The Henry Whitehead Place is located on the gravel Forge Creek Road in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It currently consists of two cabins and a smokehouse. There once was a barn onsite as well. The surrounding forest was likely row crop and pasture land. A small garden was probably located somewhere near the cabins. The story of the cabins is both a sad and a happy one. The smaller, older, rougher cabin in the rear was hastily built by Dave, George, and Zack Shields in 1881 to provide shelter for their sister Matilda Shields Gregory after her husband, Ebeneezer Gregory, abandoned her and their son. In 1882, Matilda acquired the title to 50 acres of land surrounding her cabin from her brothers. In 1887, she married Henry Whitehead, a local carpenter. Sometime during the period 1895 to 1898, he built the larger story-and-a-half cabin immediately in front of the old cabin utilizing the newest construction techniques including square log walls instead of round logs that required chinking and a brick chimney instead of a stone one. The park is left with examples of the worst and best construction techniques of the day in one compact site.
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| North |
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| West |
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| Another view from the west |
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| West and south |
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| Smokehouse |
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| East |
There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.
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