February is the month of love. It’s a good time for a month of love in February with the chill of winter still present—almost depressing as the cold, damp days, snow and ice drag on and on. Yet February hangs on the cusp of Spring, too, hinting of sweeter days to come. Valentine’s Day comes right in the middle of February. Everywhere in the stores are hearts and flowers, valentines of every imaginable kind, photos of sweet couples that make us smile, heart necklaces and rings, boxes of chocolate and special love gifts to give to those you care about. It’s hard not to get in the mood for love in February, to dream of sweet times with someone you care about, to relive old memories of meeting that special someone in your life—or wishing you would someday. To get roses or flowers in the middle of winter. To share a special evening on a cold night with someone you love.
February, too—if you’re an author, as I am—is a great month to settle in at the computer to write a new book. And since I write love stories, what month could be more perfect for beginning a new love story? People often ask me: Why do you write romance books? I often want to answer: Why not? The world is so often a painful place, full of sorrows, war, and cruelty. The world desperately needs love and hope and beauty. It needs good clean, decent books, too, about people that could be real in real places they can visit—books that make people feel good. I love a sweet love story, and writing romance is my way of bringing more love and happy endings into the world. I get the same joy and pleasure writing romances as reading them—they give you other lives and a story to get lost in with a happy ending to make you feel good. The world needs books about people who still care about each other, help each other in hard times. They need to read about people in small towns and in larger ones who live clean good lives, people who work hard, contribute to their world. And they need to read about people with a strong, good faith. How can they know that life is good if they never read about it? Paulo Coelho wrote: “Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.”
I, admittedly write what I like to read. I am the only one who can tell my stories—just as you are the only one who can tell yours. My heart and soul pour into every character, every book and story. You learn about me through my books and you can feel my heart. Victor Hugo said: “A writer is a world trapped inside a person.” Through writing, I let those worlds and stories that I love pour out. Although it doesn’t always happen, I think we love the concept that a true love story never ends. Even when we close the pages of a book, in our minds we see the story moving on happily through the years—two hearts finding their happy place beside each other.
It is my joy to tell you that in this month of February, two of my new books go up for sale—probably by mid-month for pre-order … but not actually publishing until the first of April. As has been my practice for the last couple of years, one book will take you visiting to a place in the mountains and the other will take you to the beach. Both are “happy places” for me … and I hope you will enjoy visiting in all the places in my new books and meeting the new characters I’ve created and enjoying the new stories.
In my new Mountain Home book SEEKING AYITA, I’ll be taking you to visit Cherokee, North Carolina, the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee. A lot of work and research went into creating this book. I wanted my book to bring respect to the Cherokee, to tell a story set amid them that would make readers feel like they had visited there. Life, government, and so many aspects of culture are different in Cherokee and the people have their own unique past. My main character Annalise Ayita Silva lives in Hawaii as the book begins. Her Cherokee mother is dying and she begs Annalise to take her ashes back home to her people in Cherokee to be buried. She also presses Annalise to stay for a long visit to learn more about her Cherokee roots and to comfort her grandmother.
Annalise is reluctant to uproot her life with her small daughter to go, but a vow is a vow. So she and Leila soon travel to Cherokee after her mother’s death, to stay with Annalise’s grandmother, Inola Crowe Youngdeer. Annalise soon meets a colorful mix of new family and friends, including Solomon Wolfe. An odd attraction sets up between the two, despite their reasons to avoid one another. And a host of unexpected events and a few mysteries will keep you entertained as you read this story of how Annalise learns more and more about her Cherokee heritage and past. Along with Annalise, you, too, will learn more about the Cherokee and the beautiful mountain area where the Eastern Cherokee live and work at the base of the Great Smoky Mountains….[To read the back cover synopsis for SEEKING AYITA, go to the home page of my website at: http://www.linstepp.com]
My new coastal novel, LIGHTEN MY HEART, is the second in the new Lighthouse Sisters series. The first, LIGHT MY WAY, that you can read, or reread, before the new book comes out, introduces the four sisters who grew up at the Deveaux Inn and Lighthouse on small Watch Island, a part of Edisto Island, South Carolina. The first book was Burke Deveaux’s story. The oldest of the four sisters, Burke had always stayed on the island, helping her parents run the Deveaux Inn and Lighthouse, and her work load had greatly increased with her father’s death. An old friend—and an old secret love—returns to help pick up some of the workload and before the book is over picks up Burke’s heart, as well. In LIGHT THE WAY coincidences and various problems bring all the sisters back together. Lila returns from a religious community after her father dies. Gwen comes home broken-hearted, with three children in tow, because her husband has hurt her heart and betrayed her trust with lies. And Celeste comes back, battered and hurt from her marriage to an abusive husband, who had seemed so charming at the first, even working with her in the entertainment industry.
The second book, LIGHTEN MY HEART, is Gwen’s story. She is angry at her husband Alex Trescott and purposed to make a new life without him. Home with her family at the island, she begins to seek a teaching job somewhere in the area and gratefully gets a job at one of the schools she really liked in Port Royal below Beaufort. Also soon finding a home and place for she and the children to live, all seems to be going well until she runs into Alex in Beaufort and learns he has returned from Arkansas to work at Trescotts Restaurant in his family’s business. Despite Alex’s mistakes, you soon learn he still cares for Gwen and wants her back, but she wants nothing to do with that idea. And so begins the many ups and downs of a couple separated and estranged, trying to find a way to get along for their children’s sake. As you follow their story you’ll wonder if any reconciliation can ever be possible between these two strong-willed, determined people. Along the way in this story, too, you’ll love re-meeting family and friends on the island, and at the Deveaux Inn, and traveling to visit Beaufort and the small, historic town of Port Royal. I have a feeling you’ll find yourself wanting to visit this charming and colorful city the next time you’re at the South Carolina coast and that you’ll find yourself watching for the characters in this series to come walking down the street.. … [To read the back cover synopsis for LIGHTEN MY HEART, go to the front page of my author’s website at: http://www.linstepp.com]
May you find pleasure in both these books and look forward to reading them. A favorite quote of mine is “Books are the way I go home with people” … and I look forward to going home and visiting with you soon through these two new stories.
See you in March … Lin
Note: All photos my own, from royalty free sites, or used only as a part of my author repurposed storyboards shown only for educational and illustrative purposes, acc to the Fair Use Copyright law, Section 107 of the Copyright Act
Early celebrations of what we now know as Christmas had a mix of spiritual and worldly origins. The word “Christmas” means Christ’s Mass from the term “Christes Maesse” first recorded in 1038. Christmas then, and now ,is primarily about the birth of God’s Son, Jesus, and about how He came to give hope, love, and joy to the world. The exact date of Jesus’ birth isn’t known, but one legend says that since Mary was told she’d have Jesus on March 25th (the Annunciation), that the date came from nine months after that date, December 25th. Other cultures, many pagan ones, also had festivals during this Winter Solstice period and the Jewish people celebrated Hanukkah in this season, too. With so many holidays in the same time period, many ways of celebrating the Christmas season merged together over time and now the holiday holds many mixed traditions and meanings.
LIVE NATIVITY SCENES – In 1223 St. Francis of Assisi created the first live nativity scene to bring Jesus’ birth scene to life. He got permission from the Pope to set up a manger scene. Today live nativities are set up in churches and communities during the holidays. Often the nativity is re-enacted with costumed figures, live animals, music, and a narration of the Bible story,
SANTA CLAUS – The story of Santa begins with St Nicholas, a Christian bishop, in the fourth century in Asia Minor. Many miracles and kindnesses were attributed to him. St. Nicholas sacrificially gave money and gifts to the poor. Legend tells that to save three sisters from being sold into prostitution, because they had no marriage dowries, Nicholas threw gold coins into the open window of their home in the night. This act of generosity, embellished over time in the telling, led to children hanging up stockings by the fireplace in hopes of receiving gifts from St. Nick. Early Santas, based on bishops like St.Nicholas, wore long robes of red or white.
CHRISTMAS STOCKINGS – Christmas stockings are linked back to the St. Nicholas story. The first stockings hung by the chimney or on a bedpost belonged to the children but over time Christmas stockings became much more elaborate and the gifts tucked into them more luxurious than simply an orange, a few nuts, and a peppermint stick. In America, Clement Clark Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” and the lines about Santa filling the children’s stockings and then rising up the chimney popularized the hanging of stockings all the more. That poem also solidified Santa’s image as a jolly man in a red suit, flying through the air on a sleigh. Artist Thomas Nest furthered these images in the U.S. with his cheerful paintings of Santa and Mrs. Claus on Cocas-Cola ads.
CHRISTMAS WREATHS – A German Lutheran pastor gets the credit for the Christmas wreaths we hang on our doors. Europeans had long been decorating with evergreens, but Joahann Wicern created a circular-shaped evergreen to represent eternal life. He hung it on the door during Advent with a candle in the wreath to represent Jesus, the light of the world. The idea caught on and many later added more advent candles to their holiday wreaths, with the idea soon spreading to other countries. Each part of the wreath holds a Christian symbolism, but many simply hang up wreaths for decoration. Holiday wreaths can be hung on doors, placed on tables, or worn on the head like a crown.
CHRISTMAS CARDS – Christmas cards began with the same purpose they have today—as a way to stay in touch with friends and family. Back in 1843, as the holidays began, Sir Henry Cole in England wanted to send holiday greetings to friends but wanted to avoid writing individual notes and letters. So he had a thousand illustrated cards made, and then sent them out. His idea caught on and was quickly replicated by others. New advances in printing soon made the production of Christmas cards even easier. By the 1850s Christmas cards were in full swing in England and they became popular in the U.S. in the late 1800s – early 1900s when mailing became less expensive and when offset printing made cards much easier to produce.
MISTLETOE – The kissing tradition of mistletoe originated from an old Norse legend. When a Norse god’s son was killed by a spear of mistletoe, his mother decreed the plant would never be used again as a weapon and would become instead a symbol of love. She also vowed to bestow a kiss on anyone who walked underneath it, so naturally people would stand under the mistletoe to try to get a kiss – just as they do today. The writings of Charles Dickens in Victorian England brought the practice into even more popularity, making the mistletoe a widely used holiday decoration.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS – Music and song have always played a part in any celebration, and the first Christmas carols are said to be the angels’ songs at Jesus birth. The earliest carols after this were hymns, with spiritual messages, like “Silent Night,” “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing.” These were later followed by more secular, fun-loving holiday songs and carols like “Jingle Bells,” “Deck the Hall,” and “Here Comes Santa Claus.” Some carols, like the “12 Days of Christmas” have hidden meanings. One theory says this carol was used in a time when Christians were punished for worshiping openly and that each gift on the list symbolized a different aspect of the Christian faith … like the “4 Calling birds” representing the four gospels and the “10 Lords a Leaping” the Ten Commandments.
HOLIDAY MOVIES – Plays in the theatre were the first dramas enacted for the Christmas holiday season – nativity plays and spiritual performances, dramas, and song and dance productions. The first Christmas movie, a short English film, aired in 1898 called Santa Claus. The earliest Scrooge movie followed in 1901 and then others like The Bells of St Mary’s, Miracle on 34th Street, and It’s a Wonderful Life. Movies full of song and dance soon became popular, as well, like Holiday Inn, Christmas in Connecticut, and White Christmas. Movies in color and the invention of television brought even more Christmas movies our way. Each year new favorites emerge—How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, Elf, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Scrooged, The Polar Express, and many more. The best holiday movies make your heart grow sweeter at a giving time of year and linger in your memory for the rest of the year.
CHRISTMAS SWEETS – No holiday season would be complete without special sweets and desserts and many have been long associated with Christmas, like the Fruitcake. This traditional cake dates back to ancient Rome, continuing into Europe, Many of our other traditional favorites came from the British, too, like Egggnog, a hot drink of milk, eggs, nutmeg and cinnamon. It evolved in England as “posset,” a drink for the wealthy but gradually became a tradition for all in the 1700s. Gingerbread Men came from England, also, and were introduced by Queen Elizabeth I. She used a mold to shape the gingerbread men which were then decorated. Soon elaborate gingerbread houses followed, like many we see today.
CANDY CANES – Sweet candy canes date back to 1670 Germany. An old legend says the choir masters at one of the German cathedrals handed out white sugar sticks, bent into the shapes of shepherds’ crooks, to keep his young singers quiet during the Living Creche ceremony. By the 1700s, pulled sugars and candy canes were all the rage in Europe. They made their way to America in the mid 1800s when a German immigrant decorated a Christmas tree with paper ornaments and homemade candy canes. When mass production took off in the 20th century, so did the production of candy canes—now the No. 1 selling non-chocolate candy sold in December.
TREE ORNAMENTS – Christmas trees, since their earliest times, were decorated with lights and ornaments, usually candles, plus a few homemade ornaments, a string of cranberries or popcorn, and some sweets. Over time, ornaments became more lavish for those who could afford them. The first glass Christmas ornaments were created in the late 1500s in a German glassworks factory. The ornate glass ornaments came in the shapes of globes, animals, angels, birds, and acorns, often with special meanings. Popularity and demand for the ornaments grew over time, until other countries began to create their own tree ornaments. Eventually many types of ornaments became fashionable, made of glass, wood, plastic, and other materials. Now the making of Christmas ornaments, blown glass balls, collectibles of all kinds, strings of lights and beads, tinsel, angels and elaborate tree toppers is a huge international business.
THE CHRISTMAS PICKLE – Many humorous ornaments have also been created to hang on the Christmas tree as well as lovely collectibles. One I enjoyed reading about was the Christmas Pickle Ornament, a green, usually glass, ornament shaped like a pickle. According to the story, in the 1800s when a Woolworth’s retailer received a shipment of these pickle ornaments from Europe, he decided he needed a sales pitch to market and get rid of the odd ornaments. So he came up with a story idea that the “pickle” ornament should be added to the tree on Christmas eve night and that the first child, or adult if there were no children, to spot it on Christmas morning got to open the first present. The idea took off and the Pickle Ornament is still a loved tradition in many homes.
ELF ON THE SHELF – Every year new ideas begin, weaving their way into becoming beloved holiday traditions. The Elf on the Shelf is one of those. Carol Aebersold used to entertain her twin daughters growing up with a story she’d made up of an elf hiding in the house, watching daily and then heading back to the North Pole at night to report to Santa about whether the girls were being “naughty” or “nice.” Carol’s daughters, when grown, encouraged her to write their tradition into a book for others to enjoy. She did, with their help, but after countless publisher rejections, Carol and her daughters decided to self-publish 5000 boxed sets of the book with an elf doll tucked into each. They traveled, marketing the books out of their car, and the elf on the shelf idea soon took off. Now Carol and her girls have a multi-million-dollar business, with more than one elf book released and with their story having been made into a a favorite Christmas season movie.
Each state and every city in the U.S. has its own distinct history. Tennessee, and my hometown of Knoxville, is no exception, and J.L. and I have been reading lately about Knoxville’s early history. This last week we visited Blount Mansion, the home of U.S. Constitution signer William Blount, appointed by George Washington as the first governor for the Southwest Territory. The home, beautifully maintained, is now a National Historic Landmark. Blount Mansion is also Knoxville’s only National Historic Landmark and the city’s oldest operating museum.
Backing up a little bit to earlier history, first settlers came exploring into what is now East Tennessee in the 1500s and 1600s. Then in the 1700s, English and French settlers began to venture into the area to settle. Following treaties with the Cherokee, more settlers soon followed. The founder of Knoxville, James White (1747-1821) – a relative of mine through the Whites in my family line – came to the Knoxville area in the 1780s. Service in the Revolutionary War earned him a land grant of one-thousand acres along the Tennessee River in what is now downtown Knoxville. White built his home, a two-story log cabin, high on the hill above the Tennessee River on what is now Hill Avenue. He later added other structures around the original house and then enclosed all with a fort or stockade fence in 1786. The James White Fort became a central point for travelers and traders. In 1790 the fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory, which existed from 1790-1796.
Several candidates were suggested for governor of the new Southwest Territory, but President George Washington chose William Blount, a NC Constitutional Convention delegate and past NC state legislator, who had earlier promoted the settlement of the area. Blount was sworn in at Mount Vernon in 1790. William Blount chose James White’s fort as the capital of the new territory and in 1791 White’s son-in-law Charles McClung created a plat of lots for the new city, which they named Knoxville after William Blount’s superior in the war department, General Henry Knox. James White sold the land and donated the lots for the permanent city of Knoxville. He also donated land for the First Presbyterian Church and cemetery and for Blount College, which later became the University of Tennessee. Also In 1791, the Treaty of Holston was negotiated with the Cherokee, encouraging further settlement of the new territory and capital. Supreme power of the territory rested with the governor, William Blount—a vast responsibility.
William Blount and his wife, Mary Grainger “Molsey” Blount, were both aristocracy in North Carolina, born of prominent families. The couple had nine children. Mary wasn’t impressed with the idea of moving to a log cabin in a primitive territory and insisted her husband build her a proper house if she moved to follow him to the new Southwest Territory. William heeded her desires and built her Blount Mansion, a fine two-storied home with beautiful glass windows. The Cherokee in the area had never seen windows like these and called the home the ‘house of many eyes.’
On our tour of Blount Mansion, we were led through all the downstairs rooms of the main house. William and Mary Blount’s bedroom had a lovely draped bed which looked so small and narrow compared to our beds today. Our guide Patsy explained how servants tightened the ropes of the bed every day – which is where the words “sleep tight” came from. And because the mattress was stuffed with straw, that often needed to be refreshed, the term “don’t let the bed bugs bite” originated – not always in humor! A spinner’s weasel in the home that hanks of yard could be wound on would “pop” when full, giving us the term “pop goes the weasel.”
J.L. was fascinated, too, with a deck of cards on the table with the suits shown, that we know, but with no numbers as we are used to. I read later that numbers weren’t added to cards until the early 1900s. The home was filled with items, like these, that all held a story of past times. We were surprised to see how many clever tools and gadgets were created, even in that time, for snuffing out candles, lighting a cigar, tightening a woman’s stays, or helping with a shave.
I’m sure William and Mary’s slaves didn’t have an easy life taking care of all the meals, laundry, cleaning, and care with so few conveniences as we know today. Yet in the kitchen, as in other rooms of the house, were many clever gadgets and tools to help get the work jobs done more efficiently. All of these like candle molds, roasters for meat, elaborate cookie molds, and a clever gadget for toasting bread were fun to learn about.
J.L. and I really enjoyed our tour of this beautiful old home and so enjoyed learning about its history. As well as serving as a home, Blount Mansion was an office and headquarters for the Southwest Territory. A building outside was William Blount’s office with chairs, desks, an early American flag, decanters for liquor, old quill pens, ink pots, spectacles, and framed documents of importance on the wall. There is a big copy of the Constitution in Blount’s office … and you can look and find his, and others, signatures there. The desk in the photo was especially significant as this is the desk where the papers were signed to later create the state of Tennessee which became the nation’s sixteenth state on June 1st, 1796.
Over time, as often happens with historic homes, the Blount Mansion became neglected and in the 1920s was scheduled to be leveled and demolished for a parking lot. Mary Boyce Temple (1856-1929) was responsible for saving the structure. Mary, a prominent woman in Knoxville, was also the founder and regent of the Bonny Kate Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution at that time. She helped launch the preservation movement to save Blount Mansion and raised $35,000 to purchase the home in 1925 and save it from destruction. The women of Knoxville have had a lot to do with preserving and keeping Blount Mansion for all to enjoy and most of the volunteers who give tours of the historic home are women.
In 1934, the Knoxville Garden Club worked to develop a garden at Blount Mansion. The Garden Club engaged Alden Hopkins, Williamsburg’s garden landscaper and later William Pitkin, an early landscape artist, tp create the plans for the garden and to finish the work of the gardens to be like Blount Mansion’s gardens would have been in the 1700s-1800s. The Knoxville Garden Club has continued to care for the gardens at Blount Mansion ever since, for over ninety years, and Blount Mansion’s gardens are a little green oasis in Knoxville’s downtown. Weddings and special events are often held here and the Knoxville Garden Club also does educational programs here.
In 1957, the city purchased and saved the 1818 Craighead Jackson House, that sits adjacent to Blount Mansion on Hill Avenue, renovated it and opened it as the new visitor center and event arena for Blount Mansion. This is the first stop for visitors who come to see this historic site. There is a fee to tour the historic home, its out buildings and gardens, and the tour begins at the Visitor Center, starting with a film and look around a small historic room. Then the tour guide leads everyone from the visitor center to the front of the home, saying goodbye to them at the end of the tour at the back gate of the house.
If you live in or near the Knoxville area and are interested in its history, I would encourage you to visit Blount Mansion—and perhaps the James White Fort, also on Hill Avenue just down the street. Both are interesting …J.L. and I have visited and toured both and learned a lot about our city in its early days and its leaders. The address for Blount Mansion is 2oo West Hill Avenue in downtown Knoxville and you will find information about the home’s hours, tour times, fees, and directions at the Blount Mansion website at: 
The Appalachian Museum in Clinton, Tennessee, about 16-20 miles north of Knoxville, is not just a single museum building but a 65-acre historic property containing an authentic Appalachian village, display buildings, a museum, and farm grounds. The wonderful collection of early 1900s Appalachian artifacts and pioneer buildings were collected by John Rice Irwin over much of his lifetime. We’ve always admired the legacy John created to let people walk through and enjoy a historic mountain village and farm and to come for events throughout the year to see how life was lived in earlier days.
I met the founder of the Appalachian Museum, John Rice Irwin, many years ago when bringing our young children to the annual school days at the Museum’s Tennessee Fall Homecoming event. Later J.L. and I attended the Homecoming as regional authors—sitting under the big outdoor tent with author friends like Sam Venable and Bill Landry. We always enjoyed the old-time demonstrations, Bluegrass music, and mountain crafters. We also loved the costumed historic characters at the event—like General Robert E. Lee in the photo. Many of these wonderful traditions continue in the Museum’s Fall Heritage Days.
John Rice Irwin (1930-2022) was a historian, storyteller, musician, and educator, as well as the founder of the Appalachian Museum, He lived his early life on a farm taken by TVA to build Norris Dam, then near Oak Ridge until the government also took that land in the Manhattan Project, and finally, for most of his life, on the family farm in Norris. From an early age John held an interest in old things and old ways. His grandfather told him stories of past times and suggested he should collect and ‘keep the old-timey things that belonged to our people and start a museum someday.’
After high school and time in the Army, John went to Lincoln Memorial University on the GI bill and later to the University of Tennessee for his masters. At LMU, he met and later married Elizabeth McDaniel, and they had two daughters, Karen and Elaine. John taught public school and college for a time before becoming the youngest superintendent of schools in Anderson County, a position he held for thirty-eight years. In his free time John remembered the words of his grandfather and began traveling the backroads of Southern Appalachia collecting “old-timey things” and the stories about them. In the early 1960s John bought his first historic cabin, the General Bunch House, and placed it on his farm property. Soon he was adding more structures, cabins, and barns and more and more artifacts.
John Rich Irwin operated the Museum himself until 2003 when it became a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit organization and later a Smithsonian Affiliate. Besides amassing the collections of the Museum, John lectured and shared about historic subjects, wrote books on Appalachian history, and was the recipient of many prestigious awards. John, who passed away in January 2022 at 91, dedicated his life to preserving the rich heritage of Southern Appalachia’s people, and now his daughter Elaine Irwin Meyer and her husband Will Meyer, along with their family, continue to carry on his legacy. John called it ‘only natural that he should want to preserve the history and background he knew’ …’believing it important to safeguard the memorabilia of the people who represented a passing culture.’ So often we don’t realize how following a dream, with hard work and effort, can leave a legacy.
A visit to the Museum starts at the red Entrance Building, where you’ll also find the gift shop and café. Pick up a tour map here, which will give you a guide to all the numbered buildings and places you will see on your walk around the Museum’s grounds.
Ponies were in the field at the barn, who trotted over to the fence to greet us, hoping we might be carrying an apple in our pockets.
Beyond the barn, we wandered along the main path past the Smokehouse to the pretty Peters House. Nathaniel Peters lived here in 1840 and later his daughter raised nine children in this house, reminding us that big families often lived in small homes in early pioneer times. Walking past the garden led used us to the Irwin’s Chapel, where we’ve heard many old-time Shape Note Singers at events in the past. At this visit, it was the Museum’s peacocks who were having “church” wandering in and out of the chapel—a sight we laughed over. Not far from the chapel sits the small one-room schoolhouse, furnished as in the past when children learned and studied there together.
It’s hard to grasp sometimes how much times have changed since the early 1900s. My mother, born in 1913, told me stories about her young years in a large family of twelve when there were no phones, few to no cars, no central heat or air, limited electricity if any, and when families grew most all of their food and made their own clothes and household needs.
We next stopped to look in the door of the Leather Shop and then headed to the big People’s Barn to look at all the exhibits. In the front of the barn and inside are many of Harrison Mayes 2000 concrete crosses he erected all across the country and abroad on his travels. He was a coal-miner whose heart was simply to spread the gospel and he never asked for contributions when he traveled. His signs are reported to be in 46 states and 45 foreign countries. His jacket covered with crosses hangs in the exhibit barn with his photo and information about his life.
More interesting buildings followed—like old jail cells, the historic Arnwine cabin on the National Register, Cassidy’s tiny bachelor house – far different from the “Tiny Houses” being built around the U.S. today. We also enjoyed a small exhibit building commemorating the homes, churches, and farms covered by the floodwaters form the buildings of Norris Dam, plus a little playhouse saved from those waters that sits by the big Appalachian Hall of Fame.
When John Rice Irwin won a MacArthur Foundation fellowship in 1989, he used the money to build the Hall of Fame. This big two-storied museum building houses a wealth of exhibits commemorating men and women of Appalachia—politicians, crafters, singers and musicians, early doctors, dentists, midwives and more –plus displays filled with artifacts in tribute to their lives and interesting commentaries telling about them.
To get to the Museum, take Exit 122 off Interstate-75 near Clinton and travel east on Andersonville Highway for one mile until you see the museum sign and entrance on the left.
Early zoos, especially small ones, were not always kind to the animals that inhabited them, but in the early 1900s zoos began to be built with more natural habitats for the animals, and over time public education and protective laws helped all zoos to become more humane. Some species of animals might have become extinct without zoos. Also, specialists in many fields have learned a lot about animals through studying and working with them in zoo environments. Many of our early zoos in America were actually established to care for abandoned pets, to tend to orphaned wildlife, or to prevent animal species from going extinct.
Today there are about 470 zoological facilities in America, licensed by the US Department of Agriculture. Most of us visit the zoo closest to our home, but we might also visit a zoo or aquarium in another town while on vacation. For example, when visiting our son and daughter in New Orleans, Louisiana, in past, we loved going to the city’s beautiful Audubon Zoo. Almost every large American city has a zoo. Some are huge like the Bronx Zoo in New York and others are small, like the zoo in Cincinnati, Ohio. Many zoos have unique attractions, like theme parks or aquariums within them, playgrounds, lakes with paddleboats, petting zoos, and myriad opportunities for hands-on learning. Omaha Nebraska’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium is often listed as one of the most fun zoos in America to visit, covering 170-acres with over 17,000 animals across 962 species.
The majority of zoos charge admission, from $10 to $25, and even $50, for adults, less for seniors and children. A number of zoos are also free to the public like the Cape May Zoo in New Jersey, the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, and the Smithsonian National Zoo in DC.
Every zoo has its own unique history. Here in Knoxville, In the early 1900s, a four-acre children’s park was established on a hillside at Chilhowee Park, one of the city’s earliest public parks. The little Birthday Park had a playground, wading pool and a shelter. There was talk of starting a zoo at that time, but nothing came of the idea. In 1946, the children’s park on the hillside closed but in 1948 an initiative to relaunch the park as a zoo began in earnest, and in 1951 the Knoxville Municipal Zoo opened. The park started small, with an alligator its major attraction. Later the Ringling circus donated an elephant named Old Diamond to the zoo, who kept tearing up his enclosures. Then Guy Smith, a television executive, and his wife Patty bought a lion cub for the zoo, Dr. Bill Patterson helped to found the Appalachian Zoological Society as a further help, and, finally, the beginnings of a much larger zoo kicked off in 1971. I still remember some of the “Save Old Diamond” campaigns that helped to bring in funding and support in that era. Later, as the zoo grew, Old Diamond was successfully mated to two younger female elephants, making the Knoxville Zoo the first to successfully breed an African elephant in captivity. I visited the zoo in its early years as a child and then later with my children, and with school and scout groups, as the zoo grew.
The Knoxville Zoo is spread out over a pleasant campus, with easy walkways, beautiful landscaping, rest benches, water fountains, small cafes and restaurants, and many family-friendly activities. During the year, the zoo also offers special events, like at Halloween and Christmas and hosts special “after hours” events.
To walk every pathway from the zoo’s entrance plaza and back is about two miles… but I’d add to that mileage, as you’re often walking in and out of the same trails more than once to backtrack to an exhibit you missed. There is also a Nature Trail at the zoo, which can add extra time if you walk it. In general, a visit to the Knoxville Zoo, to see everything and not be rushed, takes about two to three hours – a pleasant morning or afternoon of fun.
If you have children with you, add more time to the visit. There are several play areas the kids may want to spend extra time to enjoy. There is a Zoo-Choo Train they can ride and a Safari Splash area they can enjoy in the summer—where they’ll get a thorough soaking, so you might want to bring extra clothes for this! There is also a large Kids Cove area with a playground, slides, a “zoo animals carousel,” and a petting zoo.
Following our “zoo map”, we started our adventure winding west from the entrance, to the Black Bear Falls exhibit. This multi-level exhibit covers three-fourths of an acre. Inside is a natural bear habitat that holds four to five bears with three pools, a bear cave, a grassy terrain, trees, climbing logs, and three viewing areas for the public. This is a pretty exhibit and the bears are very active and play – especially in the early mornings – with growls and bear-talk, a treat for zoo visitors to enjoy.
Following the zoo walkway continuing west brought us to see the Baboons and then the Lions. You can see from the lion photo below … that, like most cats, the lions had nap-time down to a T. Walking back, we cut by the Safari Smokehouse, one of the zoo’s cafes, with cute outdoor tables and fabulous landscaping, to walk up a hillside trail to see the red wolves and then to check out the African Painted dogs. On a pavilion on the walkway to the red wolves is a nice area with picnic tables for those who want to bring their own lunches to enjoy at the zoo – or to stop and rest. 
Nearby on Chimpanzee Ridge, the chimps have a wonderful play area with all sorts of toys and many trees to climb. All the chimps were napping at our visit … but I’ve always enjoyed watching them at other zoo visits. I admit I missed seeing the little brown monkeys I remember from visits at the zoo with my kids.
The Knoxville Zoo does have one of the top reptile collections in the country and the zoo just opened its new Clayton Family Amphibian and Reptile area in 2021 … so if you like reptiles and amphibians be sure to check this new exhibit building out! We did stop, though, to watch the Otters swim and play before passing by the Red Panda area.
Next we went to see the Gibbons in the new Gibbons Trail Enclosure, and. we both really enjoyed that exhibit. One of the zoo workers was there, who told us all about the gibbons. Gibbons are gymnasts and entertaining to watch at play. They leaped and jumped through the tree branches and over the play equipment, seeming to love putting on a show for all the zoo visitors. Gibbons are one of only a few species of primates that mate for life and you might get to see Georgie and Malay grooming each other affectionately. Gibbons are very vocal, too.
From the Kids’ Cove area, we headed back toward the entrance, stopping at the Tiger Temple in the 2-acre Asian Trek area. Malayan Tigers are critically endangered species, and the Knoxville zoo has two Malayan Tigers named Basdhir and Arya. There are also White-Naped Cranes playing in the ponds and forest area, and in the indoor pavilion colorful interactive exhibits teaching more about the tigers. When the tigers are feeling playful you may get to see them swim in the waterfall and ponds. The Knoxville Zoo once had a white tiger,too, Kaliyani, who died of old age in 2018. He looked much like the Audubon white tiger -whose picture I posted earlier – and I remember him well from earlier zoo visits. 
Lin Stepp 