Page 17 - SMH 2018 3rd edition

While working as a mountain guide, Oakley discovered he had another
talent that appealed to the paying public: his storytelling. His lilting
southern Appalachian accent, vernacular expressions, and easy-going
style made him a favorite among tourists who came to the mountains.
Some years after Great Smoky Mountains National Park was established
in 1934, Wiley Oakley saw another opportunity. He opened a gift shop
with his wife in Gatlinburg, proclaiming it with a simple sign that said
“Wiley Shop.” He liked to also display a sign that proclaimed, “Antiques
Made to Order.” At the shop, he and his wife took reservations for guided
mountain trips and sold crafts, postcards and souvenirs. They even hosted
musical shows there. The shop built up a good trade, as almost all visi-
tors to the Tennessee side of the Smokies had to pass by it on the main
road into Gatlinburg. His list of clients who used him as a mountain guide
grew also. He guided congressmen, businessmen, and park commission-
ers around the mountains. He met John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Henry
Ford. In September 1940 Wiley Oakley even met Franklin D. Roosevelt
when the President came to dedicate the national park.

Through his guiding and his tourist shop, Oakley became institutionalized over the years as “the grand ol’
mountain man of the Smokies.” He could be found at the Wiley Shop when not in the hills, telling colorful stories
to customers and providing a yodel or two at the end of some “tall tale.” By the 1940s he had gone from a moun-
tain hunter and farmer to tourism entrepreneur and businessman, all the while keeping a firm hand on his mountain
heritage.

As his fame as a colorful mountaineer grew, Oakley was asked by friends and customers
to record his stories in print. At first, he resisted, but finally he started to write periodic col-
umns entitled “Roamin’ with Wiley” for the local newspaper. He wrote each story in pencil
on blue-lined school paper and personally delivered it to the paper. He was later asked to put
these stories, and new ones, into book format. The idea made him apprehensive, not knowing
what the public would think of his work. And when he was told the stories would be pub-
lished exactly as he’d written them, he replied, “Law, the risin’ generation, as well as the pre-
sent, will disown me for life--all that turrible spellin’and all!” He described his writing style
this way: “I’ve never been to school so I didn’t put in these colons and semi-colons. All I put
was a period. And that means, catch your breath and start again!” Today his book Roamin’
and Restin’ can be found in area bookstores.

In addition to his writings, Oakley left his lilting Appalachian voice for posterity in the
form of recordings made by his daughter Martha in the late 1940s. One of the best of these
recordings is a story called ‘The Cow Barn,” a humorous tale about a honeymoon in a cabin
in the mountains.

Wiley Oakley remained an institution in the Great Smokies until he died from cancer on November 18, 1954 at
age 69. He is buried in White Oak Flats Cemetery in Gatlinburg. Today, he is memorialized by a stone marker out-
side the Gatlinburg Welcome Center and by the nearby “Wiley Oakley Drive.”

The Great Smoky Mountains where Wiley Oakley grew up have changed dramatically
since his time. We will obviously never be able to turn back the clock and return to the old
Smoky Mountain days which Wiley Oakley experienced. But we can remember his colorful
life and adventurous times through his writings and recordings, and reflect on a particularly
fascinating personality in the history of the Great Smoky Mountains. Wiley Oakley is, and
will always remain, “The Roamin’ Man of the Smokies.”

(Arthur “Butch” McDade is the author of Old Smoky Mountain Days and The Natural Arches of the Big South
Fork. Additionally, he is a contributing writer to The Encyclopedia of Appalachia, and has written numerous
magazine articles. He is a retired park ranger from Great Smoky Mountains National Park and an active hiker and
bicyclist. He and his wife Lila Wilson live in Sevierville, TN with their companion dogs and cats).

17 Smoky Mountain Hiker