Grainger County Tomato Festival
Grainger County tomato fesiival will twang your buds!
Free Smoky Mountain Ranger Events
Find all the free Smoky Mountain Ranger events on the HeySmokies.com daily events calendar!
Free Smoky Mountain Ranger Events occur each day all summer long. 2019 is the perfect year to enjoy some quality time with a ranger in Great Smoky Mountains National Park! All the free events can be found on our HeySmokies.com daily events and special events calendars year round! Your favorite places in the Smoky Mountain like Sugarlands, Cades Cove, Elkmont, Oconaluftee and Cataloochee all offer fun and informative ranger events that the entire family will enjoy.
Bring out the Junior ranger in yourself and your kids with a fun program like Stream Splashers. This is your chance to get wet and wild with a ranger.
You won’t have to guess what all those crazy critters are that you find in our cool, clear mountain streams. Tadpoles, salamanders and more slimy things than you can shake a stick at are waiting to be discovered.
Got a hankerin’ to do some hammerin’? Regular blacksmithing demonstrations will introduce you to the ways of the anvil. Cades Cove blacksmith shop will be stoking the fires and creating useful tools and decorative works of art. Once the blacksmith was an integral part of every community forging everything from nails to build homes to horseshoes to keep the farms and mountain commerce moving. Discover the mysterious art of working metal.
Ranger campfire talks are your chance to discover secrets of the Smoky Mountains. Topics discussed are bear safety, what kind of snakes and reptiles inhabit the park, what is an elk rut and much more! Kick back and relax under the stars with a cozy fire burning bright and let your imagination run wild through the hills!
Cades Cove Loop Lope 2019
Cades Cove Loop Lope is your chance to experience the beauty of Cades Cove in an all new way!
Cades Cove Loop Lope is a Great Smoky Mountain Special Event! The Cades Cove Foot Race (AKA – the Cades Cove Loop Lope) hosted by Friends of the Smokies and the Knoxville Track Club is scheduled for Sunday, November 3, 2019. This exciting race was originally billed as a one time event at it’s inauguration in 2010. Since then it has grown in popularity. Participation is limited to 750 total runners and all participants will be awarded a t-shirt and finishers medallion.
“We are very excited to bring this race back to such a beautiful part of our national park,” said, Friends of the Smokies spokesperson. “This is a unique way to experience the splendor of the Cove and raise money to protect it for future generations at the same time.“
Friends of the Smokies will provide more than $90,000 for historic preservation and wildlife management programs in Cades Cove and a total of $1.4 million for other critical park projects.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash remarked the race marks an opportunity to connect with the next generation of public lands stewards who are active in our national parks.
“We are pleased to work with the Friends to offer this opportunity that supports the park and encourages people to use the park for fitness,” said Superintendent Cash. “The park provides an incredible setting for people to improve mind, body, and spirit.”
Registration begins July 16, 2019 at RunSignup.com. Participants can choose between the 3.1 mile (5K) or the 10-mile loop routes. Each race is $75.00 to enter.
Carpooling is essential to maximize participation in this race. Only 100 vehicle passes will be available for purchase for an additional $35 fee when registration opens. Registrants who do not purchase a vehicle pass must either carpool with a passholder they know or utilize the group transportation option which will be provided by Friends of the Smokies.
A virtual race can be run (or walked!) anytime, anywhere, even indoors or on a treadmill. Virtual runners will receive a race t-shirt and undated finisher’s medallion via mail, however, they will not be eligible for awards. ***ONLY runners registered for the virtual race will receive t-shirt and medallion via mail. There is no packet mailing for this race.
Ginseng Harvesting
Smoky Mountain Ginseng, miracle plant, facto or fiction?
Ginseng Harvesting. Ginseng; miracle plant? Fact or fiction? There are many uses for this fascinating native plant that grows wild and randomly from forests in Mississippi, across the eastern mountains of the United States to the remote areas of China. Ginseng refers to 11 different varieties of a short, slow-growing plant with fleshy roots. One of the most enduring of the herbal remedies, it is believed by many to restore and enhance well being.
American Ginseng (Panax quinquefolius, L. ) is easily overlooked blending in readily with other plants, such as poison oak. It begins as a single stem in spring and then adds a flush of leaves that are later adorned by lipstick red berries that appear and last just a week in mid-summer. Below ground the root (actually a rhizome) grows at a snail’s pace, adding wrinkles much like a tree adds rings. It is the root, and it’s monetary value, that has lured people for decades to search for the elusive tuber. The location of many “secret” Ginseng spots is often passed from generation to generation, but that could soon be a thing of the past as ginseng is at risk due to over harvesting and loss of habitat.
Famed botanist William Bartram.
The Cherokees speak of the plant as a sentient being….able tomake itself invisible to those unworthy to gather it.-William Bartram, naturalist, Philadelphia, 1781.
How Does Smoky Mountain Life Insurance Work
Smoky Mountain life insurance is serious business!
How Does Smoky Mountain Life Insurance Work? How life insurance works is pretty simple. You buy a life insurance policy and name a beneficiary to receive the death benefit. If the policy is active when you pass away, your beneficiary will receive that death benefit. As Denise Elliott, State Farm agent in Durango, Colorado, describes it, “It’s like having someone who will take care of your family financially if you couldn’t, due to an untimely death.” It can be a great comfort knowing if something happened to you, your family can stay in their home, stay in the same schools, and keep living the life you’ve dreamed for them.
And while most people buy life insurance because they want to protect their family, it also offers a lot of benefits for small business owners and can even be a way to leave money to a favorite charity. If you have a business to protect or an organization you’re passionate about, an agent can help you understand your life insurance options.
Agents also get a lot of questions about the cost of life insurance, and it can be helpful to look at cost in two different ways – the cost of having it, and the cost of not having it.
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The cost of having it — The cost of life insurance varies, based on factors like the type of life insurance you purchase, the amount of life insurance coverage you want, your health, and your age. The younger you are, the more affordable it typically is. As Quach explains, “I always tell people when you buy life insurance, today is the least expensive day you can purchase it.” That doesn’t mean it becomes unaffordable as time goes on though, and most people think life insurance is more expensive than it actually is. Sitting down with an agent to talk through your budget and your goals can help you find the protection that makes the most sense for you.
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The cost of not having it — This is even more important to consider. Take a moment and think about what you provide for your family now. Do you provide income they need for the mortgage and other expenses? Do you contribute to their future savings? Do you help with child care? Cooking? Shopping? Home maintenance? Now imagine if you weren’t here. What would your family’s life be like without you in it? How would they be affected financially? What would the cost to their future be without life insurance? That’s the cost of not having it.
