Charit Creek Lodge
Charit Creek Lodge is a backcountry hostel-style resort in the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. Located on the banks of Charit Creek where it empties into Station Camp Creek approximately four miles west of the Big South Fork River, Charit Creek Lodge dates back to around 1815 and may be the oldest building in the National Park Service system. It is one of four historic homesteads preserved within the Big South Fork NRRA, along with the Oscar Blevins Farm, Lora Blevins Farm and John Litton Farm.
History
The exact date and original owner of Charit Creek Lodge are hard to pinpoint. It has traditionally been written that Jonathan Blevins — a long hunter who arrived in the Big South Fork sometime around 1815 and was the ancestor of the Blevins family that settled the river communities for several generations — built the first cabin at Charit Creek sometime between 1815 and 1817.
However, some descendants of Blevins dispute that fact, pointing out that he settled in the Parch Corn Creek area nearer the Big South Fork River before moving to Station Camp Creek later in life. There are no historical documents that can back up claims that Blevins built the original cabin at Charit Creek. He died in 1863 and was buried in a small cemetery about two miles east of Charit Creek.
It is generally accepted that Charit Creek was established as a long hunter camp, perhaps as early as the late 1700s, and that the original structure was built there sometime before 1832.
The earliest property records date to 1824, when Burdine Young and Anderson Young purchased 100 acres on the Middle Fork of Station Camp Creek. If it was not built before then, Anderson Young certainly built the original log cabin at Charit Creek by 1832.
The cabin was built by the time Ale Hatfield purchased the Young property in 1832. He sold it to William Tackett in 1848, who sold it to Anderson Smith in 1853. At various other points, the property was owned by Isaac King, Jonathan Burke, John Blevins, Kirk Phillips and Joe Simpson.
Joe Simpson was the last owner before the property was purchased by the federal government in the 1970s for the creation of the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area. Simpson operated the lodge as a hunting preserve, called Parch Corn Hunting Lodge.
People of Charit Creek
Jonathan Blevins (1779-1863), who may or may not be tied to the earliest history of Charit Creek, was from a prominent family of long hunters who traveled throughout the Carolinas, Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia and were heavily engaged in the fur trade. He moved to the Big South Fork region sometime around 1815 and is credited with being one of the first white settlers — along with Richard Harve Slaven of No Business Creek — in the Big South Fork River settlements. He is buried at the Blevins Cemetery on Station Camp Creek, about two miles east of the lodge.
John Blevins, who owned the Charit Creek property in the early 20th century, is a descendant of Jonathan Blevins.
Burdine Young and Anderson Young were likely brothers, though little is known about Anderson Young. Burdine Young married Susanna Crouch in 1830, and later moved out of Charit Creek and settled in Travisville several miles west of the Big South Fork River.
Ale Hatfield (born 1808) was the uncle of William Riley Hatfield, who later lived at Charit Creek Lodge. He died sometime between 1870 and 1880 (he appears in the 1870 census but not the 1880 census), but his burial location is not known. He was married to Mary “Polly” Smith, who also died sometime between 1870 and 1880 and is buried at an unknown location.
William Riley Hatfield (1824-1892) is buried in a small cemetery on the Charit Creek property. Hatfield Ridge, which runs along the south side of Station Camp Creek, is named for him. He was shot to death during an argument along the Big South Fork River in 1892. He married Elizabeth Burke, the daughter of Jonathan Burke.
Jonathan Burke (1797-1875) was the ancestor of the large Burke family in the Big South Fork area. He lived most of his life at a cabin along the Big South Fork River between Parch Corn Creek and No Business Creek. His cabin was the site of a Civil War skirmish in 1863, during which several Confederate soldiers were killed. Following the battle, his family moved out of the cabin and he moved to Charit Creek.
Ike King (1887-1957) was a grandson of William Riley Hatfield; Hatfield’s daughter, Nancy Ellen, married Kirby Sherman King of Winfield, Tenn. Kirby and Nancy Ellen have several children buried at the Blevins Cemetery downstream from Charit Creek where Jonathan Blevins is married. Ike King was a schoolteacher and shopkeeper at Station Camp for many years. He is buried at Coffey Cemetery in Oneida, as are his parents.
Anderson Smith (1800-1890) was one of the first settlers on Laurel Fork Creek, which empties into Station Camp Creek about one mile west of the Big South Fork River. He was married to Sarah “Sally” Slaven Smith, a daughter of Richard Harve Slaven, and they moved to the Station Camp area sometime between 1820 and 1830. He and his wife are buried across the river from Station Camp Crossing at Chimney Rocks Cemetery.
William Tackett may have been a relative of the Tackett brothers who died on a farm next-door to Charit Creek during a Confederate raid in 1863, but very little is known about him.
Joe Simpson (1930-2011) purchased the Charit Creek property in the 1960s and established the Parch Corn Hunting Lodge, which he owned until the federal government purchased the property after Congress passed legislation establishing the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area in 1974.
Buildings at Charit Creek
The original cabin at Charit Creek, which was built by 1832 but likely much earlier than that, was a one-story log structure with a loft. Many alterations have been made to the original structure through the years, but it still stands. It was built with hemlock and poplar logs cut from the property. A single-pen log structure was added to the original cabin by 1832.
There are a number of other buildings on the property, including a large, two-story barn built by John Blevins in the early 20th century. During his ownership of the property, Joe Simpson dismantled two cabins and reassembled them at Charit Creek. These were the Booger Blevins Cabin and Jake Blevins Cabin, which were located at other homesteads on Station Camp Creek.
There is also a blacksmith shop and a corn crib on the property. The original corn crib was burned by a moonshiner angry at having been reported to authorities, but was rebuilt by the Stearns Coal & Lumber Co.
In 1976, the U.S. Army Corps f Engineers built a new kitchen, restrooms, shower buildings, a steel frame horse barn and a utility building at Charit Creek.
Charit Creek today
Parch Corn Hunting Lodge was renamed Charit Creek Hostel by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1976. It began to be used as a youth retreat in 1987, and in 1989 was changed to Charit Creek Lodge as it exists today.
Charit Creek Lodge is similar to LeConte Lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (and was once operated by the same concessionaire as LeConte Lodge) in that it is a backcountry lodge without electricity or vehicular access.
Charit Creek is accessible by horseback, foot, or mountain bike. Private and group accommodations are available in the lodge’s cabins, tent camping is permitted on the property, and meals are served to guests with prior reservations. More information is available at ccl-bsf.com.