About Appalachian Clubhouse (Elkmont)
Before Elkmont was a campground, it was a logging camp, and then a resort. The Appalachian Clubhouse is the building that tells the second part of the story.
A summer colony
Large-scale logging in the early 1900s brought a railroad, a logging community and, as the loggers cut out, vacationers. Knoxville families founded the Appalachian Club and built summer cabins, with a clubhouse as the social center. The National Park Service's own Elkmont page describes the Appalachian Club and the Wonderland Hotel as the two resort communities that grew out of the logging era. After the park was established, many families held leases to their cabins for decades, and the last leases ran out in 1992.
What has been saved
The Park Service decided to preserve the cabins associated with the Appalachian Club, and its Elkmont page says the clubhouse and Spence Cabin were "rehabilitated in 2010 for day use by reservation." Eighteen cabins are being preserved. The clubhouse can be reserved for gatherings; 2026 reservation fees in the park's fee list are $300 for the Appalachian Clubhouse and $200 for Spence Cabin.
Visiting
You can walk the district on the Jakes Creek and Little River trails, which pass stone walls and chimneys marking former cabin sites.
- Where: Elkmont, off Little River Road, about 5 miles from Sugarlands Visitor Center.
- Access: exteriors can be viewed from the road and trails; the clubhouse interior is open only to reservation holders.
- Parking: the Elkmont lots fill by mid-morning on busy days; a parking tag is required for stops over 15 minutes.
- Time to allow: 45 minutes to an hour for a walk through the district.
Context
Elkmont is also where the synchronous fireflies appear for about eight nights from late May to mid-June (2026: May 20 to 27), by lottery only. See the NPS Elkmont page for the current information.
Good to know
- Do I need a parking tag?
- A Park It Forward parking tag ($5 a day, $15 a week or $40 a year) is required for any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Entry is free, and federal passes such as America the Beautiful do not replace the tag.
