Chapels in the History of Altamont Tennessee

On my way home from a long work assignment, I realized I would be driving "close" to Altamont, Tennessee. Altamont is the county seat of Grundy County and sits on top of the Cumberland Plateau. Grundy county also has the largest concentration of LDS members in the state of Tennessee.

I say I was on my way home, but Altamont isn't on the way to anywhere. Like Cane Creek, it is an hour from the nearest interstate. I left I-24 and followed Hwy 50 East. I passed through some small towns before the road begins the climb. Almost immediately it turns back on itself again and again in a series of switch backs. All told the elevation climbed 800+ feet in just 3 miles. Seven miles further was the town of Altamont; population 1,300.

It is here that the oldest LDS chapel in Tennessee is found. Dedicated in 1909, The Northcutts Cove Chapel certainly wasn't the first, but it has survived where the other have not. I kind of knew where the Chapel was, so I figured I wouldn't get lost. But there is another chapel I wanted to see, built in 1947 to replace the first. It is beautiful, built from colorful stone. It isn't being used anymore, so GPS would be of no use here. But I knew it was somewhere near the courthouse. As I turn from Hwy 50 left onto Hwy 56 I mentally look around for the court house. I hadn't driven a 1/8th of mile when I saw the stone chapel. It is closer to the road than I had imagined, but nothing is quite how you imagine it. The Church doesn't own it anymore. The last I heard the city was using it to store records.

I drove north on Hwy 56 and completely missed my turn, and had to drive quite a ways before I could turn around. The road I wanted was appropriately named Northcutts Cove Road. The Northcutts family figured prominently in local Church history. The Cove, known as Larsen when the chapel was first built, was the birthplace of the church in the area. A friend sent me a photo of the Chapel from 1913. The first thing I thought when I saw it was "I wonder if I could get a photo from the same vantage point."

What followed was some geometry based on the apparent angle at which the Chapel is seen in the old photo (14 degrees) off perpendicular. My math was rustier that I thought and I had to look up the formulas. Add in a Google Earth photo of the chapel to determine where the vantage point was. The best I could do was a line drawn across the map. Somewhere along that line the photographer stood. Further guessing that there was an elevation difference of about a hundred feet, I could pretty easily pinpoint on the map my destination.

Driving along Northcutts Cove Road, I notice road signs that let me know I am getting close to the right spot. I passed Ray Fults Drive and W. Smartt Road, both family names linked with the building of the Chapel in 1909. It was W. Smartt Road I was hoping to take to my destination. But the rusty iron gate padlocked across the chert gravel road, made me change my mind.

I drove on, down the hill to the cove far below. Almost immediately the small white chapel came into view. There were few things different from the photos I had already seen. Tall bushes hiding the front of the building had been cut down. And a new stone marker had been added to the grounds commemorating the 100th anniversary of its dedication.

Recently placed wreaths in the cemetery behind the church, remind me that people connected to the church still live nearby. A piece of me secretly hoped someone obviously connected to the chapel would see me drive up and come to introduce themselves. The land has since passed into private hands, but they are members of the church, I am told, and are proud of their connection to their piece of history. None of the homes in the distance are obviously connected to this property, and I'm not enough of an extrovert to just walk up to the homes of people I don't know. Yes, tracting was horrible.

I turn to the south and look up at the point I was hoping to get to, but couldn't. Part of me is consoled by the fact that today, the hillside is covered with trees. It is unlikely I would be able to get a clear shot roughly approximating the original.

As I get in my car to continue my trip home (two hours later than I was expected), I think of the narrow window of opportunity this community sat in during the turn of the last century. Had the missionary success happened a few years earlier, many of the converts would have emigrated to the west, leaving little lasting imprint of their proselyting efforts on the local community. A little later, and there would not have been enough time for the local church to grow as it has here.

[As I am nearly home I realize I didn't stop at the newest chapel, the one the saints in Altamont use today. The third would have rounded out the visit. Perhaps even have been a interesting way to mark the growth of the church. Architecture as a proxy for history. Mmmmmmm.]