Wears Valley Facts

• Early settlers came to Wears Valley in 1792 -- Aaron Crowson, Peter Percefield, and William Hatcher.

• Wears Valley is named after Samuel Wear (1753–1817), a Revolutionary War veteran who erected a fort near the entrance to Wear Cove in what is now Pigeon Forge.

• Reuben Hatcher built the Wears Valley United Methodist Church in 1886. Reuben Hatcher was the great great uncle of the author of this website.

• The population of Wears Valley is 7,486 (2010 US Census).

• Wears Valley provides an entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

• The highest mountain peak in the Valley is 4,078 feet high at Cove Mountain.

• A Tennessee designated scenic highway runs through Wears Valley from Townsend, TN to Pigeon Forge, TN.

• One of the Smoky Mountain's best kept secrets is Friendly Falls, located at Friendly Falls Restaurant on Wears Valley Road.

• Cherokee tribesmen buried gold in Wears Valley at the onset of the infamous Trail of Tears, and it remains there today.

• Wears Valley has accommodations for family reunions.

• Wears Valley is part of an artisan trail in the Smoky Mountains.

• Wears Valley skirts Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited national park in America.

• Wears Valley offers 100's of overnight cabin rentals for your Smoky Mountain getaway.

• Wears Valley is 1,450 feet above sea level.

• Headrick Chapel, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, served as a chapel for four Baptist and Methodist congregations during most of the 19th century. Funeral services had priority over other services, and the chapel's bell would ring once for every year of the deceased's life, a tradition still observed by the inhabitants of Wears Valley.