When travelers visit The Blowing Rock, the are presented with the following legend attributed to the strange rock formation:

“It is said that a Chickasaw chieftan, fearful of a white man’s admiration for his lovely daughter, journeyed far from the plains to bring her to The Blowing Rock and the care of a squaw mother. One day the maiden, daydreaming on the craggy cliff, spied a Cherokee brave wandering in the wilderness far below and playfully shot an arrow in his direction. The flirtation worked because soon he appeared before her wigwam, courted her with songs of his land and they became lovers, wandering the pathless woodlands and along the crystal streams.

One day a strange reddening of the sky brought the brave and the maiden to The Blowing Rock. To him it was a sign of trouble commanding his return to his tribe in the plains. With the maiden’s entreaties not to leave her, the brave, torn by conflict of duty and heart, leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit until one evening with a reddening sky, a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock and into her arms.

From that day a perpetual wind has blown up onto The Rock from the valley below. For people of other days, at least, this was explanation enough for The Blowing Rock’s mysterious winds causing even the snow to fall upside down.”

Is this truly a Native American legend? Well, probably not, as the story is typical of Lover’s Leap folklore designed to sell a roadside attraction. But what is true is that if you visit Blowing Rick, you will see some dazzling views of The Great Smokey Mountains.

Stretching along the Tennessee/North Carolina border, “The Smokies” were given their name by the Cherokee, because of the natural fog that hangs over the mountain range.