The Cataloochee region of Great Smoky Mountains is the near-antithesis of the Cades Cove section of the National Park. Whereas Cades Cove receives more than two million visitors each year, Cataloochee's visitation is much more sparse. Native Americans were the first people to visit this valley, and evidence exists indicating the Cherokee hunted and fished here, but they apparently did not create permanent settlements. White settlers, following the Indian trails, arrived in the early 1800s. By the 1850s, the valley was well populated, but still far from full. Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established in the early 1930s, and by 1938 all but a few families had moved out to make way. Modern-day visitors can view fragments of the once- thriving community--restored residences, churches, a school. Forests have reclaimed much of Cataloochee's farmlands and orchards, but the remaining open areas in the valley offer good opportunities for viewing wildlife, including such species as whitetail deer, black bear, wild turkey, and more recently, elk.

Native to Cataloochee and the Smokies, elk were present when the first whites arrived in the valley. But prior to their reintroduction in spring of 2001, elk had not roamed the Smokies for at least 150 years. Many of the elk involved in that initial release have remained in the Cataloochee vicinity. They are frequently sighted in the open fields in early morning and late afternoon/early evening, and are probably more visible during the rut, or mating season, in fall. At those times, visitors may glimpse a bull elk, regal in appearance with their impressive antlers and despite the unnatural tracking collars many wear. Especially lucky viewers may also catch the sound of a bugling elk, the plaintive notes of their mating call echoing through the valley.

The Rocky Mountain elk one might view in the west, such as in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, are more impressive than Cataloochee's elk. They somehow seem more wild, more free--perhaps because their dignity isn't diminished by man's invasion, manifested in the form of tracking collars. Nevertheless, the elk in Cataloochee valley are magnificent in their own right, and it is comforting to see them thriving in habitat from which they were absent for so long, reintroduced by humans who once caused their extirpation from the region.