Brigitte Grisanti Gatlinburg's Name

Nestled in the valley of the Little Pigeon River's West Prong and surrounded on three sides by the majestic Great Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg has evolved from a rural hamlet to a thriving gateway community.


Settled in the early 1800s, it was called White Oak Flats for the abundant native white oak trees covering the landscape. It is believed that a middle-aged widow, Martha Jane Huskey Ogle, was the first official settler here. She came with her family to start a new life in what her late husband described as a "Land of Paradise" in East Tennessee. Soon after, the familiar family names McCarter, Reagan, Whaley, and Trentham took up residence along local streams and hollows.

There are many stories as to how Gatlinburg got its name, all involving a controversial figure who settled here in 1854. Radford C. Gatlin opened the town's second general store, and when the town's new post office was established there in 1856, the town's name was changed from White Oak Flats to Gatlinburg. By all accounts, Mr. Gatlin was a flamboyant preacher, establishing his own "Gatlinite" Baptist Church. He was a democrat in a republican community, and for reasons which remain unclear, he was eventually banished from the area. But he had the last laugh: the city still bears his name.


http://www.gatlinburg.com/things-to-do/culture-history/