The ghost town of Wasp , Tennessee is located within the Cherokee National Forest. US Forest Service
Wasp, Tennessee
Wasp Tennessee is a ghost town in the Wolf Creek Valley in eastern Tennessee. Once an agrarian community which also supported logging, the community was abandoned in the 1930s. Several former farmhouses remain in the area, as well as the former schoolhouse and the ruins of a mission house. The town was probably settled in the late nineteenth century, as logging activity in the region increased. The Appalachian Trail passes just below the remains of the town, which is reachable by using the remains of logging roads.
Logging in eastern Tennessee reached its heyday before the years of the Great Depression, and by the 1930s many areas traversed by the French Broad River were logged out. As part of its efforts to reforest sections of Appalachia the United States Forestry Service purchased lands along the Wolf Creek Valley including the farms around Wasp and the town itself. This led to the town and surrounding lands being abandoned. Since that time the town has been designated as a Historically Significant area, and the remains of the town have been preserved by the Park Service due to its inclusion in what is now the Cherokee National Forest.
In the early twentieth century the town was home to loggers, farmers, and railroad workers. The railroad never reached Wasp while it was a functioning town due to the difficulties of construction in the challenging Wolf Creek Valley. Instead it reached only as far as the town of Wolf Creek. There passengers would be transferred to coaches and transported to the community of Hot Springs and Wasp.
Despite having no rail service, Wasp nonetheless thrived during its few decades of existence as a town, with the waters of Wolf Creek supplying power to its own gristmill, which ground the corn and wheat harvests provided by the nearby farms. Wasp was located in Cocke County, Tennessee, about 16 miles from Newport, the county seat.
It can be reached via logging roads, which are maintained by the Forestry Service, from the Round Mountain Camping area near the Lemon Gap trailhead. Logging roads also connect with US 70 in the French Broad River Valley. Hiking in the region requires vigilance as the country surrounding Wasp is home to both the timber rattlesnake and the northern copperhead, as well as large numbers of the town’s namesake.