Burial Landscapes

Headstone in Cable Cemetery, Cades Cove.

Photo by NPS.

The park's historic cemeteries are important examples of the park's early landscape, linking contemporary Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a rich historical legacy. Cemeteries are essential elements of the park's collective history, providing fascinating insight into past burial customs, religious beliefs, cultural and ethnic influences, community origins and development, and landscape design principles. Although virtually every remnant from the beginnings of a community in the park may be lost, cemeteries often remain as some of the last tangible links to the past.