The Story of Cherokee Farms and Smokey Caldwell

Less than a two-mile crow’s flight northwest of the LaFayette square, open grassy fields that rise from Straight Gut Valley below Shinbone Ridge’s eastern slope are bisected by a prominent treeline along Dry Creek.

This bucolic scene includes the 260 pristine acres of Cherokee Farms, owned by Smokey Caldwell, which has become a site for hosting a variety of events.

Caldwellis one of the founders of Pigeon Mountain Industries, more commonly known as PMI, a world-renowned manufacturer of climbing rope located inWalkerCounty.

Caldwell, a native ofPolk County,Tenn., joined the Navy when he was 17 and served for six years. He was on duty on the USS Rehoboth and was in a Siberian port in November 1963 when word came that President Kennedy had been killed.

The ship was ordered to return stateside, andCaldwellwas among several of the crew who suffered severe frostbite on his feet during the journey back.

“I had planned for a career in the service, but the injury brought me a medical discharge instead,” he said.

He switched careers to the Georgia Forestry Commission, and because of his injured feet he was assigned to duty at a fire tower onLookoutMountainfor his first year.

“After my feet healed up I became a firefighter, which I really enjoyed,” he said.

Around this timeCaldwell, already trained in rescue climbing, had taking up caving, and just for the needs of himself and fellow cavers in the area he began making climbing rope in his basement.

“There was a serious need for good rope around here, as we have the two deepest natural pit caves in theU.S.right here atPigeonMountain,” he said.

That’s in Ellison’s Cave, where two prominent drops totaling more than 1,100 feet attract thousands of cavers each year.

“Kentuckyhas the longest cave system (MammothCave) andVirginiahas more caves than any other state. But if you’re going to come caving in the TAG (Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia caving area) you’ve got to know how to go up and down a rope,” he said.

Underground expeditions of five days or more are not uncommon inCaldwell’s caving experiences. He has spent countless nights underPigeonMountainand even assisted a mapping expedition of 37 miles inMammothCave.

Caldwell, a former Walker County Rescue chief, said that before climbing and caving took off as recreation, rope was primarily sold for rescue squads and military.

His contacts throughout the climbing and caving world led him to realize that rope manufacturing could be more than just a sideline, so with two other partners he started Pigeon Mountain Industries in 1979.

“Someday, I’m bound to get old,” says the 64-year-old, and that attitude is what makes his life after PMI resemble nothing close to retirement. He still draws a salary as a consultant and ropes instructor for the company.

“It’s a healthy life, climbing up and down ropes — unless you screw up,” he said.

In 1992, he went to work for Voice of America, theU.S.government’s international radio network, teaching rope safety to radio tower riggers around the world.

“I’m one of the lucky ones who got to do something I love and get paid for it,” he said.

Caldwellinitially acquired the land where Cherokee Farms now sits in 1991, about a year before selling his share of PMI .

“It was a partnership deal as a favor to someone who couldn’t buy the whole chunk,” he said. “I realized the land was a good investment so I got talked into it.”

Eventually, he took sole ownership of the land, which had been a cattle farm. The place was trashed, but over 10 years time he got it cleaned up.

“I spent nearly a year just fighting off people who had been using it as a dump,” he said.

Before long,Caldwellwas hosting campouts and events with friends from the caving clubs to which he belonged, and from there he began accommodating scout groups, weddings and family reunions.

“People just fell in love with the place,” he said.

There are now even more events at the farm, varying from Celtic and earth skills groups to a rugby tournament and Native American pow-wows.

“It was named Cherokee Farms partly because of all the Cherokee rose that grows out here and partly because I needed a business name for my Sam’s Club card,” he said with a laugh.

The opportunity to host the popular HarvestFest music event at Cherokee Farms came in 2003, when promoters were looking to move it from Fairburn, south ofAtlanta.

HarvestFest came for 2003 and 2004, with top talent like Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead and Derek Trucks of the Allman Brothers Band. The event was set to go in 2005 as a benefit for Hurricane Katrina victims, but then the promoters cancelled due to lackluster ticket sales.

ButCaldwellis undaunted, and continues looking for opportunities to bring fun things to his farm.

“I like to share things,” he said, “And I don’t look at this as ‘my land.’ I’m just the steward for someone else, and I want it to be for people to come and enjoy.”