Lucinda's cabin as it stood near the Great Smoky Mountains before being taken down and stored for rebuilding.

GATLINBURG — The Gatlinburg Garden Club and six inns of the Smoky Mountain Bed and Breakfast Association are joining forces to raise funds for the restoration of the Lucinda Oakley Ogle cabin which will be rebuilt near the Gatlinburg Welcome Center to serve as an historic museum. The two groups are co-hosting a Spring Garden Celebration on May 6 and 7th, 2014.

A Garden Tour of each of the inns will be the main event of the celebration on Wednesday, May 7th, with two special events on Tuesday, May 6th. On the morning of the 6th, Foxtrot Bed and Breakfast Inn will host a Box Luncheon with guests dining on the inn’s deck which has a spectacular view of Mt. LeConte in the distance. Robin Yeary, of Sevier Blumen, will present a floral arrangement demonstration using cut flowers from a Spring garden.

In the late afternoon of May 6th, at 5:30 p.m., Buckhorn Inn will host a Wine Tasting at which guests will be tasting some of Tennessee’s finest wine. The event will be complete with hors d’oeuvres and entertainment, which will feature music by the ‘Pea Pickin Hearts’.

Tickets for the special events are limited and may be purchased at the Gatlinburg branch of Sevier County Bank. Luncheon tickets are $35. Wine Tasting tickets are $50. Tickets for both events include the Garden Tour on Wednesday. Tickets for the Garden Tour may also be purchased at the bank. The price for the Garden Tour tickets is $10 each. For more information please call Bea Terry at 865-277-7075.

The Lucinda Oakley Ogle cabin was a modest mountain cabin much like those in which many other mountain families lived in the early 20th century but the mountain woman who called it home would, before her death at the ripe old age of 94, come to leave a legacy much like that of her well known father, Wiley Oakley.

Wiley Oakley, often called the ‘Will Rogers of the Smokies’, was recognized as one of the first ambassadors of the Great Smoky Mountains but it was his daughter, Lucinda, who would one day, with her voice, tell the story of the mountaineer culture that belonged to her famous father.

Able to weave her memories of growing up in the rural, east Tennessee mountains, Lucinda wrote dynamic stories of the area’s geographically and socially rich history. She used her talent to entertain and document the early days of 20th century life in the Great Smoky Mountains and Gatlinburg.

It is this story that the Gatlinburg Garden Club plans to preserve with the rebuilding of the Lucinda Oakley Ogle cabin. The garden club, along with the city of Gatlinburg, is making sure that this heritage will be available for future generations in the Lucinda Oakley Ogle Cabin which will house an historic museum of interpretive exhibits of early 20th century life and spirit of the mountaineer folk who called the Great Smoky Mountains home.

Lucinda’s log cabin was dismantled in 2011 and is presently being stored with plans for it to be rebuilt on a site near the Gatlinburg Welcome Center. Garden club members and others have transplanted a number of flowers from the gardens surrounding Lucinda’s cabin in order that they may once again beautify the cabin.

To date, through a number of memorial donations and numerous fundraisers and special events, the garden club has raised $27,000 toward this rebuilding and restoration project. The club is seeking support for this project from area businesses through monetary donations and through volunteering services in their related fields of expertise.