The Walker Sisters Cabin is among the dozens of historic buildings in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Friends of the Smokies
This story was originally published by Compass.
GATLINBURG — It takes a lot of work to keep things looking the way they used to look.
A small army of uniquely skilled artisans labors through the seasons and decades to maintain, preserve and conserve the dozens of historical structures in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Restoration projects have included Cable Mill flume and Elijah Oliver cabin in Cades Cove, and the Walker Sisters Cabin in Little Greenbrier.
It takes talent and an old-fashioned eye for detail in cabins, barns, millraces, schoolhouses and churches. It also takes a lot of money.
The Boyd Foundation in February announced a $750,000 donation to Friends of the Smokies that will push a key historic-preservation endowment to $9 million.
Friends is the nonprofit partner of the national park, known most recently as the principal architect of a complex deal that kept the Smokies open during the 2025 federal shutdown.
It will use the money from the foundation to round out its Forever Places endowment campaign to maintain priceless cultural resources in the Great Smokies.
The program funds up to six specialized crew members per year who are skilled, for instance, in historic masonry and woodworking, according to a news release from Friends of the Smokies. The annual crews “authentically preserve” and maintain 126 historic sites in the park, according to Friends.
Forever Places has already funded preservation projects on notable park landmarks such as the popular Cable Mill flume and Elijah Oliver cabin in Cades Cove, and the Walker Sisters Cabin in Little Greenbrier.
The donation helps ensure that the “beauty, history, and cultural significance of this extraordinary landscape are preserved for future generations,” said Randy and Jenny Boyd in a joint statement.
“Protecting these places strengthens our community, honors our heritage, and sustains the vitality of East Tennessee for years to come.”
Randy Boyd is president of the University of Tennessee and the founder of Knoxville-based Radio Systems Corp. and PetSafe Brands. The family foundation, which includes the Boyds’ two sons and a spouse, was formed in 2017. Jenny Boyd is an honorary Friends of the Smokies board member.
“The job of preserving historic structures in the park never ends and it requires a perpetual source of funding,” said Dana Soehn, president and CEO of Friends of the Smokies.
“Time and nature constantly take a toll on the priceless cabins, churches, and barns that allow visitors to experience authentic history in the Smokies,” she said. “It requires specialized care from an expert crew that uses traditional materials and techniques.”
Hurricane Helene in 2024 further strained available park preservation resources. Cataloochee, just over the North Carolina line, was especially hard hit.
In August, the Colquitt Foundation also donated $750,000 to Forever Places following the destruction in Cataloochee. Flooding from Helene in September 2024 washed out roads and trails and damaged prominent cultural resources such as barns and homes in the elk-strewn valley.
David Colquitt, who lives in Knoxville with his wife, Annie, and their children, is a Friends board member. The Colquitts own several hospitality businesses, including RT Lodge in Maryville and The Swag and Cataloochee Ranch in Haywood County, N.C.
“Hurricane Helene left its mark on Cataloochee Valley,” David Colquitt said in a statement at the time of the donation. “Cataloochee Ranch was founded in that valley, and we feel a responsibility to help. We are honored to partner with Friends of the Smokies to contribute towards its revival and restoration.”
Friends of the Smokies established the Forever Places endowment in 2020 to fund a historic-preservation and maintenance crew. The endowment steadily grew from private donations and the recent foundation grants to meet its goal of $9 million. Its Forever Trails endowment is dedicated to the maintenance or reconstruction of popular trails and pathways in the park.
The nonprofit park patron has raised $100 million for the park since its founding in 1993.
The park is chronically underfunded; it had deferred maintenance needs of $262 million in 2024, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. Great Smoky Mountains National Park totals about 800 square miles. It records about 13 million visits a year.
Its collection of historical structures, all maintained to the materials, standards and techniques contemporary to their 19th-century construction, is widely considered to be the most comprehensive collection of pioneer log structures in the East.
Entire districts of the park, including Cades Cove and Elkmont (home to more modern structures), are on the National Register of Historic Places. Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983 for its staggering biodiversity — and its cultural significance, too.
