Elkmont's Uncle Lem Ownby: Sage of the Smokies

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"Since his birth in 1889 in a remote part of the Smoky Mountains called Jake's Creek, Lem Ownby became one of the region's most famous mountain men and hermits. Ownby was sight impaired from an early age but still managed to plant an apple orchard, raise livestock and keep bees in a home he built himself. Lem saw the founding of Elkmont and the rise and fall of logging operations in the pristine wilderness as the last man living within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. His fame grew as a mountain mystic, selling honey and offering wisdom to hikers, yet his principles remained solid, as he once even refused the company of three Supreme Court justices. Enter the forest with author and Ownby friend Carroll McMahan as he tells the hilarious, dramatic and fascinating stories of a man who truly lived on his own terms"-- Provided by publisher