The Prophet of the "Back of Beyond": Horace Kephart's Smokies

To understand the soul of Bryson City, one must first walk with the ghost of Horace Kephart. In the early 20th century, Kephart—a librarian from St. Louis—turned his back on the trappings of urban society to find what he famously called the "Back of Beyond." He sought out the highest, most rugged peaks in the Eastern United States, eventually finding his sanctuary in the deep folds of the Southern Appalachians.

At Three Little Bears Retreat, we consider Kephart our patron saint of the wilderness. His transition from a man of letters to a man of the mountains mirrors our own philosophy: that luxury is found not in excess, but in the profound clarity of the wild.

Kephart arrived in the Smokies in 1904, a time when the region was largely unmapped and misunderstood by the outside world. He didn’t just visit; he embedded himself. Living first in a primitive cabin at Hazel Creek and later on Deep Creek right here in Bryson City, he documented the customs, language, and rugged survival of the mountain people in his seminal work, Our Southern Highlanders.

His second masterpiece, Camping and Woodcraft, remains the "bible" for the modern expedition leader. It is a literate, practical guide to living with the land rather than against it—a book that Hemingway himself kept close at hand.

The Smokies that Kephart loved were under siege. In the early 1900s, industrial logging was stripping the mountainsides bare, threatening to erase the "pristine wilderness" before it could be named. Kephart realized that if he did not act, his "Back of Beyond" would be lost to the saw.

He became the strategic voice of the park movement. While photographer George Masa captured the visual majesty of the peaks, Kephart provided the narrative heart. Through his tireless lobbying and evocative prose, he convinced a nation that these mountains—the Great Smoky Mountains National Park—were a heritage worth more than the timber they held.

Kephart’s final years were spent in Bryson City, where he continued to advocate for the park until his death in 1931, just three years before the park’s official dedication. Today, if you hike the Noland Creek or Deep Creek trails, you are walking the very ground where he mapped out the future of American conservation.

His influence is everywhere in the Nantahala National Forest and the surrounding ridges:

• Mount Kephart: A 6,217-foot peak named in his honor, standing as a permanent sentinel over the lands he saved.

• The Kephart Prong Trail: A path that allows modern explorers to touch the history of the civilian conservation efforts he inspired.

To stay at Three Little Bears Retreat is to live on the threshold of Kephart’s vision. We encourage our guests to explore with the same "literate eye" that Horace brought to these woods.

1. Seek the Quiet: Venture to the Hazel Creek area via boat across Fontana Lake to see where Kephart’s journey began.

2. Read the Land: Take a copy of Our Southern Highlanders to the banks of Deep Creek. You will find that his descriptions of the "blue smoke" and the mountain character remain remarkably unchanged.

3. Practice Stewardship: In Kephart’s world, the forest was a cathedral. We ask our guests to walk these trails with a grounded respect for the flora and fauna that he fought to protect.

After a day spent chasing the "Back of Beyond," there is no greater luxury than a warm hearth and a quiet deck. As you look out over the treeline from the retreat, you are seeing the result of one man’s tireless advocacy. Horace Kephart saved this view for us; we are simply its temporary guardians.