by Jeff Alt
One morning, with Wild Bill and Papa Lewis as guides, we all piled into the vehicles. Next stop: the Metcalf Bottoms picnic area. We parked the vehicles, clipped on our day packs, and took a stroll along the Little Briar Gap Trail. Wild Bill led us along, and after a short walk the trail took us to the Little Green Briar School, remnants of a community long gone.
“This one-room log building served as a school until 1936. Schools like this were scattered throughout the Great Smoky Mountains,” Wild Bill explained.
“Why is there a cemetery in front of the school?” Hug-a-Bug asked.
“Too much studying,” I joked.
“The school also served as a Baptist Church, which is why there is a cemetery,” Papa Lewis explained.
After exploring the grounds, we continued our stroll along the Little Brier Gap Trail to the Walker Sisters Cabin.
“This cabin is the home of some of the last people to live in the park,” Wild Bill explained. “Four brothers and seven sisters were raised in this house and six of the sisters lived their entire lives here. After the creation of the park, the Walker sisters sold souvenirs to curious visitors. These women lived off the land until the last one passed away in 1964. Today, many of the original descendants have moved away, but some remain in the area. If an outfitter owner, store clerk, waitress, or park staff that you meet has the same last name as a family that once lived in the park, there’s a good chance that person is a descendant.”
Our Great Smoky Mountain Adventure was an epic experience. We had crisscrossed this mountainous national park for two whole weeks, and there were still many more adventures awaiting us—but those would have to wait for next time. On our last night in the park, we all sat around a roaring fire, reminiscing about our adventures together. In the morning, we would go our separate ways and these adventures would become distant memories. We all felt tied together by our endless fun in the park. We had shared animal encounters, history, and the raw, natural beauty. It was easy to see why this place had the word “great” in its name. We agreed that we would visit again soon. The Great Smoky Mountains had become a sacred place for all of us.
This trip impressed upon me the importance of maintaining our parks and national wild lands. During our adventure, I felt more energized than I ever had. Papa Lewis explained that I was experiencing the benefits of exercising in the great outdoors and enjoying nature.
I was awestruck that I now had the ability to travel back in time, and the ability to retell stories and bring them to life, like Papa Lewis had done with us, but I was still puzzled as to why our time-travel skills had to be such a secret. I got it that we had to be careful not to alter the past when we time-traveled, so as to preserve history. I understood that people would not believe that I had the ability to go back in time. What I didn’t get was why my family had been so secretive about it all these years. Our family mission of preserving our parks and wildlerness is the mission of many volunteers, park staff, wildlife staff, and government agencies. So, why did we have to be so secretive about our mission? Papa Lewis and Wild Bill sat down with Crockett, Hug-a-Bug, and me to talk about it. Papa Lewis started the conversation.
“Someone with devious intentions could alter the entire history of the world if they got ahold of our time-travel skills or time-traveled with us. On top of that, imagine how you might be treated if someone discovered you can time-travel? In the 1600s people who were accused of being witches were executed. I’m not saying that would happen to us, and we’re certainly not witches, but we could be taken into government custody or something.”
Wild Bill picked up the conversation. “Many in our clan live and work as park staff and volunteers, ready to use their time-travel skills to help in the search for a long-lost plant or animal species. One day we might have to rely on these wild places for our very survival, just like our ancestors did. Our untamed, natural wild lands may hold the key for future generations in discovering new lifesaving medicines. If a plant species is wiped out, perhaps an original specimen could be found in one of our national parks. The clear-cut sections of the Smokies have grown back to forest once again, but several species of trees and plants have not returned. Preservation is key.”
Our time-travel secret had brought our family together in a unique way. After our talk with Papa Lewis and Wild Bill, we had a better understanding of the importance of keeping our family time-travel skills a secret, but we still had an unsolved code to decipher. Papa Lewis and Wild Bill weren’t aware of any key or code. Crockett, Hug-a-Bug, and I sat looking at the cipher. We placed the two torn halves of paper together under the light of a lantern at the picnic table, hoping to find a clue. I had flipped through the family journal every night since we first pieced the paper together, but I had found nothing resembling a key. Crockett’s map, where we had found the other half of the cipher, was unfolded on the table next to us. I had never paid much attention to it before—it was just on older edition of my map of the Smokies. But then I noticed something—printed across Crockett’s map in bold letters was ‘Great Smoky Mountains National Park.’ But the words ‘Great National Park’ were underlined and someone had added an “s” to park making it ‘Parks.’ Then it hit me. That same phrase was written in the family journal, on the date that Papa Lewis had received his time-travel skills from his grandfather. We had just discovered the key we needed to break the cipher! The key was Great National Parks.
I shared our discovery with Papa Lewis.
“I bet if you decipher that code, the message will lead you to your next adventure,” Papa Lewis said with a smile.
The End.
Curriculum Guide for
The Adventures of Bubba Jones
About the Book
Tommy “Bubba Jones” and his sister Jenny “Hug-a-Bug” learn more about the Great Smoky Mountain National Park than they ever thought they would when Papa Lewis lets them in on a family secret: The family has legendary time traveling skills! With these abilities, Bubba Jones and Hug-a-Bug travel back in time and meet the park’s founders, its earliest settlers, native Cherokee Indians, wild animals, extinct creatures, and see what the park was like millions of years ago. With this time traveling ability also comes a family mystery, but the only person who can help solve the mystery is a long lost relative who lives somewhere in the park. Explore the Smokies with Bubba Jones and family in a whole new way. The Adventures of Bubba Jones is recommended for grades 3–8 and may be a helpful resource for several curriculum topics listed below.
Social Studies
Native American Indians / Cherokee Indians
Southern Appalachian Culture
Lewis & Clark
Early settlers
Survival
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Appalachian Trail
Civilian Conservation Corp.
Science
Extinction Elevation/ Geology
Old-Growth Forest
Secondary Regrowth
Non-native species
Chestnut Blight
Elk
Buffalo
Bear
Synchronized fire flies
Poisonous snakes
Salamanders
A National Park compared to a National Forest
Math
Cipher Code/Problem Solving
The Adventures of Bubba Jones
Discussion Questions
Chapter 1: The Secret Family Legend
1. Who were Lewis and Clark and what are they famous for?
2. What does Bubba Jones’s family use their time traveling skills for?
3. Why does Papa Lewis make Bubba and his family take an oath of secrecy? What happened during the T-Rex Incident?
Chapter 2: The Adventure Begins!
1. Name five items on Bubba Jones, Papa Lewis, and Hug-a- Bug’s Backpacking Gear List.
2. In this chapter, Bubba Jones and Hug-a-Bug have their first time traveling adventure. What are some of the differences between Elkmont in 19
06 and the present day Elkmont campground?
Chapter 3: The Fall of the Giants
1. What is the difference between a national forest and a national park? What might have happened to the Great Smoky Mountains if they had been turned into a national forest?
2. What happened to the American Chestnut Trees?
Chapter 4: The Legend Unfolds With Sparkles in the Night
1. How is a synchronized firefly different than other fireflies?
2. Why did Papa Lewis hand over his powers to Bubba Jones, and not keep them?
3. What are possible consequences of someone else finding out about Bubba’s family’s time traveling ability?
4. What is a cipher code?
Chapter 5: The Original Great Smoky Mountain Inhabitants
1. What was the Trail of Tears?
2. What was Hug-a-bug afraid that could happen when Bubba got his time travel powers?
Chapter 6: One Big Mountain
1. Why is Bubba able to see a spruce-fir forest at Clingmans Dome? Where do these trees mainly grow?
2. Were the Smokies taller than they are now?
3. At the end of this chapter, Bubba and Hug-a-Bug tell their parents about all of the time traveling adventures they have had so far. If you could travel back in time with them, on which of these adventures would you go? Why?
Chapter 7: Celebrity Sightings at Newfound Gap
1. What is a thru-hiker? Do you think you could thru-hike the way Grandma Gatewood did, or would you need more resources? What else would you bring with you?
2. What were Earl Shaffer and Grandma Gatewood famous for?
Chapter 8: The Other Side of the Mountain
1. What is a trail name and what are some of the trail names that Bubba Jones and his family use?
2. Bubba says that all of his family members have trail names, “based on each one’s unique love of adventure and exploring.” What would you choose as your own trail name? Why?
Chapter 9: A Big Surprise
1. Name at least three animals that used to call the Great Smoky Mountains home.
2. Why is the elk herd in Cataloochee Valley and not the rest of the park?
Chapter 10: As Real as it Gets
1. What is found at the Oconaluftee Village?
2. Name at least 3 facts about the Cherokee.
Chapter 11: The Wild Goose Chase
1. How does bartering work? What sorts of items were used in bartering? Do you think bartering would still work today? Why or why not?
2. Imagine that you have traveled back with Bubba and his family to Mingus Mill. What sorts of jobs would you have been made to do as a miller back then?
Chapter 12: Away From It All
1. Who were the Olivers? What does Bubba learn about them when he time travels?
2. After seeing how the first Smokies settlers lived in 1825, Bubba’s mom says that the settlers “worked so hard just to eat and stay alive.” What are some ways that the settlers found food? How did they keep it from spoiling?
3. How can you protect yourself from a black bear?
Chapter 13: The Smoky Mountain Biathlon!
1. What is Horace Kephart known for?
Chapter 14: Over the Hills and Through the Woods
1. Where do Appalachian Trail thru-hikers stay while hiking through the Smokies?
2. What makes the wild boar different than most of the other animals living in the Smokies?
Chapter 15: You Can Hike But You Cannot Hide!
1. Why doesn’t Wild Bill want to interact with Horace Kephart? What does he think might happen?
2. Where are some of the places Wild Bill visited in the Smokies?
3. What are the names of the two poisonous snakes found in the Great Smoky Mountains?
4. The Smokies is known as Capitol of the World for what species?
5. What did the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) do in the Smokies?
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