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Trip into the Smokies with Horace Kephart

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  • Page 3 in 1904 to live in a little cabin he fixed up for himself on Sugar Fork. It was not very far from Jack's house on Hazel Creek. Sugar Fork runs into Hazel Creek some distance below Jack's place. Mr. Kephart lived alone there for three or more years in that little cabin, and I think it was while he was there that he wrote his book "Our Southern Highlanders". That cabin was on land that was owned, at that time, by my family, the Westfeldts, of Rugby Grange near Fletcher, N. C. (in Henderson County). That Swain mountain land had been bought by my grandfather, George Westfeldt, back in 1869 or 1870 at a very low cost. There were about three thousand acres, I think. Jack Coburn for many years was our agent, as well as our friend, out in Swain County. There was a famous lawsuit over a small portion of the Westfeldt land, really over a copper mine located on Sugar Fork in a very isolated spot near Mr. Kephart's cabin. That lawsuit went on for twenty- eight years. It was never settled in court and finally the Westfeldt land was all taken into the Smoky Park by Uncle Sam, There is a picture in Mr. Kephart's book, "Our Southern Highlanders", of that old Westfeldt-Adams copper mine. There could be a long story written about that Westfeldt-Adams lawsuit. More about it later. Jack Coburn owned a large tract of land on Hazel Creek which is now, I understand, in the Smoky Park. He also had a lot of land on the Little Tennessee River which was taken over by the T.V.A. Jack was a large land owner. Well, to get back to our trip with Mr. Kephart. We started out early the next morning for the Hall Cabin, going up the Bone Valley. It was a long and, in spots, a rough and steep trail - quite thrilling to us. I shot a rattler on the way and killed it by pure luck. It
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).