I have made countless treks into the Blue Ridge Mountains, growing up in North Georgia and having people in Tennessee. To my shame, I don’t believe I ever gave a thought to how many people were displaced by the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, how their land was taken from them, or the personal heartache that was suffered in order to give the land over to the enjoyment of the population in general. That is, I never gave it a thought until I stumbled across Wayne Caldwell’s [b:Cataloochee|931843|Cataloochee|Wayne Caldwell|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1179565516l/931843._SY75_.jpg|916831].

Requiem by Fire is the continuation of the Cataloochee story and deals directly with the establishment of the Park and the almost cruel way in which people were evicted from their homes to make it happen. Caldwell is one of the most even-handed writers I have ever encountered. He does not draw black and white pictures, he paints in color. He lays all the facts and feelings before you and he lets you decide. After all, these are human beings and there are all kinds of motivations and emotions that go with that. I understood the desire to protect the area and build the Park, but I mostly felt the anguish of the men and women who had already invested lifetimes into this soil and these mountains, being told they might not even be allowed to be buried next to their kin in their own family cemeteries.

The mountain flavor here is genuine, the dialog perfection. Silas Wright, an old timer, says these words to Jim Hawkins, the newly minted warden who also happens to be born and raised in Cataloochee himself:

”What’s fine at seven in the morning can be awful at midnight. Seven in the morning, a man’s got some small reason to hope he’ll have a good day. Come dark, he knows he ain’t had one, and he’s got eight more hours to put up with whatever ghosts his mind might care to entertain.”

For me, this rang so true.

There is a way of life being lost, and as the older Cataloochians reminisce, we realize it was a way of life already abandoned in the valley, years ago. I became very attached to several of these characters, Silas, Mary Carver, and Jim; I cringed at at least one of them, the despicable Willie McPeters, and pitied the young ones, riding off to the city, who would never know what they had lost.

Wayne Caldwell is an amazing writer and a consummate storyteller. I hope to see many more gripping tales penned by his hand before he is through. I know he admires Wendell Berry, he quotes him in his opening to this book, and he is one of a rare handful of writers who might be able to fill his shoes.
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Here is Caldwell's sequel to Cataloochee, and it deals with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from 1928-1935. During this time almost everyone sold their land to the federal government and left. It is, indeed, difficult to imagine the pain these families must have felt at having to remove themselves from where their families had lived for a hundred years or more. (Somewhat reminiscent of the American Indians, although not to the same degree.) The book does point out that the land was becoming worn out; most wild animals had left; and, the people were in danger of becoming inbred due to their limited numbers. This is not a particularly happy book although it does have some amusing moments. It is thought-provoking about a little-remembered episode in history. It's not quite the book Cataloochee was, but it's still a good read. ( )