I took this picture about 15 years ago at a place called New World, which is on Thunderhead Mountain outside Tremont. The area was supposedly named by John Frank Walker, son of Will and Nancy Walker. Sometime around 1875 there had been a storm and Will sent John out to check on their cattle, which they ran loose in the area. John was gone so long that Will went looking for him. John came back safe and told them that hed followed Thunderhead Prong so far up that he saw no sign that anybody had ever been through the area. He said he thought hed found a new world up there and the family began to call the area Johns New World. It can be seen on the Smoky Mountains topo maps on the Thunderhead Mountain quadrangle. There was later a lumber camp at this site and it was called New World too. When I first went into this area I followed the old railroad bed, which was so well-used at that time you could have rode a bicycle up it. There was also the remains of 2 railroad trestles up in the area, one crossing Shut-in Creek and the other one would have been to the extreme right in this picture. The area is all but impassable now due to blowdowns
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 04:30:41 +0000