Situated in Tuckaleechee Cove, one of several "limestone windows" on the northern base of the Smoky Mountains, is Townsend, Tennessee, also known as the "Peaceful Side of the Smokies." Native Americans were the first inhabitants of Tuckaleechee Cove. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the late 18th century, the Cherokee villages had been abandoned. In the 1880s, the lumber industry was in full swing thanks to two key innovations: the band saw and the logging railroad. With the coming of industrialization, the isolated farming community of Tuckaleechee Cove was transformed in the bustling mill town of Townsend. In 1894, E.J. Kinzel started a mountain retreat in Tuckaleechee Cove, which in later years turned into a mountain hotel with two healing mineral springs.
Missy Tipton Green and Paulette Ledbetter have authored two other books together, are avid genealogists and historians, and enjoy hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains. They serve on the board of directors for the Cades Cove Preservation Association and are members of the Oliver Reunion Association, Experience Your Smokies, and the Myers Cemetery Preservation Association. They also participate in the Great Smoky Mountains Adopt-A-Cabin program.