains in a very inaccessible place on top of a mountain. I don't know how old it was, but local legend says that several families lived there for many years, until the 1950's when the local railroad line quit dropping off supplies for the residents. When this happened, the people left, leaving behind most of their possessions (furniture, dishes, etc.)
I have been hiking to Lost Cove since I was a child with my Dad. In its best days, it was really something neat and kind of spooky to see. There were several houses that were in good repair, a small community cemetery, a couple of rusting trucks, and some of the personal belongings that were left behind. In my opinion, it was a historic area that really needed government preservation and protection. Going there was like stepping back to a lifestyle that people haven't lived in 100 years.
But even when I first started going there, it was apparent that there were idiot rednecks who were willing to make the long hike just so they could misspell their names on the houses, or throw their beer cans into the local (otherwise pristine) creeks. Gradually the houses began to really show the wear and tear from the constant battery they gave them. Some of the houses were deliberately torn down piece by piece by the souvenir collectors.
Until yesterday, the last time I had been to Lost Cove was around 1992 or 1993. Back then, the village was still mostly intact. It greatly saddened me to make the climb up the mountain to discover that all the remaining buildings except for two had been burned to the ground. Someone had deliberately set them afire in their drunken idiocy.
A piece of history is forever gone. This was a thoughtless, stupid crime, and I hope that justice in some form meets up with those who committed it.
This is the only reference I can find to Lost Cove on the whole internet.
Lost Cove was a small ghost town close to the town where I live in Tennessee. It is located high in the Appalachian Mountains in a very inaccessible place on top of a mountain. I don't know how old it was, but local legend says that several families lived there for many years, until the 1950's when the local railroad line quit dropping off supplies for the residents. When this happened, the people left, leaving behind most of their possessions (furniture, dishes, etc.)
I have been hiking to Lost Cove since I was a child with my Dad. In its best days, it was really something neat and kind of spooky to see. There were several houses that were in good repair, a small community cemetery, a couple of rusting trucks, and some of the personal belongings that were left behind. In my opinion, it was a historic area that really needed government preservation and protection. Going there was like stepping back to a lifestyle that people haven't lived in 100 years.
But even when I first started going there, it was apparent that there were idiot rednecks who were willing to make the long hike just so they could misspell their names on the houses, or throw their beer cans into the local (otherwise pristine) creeks. Gradually the houses began to really show the wear and tear from the constant battery they gave them. Some of the houses were deliberately torn down piece by piece by the souvenir collectors.
Until yesterday, the last time I had been to Lost Cove was around 1992 or 1993. Back then, the village was still mostly intact. It greatly saddened me to make the climb up the mountain to discover that all the remaining buildings except for two had been burned to the ground. Someone had deliberately set them afire in their drunken idiocy.
A piece of history is forever gone. This was a thoughtless, stupid crime, and I hope that justice in some form meets up with those who committed it.
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