Treasures Along US 70

Fog hangs heavy over East Tennessee this morning. We can just see the trees as silhouettes across the way on the mountain that is the eastern rim of the Cumberland Plateau. We made it to the hotel last night in time to watch the sunset over the mountains after a full day on the Plateau.

We left the Garden Inn and came back to 70 on through tree tunnels that cover twisty-turny highway 84 for a lovely summer morning drive.


Heading out of Sparta, our first stop was the Rock House, an old stop on the stage coach route across Tennessee. Stories say that at night whoever was at the stop after dark would go into the attic and pull up the ladder and close the door because of the dangers from vagabonds and bandits.

Both President Jackson and President Polk stopped at this place.


Our next planned stop was at the Pioneer Hall Museum in Pleasant Hill. Unfortunately it was not open on Tuesday. It is located in an old, three story building that was once part of Pleasant Hill Academy, a mission school established in 1884 by missionaries from the Congregational Church. Pleasant Hill now has a large retirement village, nursing home, and assisted living facility.

As we headed through hay fields and wild flowers toward Crossville, we marveled again at the blue chicory and the White Queen Anne's Lace. Just before town, we pulled into the parking lot of the Cumberland Playhouse to get tickets for the afternoon performance of Tennessee USA. Next we headed to central town and stopped at the rail road depot where Sgt. York returned from heroic duty in World War I.




We had lunch at the Fifth Street Diner which filled up while we were there. The floor had been painted with copies of old art masterpieces. We sat on a Cezanne and next to Van Gogh's "Starry Night."




After lunch we drove out to the Homestead Tower Museum where we climbed the steep 97 stairs to the top to gaze out over the Cumberland Plateau. After we caught our breath, we climbed down and read the exhibits about this FDR project of building homes and relocating families.










There were projects all over the country, but most of them did not work as well as this one did. The homes were quite well built by local people and most of them still stand. One of the houses is part of the museum, but is located several miles away. It was built before electricity was available, but it was plumbed for running water and wired for electricity which came a few years later. The guide at the house had grown up in one of the houses and told us that several years ago when a tornado touched down all the houses around the exhibited house were pretty much destroyed. The homestead house, made of local stone, still stood.


The pleasantly cool theater at the Cumberland Playhouse was a good place to be on a hot afternoon. The production of Tennessee USA was well done. The music was good, the history was interesting, and the dancing was lively. Klep enjoyed it although musicals are not his forte.

We headed toward our reserved room near Kingston, crossed into the eastern time zone, left the plateau, and entered East Tennessee. Our experiences on this trip have been memorable so far. We look forward to seeing what today has in store.