Horace Kephart’s Mountains

Horace Kephart was a famed outdoor writer, who moved to the great Smoky mountains in the early 1900s. He made his home for several years in a little mountain cabin up the Little Fork of the Sugar Fork of Hazel Creek, immersing himself in the culture of the mountain folks there and gaining great understanding of true wilderness treks, and survival and mountain living. He became famous for his writings about the mountain people in Southern Highlanders, as well as his treasured outdoors book Camping and Woodcraft.

“To many a city man, there comes a time, now and then, when the great town wearies him.” Kephart loved the mountains, and through influential articles and his books, he raised awareness of the mountain place and ways that were special to him.

Kephart’s cabin site is reached by a long hike into the remote depths of the mountains. It was here that he could “get away from it all” and learn the ways and trades of a true outdoorsman. The nearby lively Hazel Creek flows through the mountains and later empties into Fontana Lake.

About one year ago, Ike and Karmen had the pleasure of taking a trip up to the mountains of North Carolina and overlooking the valley where Fontana Lake lies nearby.

And on this trip, it only seems fitting that Ike’s Wolf Valley Forge Kephart Reproduction Hatchet and Lucas Forge Vintage Kephart Knife would make the trek to those mountains and overlook the land that Horace Kephart roamed and loved. These two tools pay tribute to the woodcrafting knife and his “Little Trick” hatchet that he used and wrote about.

Truly the mountains and hills and great expanse of God’s creation holds so much beauty and wonder for us to enjoy and discover. As Mr. Kephart said, “There is something hidden: go and find it.”