The Sugarlands is a valley in the north-central Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. Formerly home to a string of small Appalachian communities, the valley is now the location of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park headquarters and the Sugarlands Visitor Center. Lying just south of Gatlinburg, the Sugarlands is one of the park's most popular access points.The Sugarlands area stretches roughly from Grapeyard Ridge and Roaring Fork in the east to the slopes of Sugarland Mountain to the west. Mount Le Conte rises 5,000 feet above the valley to the south and southeast. The West Fork of the Little Pigeon River, its source high in the mountains, slices through the Sugarlands, draining much of the valley.When the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 19th century, they named the valley after the many sugar maple trees growing in the area at the time. Syrup was made from the sap in these trees and used as a sweetener in the days before the availability of cane sugar. While these trees were cleared by the early settlers, the sugar maple is still common throughout the park.GeologyThe Sugarlands is underlain by a Precambrian sandstone of the Ocoee Supergroup, known specifically as Roaring Fork sandstone. This rock, like other formations throughout the Appalachian region, was formed from ancient ocean sediments nearly one billion years ago. Erosional forces throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras — especially during the last Ice Age — have carried rocks of various sizes down from boulder fields high up on the surrounding mountain slopes, leaving the valley coated with a bouldery alluvium. Early farmers, having to move these rocks in order plant crops, stacked them up to make crude stone walls, many of which remain today.
