Barum Creek Falls & Ball Play Falls with Jon Boy, Paul & Amanda

above: old quince bush blooms by Barum Creek

Barum Creek Falls & Ball Play Falls with Jon Boy, Paul & Amanda

Sat. March 14, 2026

       I took a notion I wanted to revisit Barum Creek Falls and take Kenny to see it.

It is a special place full of history.   I figured it was a good time since we'd had rain.

I thought while we were in the area we'd also visit Ballplay Falls and Presley Falls.

I mentioned it to my friend Paul Gamble and asked if he'd like to join us? He said sure so we formed a plan to meet at Ingles in Madisonville Saturday morning.   I felt like Hannibal on The A Team "I Love it when a plan comes together!"  It really did come together wonderfully.  I got to spend time with my hubby, Paul, Amanda, and got to meet John Boy!  Years ago I saw a funny picture Paul posted on Facebook of a log truck in a ditch on a mountain.  What I did not know was the REST of the story.  Jon Boy was driving that log truck and the brakes went out.  Paul says "He was tryin' to kill me!"  ( so I Jumped out)  

Below is a photo of the truck and the predicament. Paul took this photo.

It is funny now that I know all are unharmed.  

It reminds me of a Ledbetter family story told by Jerry Clower. 

  We all headed down the road to Tellico Plains. We met Jon Boy at the service station there in town.   We all went out the Rafter Road to Mudhole.   We parked and got out to go see the falls and Alonzo Akins old house.   I noticed a rocked in spring along the roadside near where we parked.  I had not paid attention to this on a previous visit.   Turns out it was the spring for the home of Ernest Veal.  I think he was Alonzo's brother-in-law.  His house was  by the spring and it burned down in the early 90s.  Poor Ernest died on account of the fire.  This was related to me by Jon Boy.   What a terrible way to die!   

        Below: Rocked in spring at Ernest Veal's old place

Above: Kenny and Paul talking and Amanda coming back across the road. 

Left to right Jon Boy Lyn, Paul Gamble, Kenny Koogler

Above: Amanda across the road taking pictures.  Men standing around chatting.

above: the Mud Hole Community Center. Population 13.   Jon Boy says this used to be the school. 

above: rue anemone blooms by Ernest's old rock spring  

above: sweet betsy trillium growing on the bank near the house. Lots of these today! 

Above: Alonzo Akins old house. It is a quaint and was well constructed dwelling.  Ravaged by time and weather. 

Above: looking out toward the stream side in the front room

Below: Looking out the door and window. 

Above: This was his bed frame.  I did not notice it before when I was here. 

Below: Stream flows  by right outside the house.

above:  Kitchen table and counters.

Below: lovely old quince bush in bloom by the house

Above: the spring pipe that supplied the water for the home.  It was piped to a 55 gallon drum under the house. 

Above: Looking at the house from the corner.  The kitchen is inside that window 

Above: Looking at these rocks in the creek bed. It looks like a bath tub. I wondered if it was naturally formed or if Alonzo did something to it to manipulate it into a tub? 

Above: House sits just above the cascades

above:  You can barely see the old house in the top left corner. The road went by on the far side of the house and continued down the stream about where I am standing.  

Below is a video of the house and the falls. It shows  better the position of the house in relation to the creek. It sits at the head of the falls.  

    

  I really am glad Kenny got to see this special place while it still stands.  I learned too that it is not the greatest Spring wildflower location.  Lots of Sweet Betsy trilliums, but not much else.  I learned more of the history today from Jon Boy and Paul.   Alonzo built the place originally thinking he was going to rent it out, but ended up staying there himself.    I did not realize the road was re-routed from one side of his house to the other!   I am not going to get into a ton of history again, but for those interested here is the link to the original visit that contained a far more detailed account.  

Below is a photo of Alonzo Akins from Amanda Gamble

Below is a photo of Clarissa "Clarsa" Akins holding a team of horses from Amanda Gamble

Below:  This is a photo I found of the Veal's family.    Clarissa is the front row second from left standing by their mother Florence Veals who is holding a baby.   I have found half dozen spellings of Clarissa in various photos and publications.   The one I think is most country is Clersy.

Back where I am from folks had given names and nicknames.   Possum, Shine, Buck Sheep, Shoe String, Biddy, Kink , Fick, Shorty, etc. I had a grand uncle who was named Ulysses Brooks, but everyone called him Uncle Uly (Yoo-Lee) My nicknames were Honeybug and Gladys Earl.  

   We concluded our visit to Barum Creek Falls and Alonzo's old place.  Jon Boy had things to do so he said his good byes and moved on.  We wound through the countryside finally arriving on the old Buck Highway and heading to Ballplay Falls.   I noticed several things had changed back that road.   The old Bivens place where we saw the blazer stuck in the creek? It is gone!  Razed, cleaned up and there is a nice camper there now and a better way into the lot!  Jon Boy told me he thought Steve Bivens who lived there had passed on so perhaps that is correct. 

      We stopped by the old Oscar Young house to find the entire front porch was ripping off and sagging down.   In order to get a decent photo of it or go inside you have to go round to the back now.   It is quite rotten.  We carefully visited and got a few photos while there is still something there to see.  It was a pretty place at one time.   A stream flows past it on one side joining into Ballplay Creek.   It has a nice front and back lawn.   Old daffodils bloom in the yard.  There is a shed to the left of the house that is completely overgrow with ivy.  

Above a vision of Applachian Springtime at Ballplay.  Across from the Oscar Young home. 

above and below: two different views of the barn across from the house.  

Below: front view of the old house with Paul in the far right.  It is in rough shape. Looks like the whole house is shifting now that that porch has fallen in. 

Below: spring beauties blooming in the lawn

Below: blue violets in the lawn

Below: sweet betsy trillium at the Oscar Young house

above: the old road continues on back of the home. I've never followed it to see where it leads. Perhaps in the future I will take time to do so. 

Below: the pretty stream flows along through the back yard

Below: Rear of the Oscar Young house. It is in slightly better shape. where the roof is missing the floor inside is very rotten.  Kenny walks through the back yard.

Below: Looking out the back door

Below: Amanda taking photos in the room I think used to be the kitchen.  The little cubby hole there is a spot for storage. The fire place round here is stone. 

Below: on the opposite wall in the next room... maybe the living room the fire place was newer, floor was less soggy and it is brick.  

Below:  side view of the front porch which has fallen in. You can see the fuse box for electricity at the top left of the photo. I looked up to see who Oscar Young is. I can only find one reference to one in that area. He is a nice looking guy who I can only find photos of on Facebook . I find mentions of him only in the Advocate & Democrat in the court section. You know the who got charged with what and sentenced to what.  If he was this Oscar Young he may have been a squatter in this old house. 

  We visited the Oscar Young home and barn a bit then moved on to visit the Bertha and Gibb Williams place and Ballplay Falls.  I had thought we'd make it to Presley Falls today as well. I was not prepared! 

          

            Now visiting Ballplay Falls is like this.  The falls lies on National Forest public land.  The only reasonable  access to it crosses private property.  I was given permission by the owner to visit just as Paul and Amanda were.  The bridge got blown out in Winter of 2020 and has never been repaired nor do I think it will be.  It requires fording the stream to reach the trail which is not readily apparent from the start of the hike.  I donned my water shoes and was across quickly.  The rest of our group took different tactics to cross.  I offered Amanda my water shoes, but she turned me down.  Once we got across we took some photos of the old, beautiful home of Bertha and Gibb Williams.  They were Ronnie's grandparents I think.  Paul found a photo of them and sent it to me. I'm going to get it printed and put it with the print I have of the house in my kitchen.  They were good people.  Thank you Paul.

Below: Gibb and Bertha Williams in front of their house.  I made a painting of the house and it hangs in my downstairs den. If I ever paint another I'll have to put them in it now that I know what they look like.  The current one is sealed and can't be added to.  I see someone sitting on the porch, but I can't tell who it is. 

above: front view of the house

Below: Ballplay Creek flowing by the house. The large pipes in the distance were the bridge. 

Below: looking upstream on Ballplay Creek

Below: where I forded the stream.It is beautifully clear. 

Below: the old barn finally tumbled down. 

Below: side view of the porch and front of house.  Steps are getting in rough shape, but this place is beautiful still. 

Below: Bertha's forsythia bush in bloom at the side of the home

above and below:  two views of the rear of the house.  Looks like the back section was an add on.  

  

   Once we finally had everyone across the stream and photos taken we hit the trail and started the steady uphill climb to the ridge line.  Paul had told me the simplest way to locate and visit Presley Falls is to hike the trail up to the sharp right hand bend where it levels off.  Leave the trail there and climb down the finger ridge to the left all the way to the stream. Presley Falls enters at the bottom of a tributary stream and dumps into Ballplay Creek at the bottom of all this.  I have visited it once before via a Winter time creek crawl. Extremely difficult but was so beautiful I still dream about it and the memory of it is vivid.    We saw a few scattered Spring wildflowers.  Not much out yet.  

One bit of good news is that the many downed trees across the unmaintained trail are still there, but the worst one is so rotten it has collapsed making it easier to get by.  

     We arrived at the bend and discussed what to do next? I asked if we should go on down to Presley Falls first? Kenny said "NO! Because if we do we will be so wiped out from the chore we won't want to do anything else."  So on we hiked to Ballplay Falls. I hated to admit it, but I knew he was right.

He is suffering with his knees now as I once was.  In addition though his feet bother him from neuropathy stemming from old back surgeries and loss of the nerve signal.  There is nothing for that.

     We hiked along and it was nice to be on a level, easy trail for a bit.   We could hear Ballplay Falls roar below and soon could see it!  It was flowing stronger than I've ever seen it.  The forest here is pine woods and smells so nice.  It didn't take long until we got down to the top of the falls.   Paul had shared a gnarly experience he had reaching the base the last go round. He lost a pair of hiking poles down there somewhere.   He was of the opinion there was no longer a way to the base.  He and Amanda checked out the top part of the falls, but decided to hang back while Kenny and I attempted to reach the base. Paul had a broken hip which he has recovered from nicely, but he and Amanda have been here so many times I get why neither of them was willing to fight their way to the bottom.  

Above: Ballplay Falls from the base.  

Above: lower cascades on the falls 

Below:  The falls from further downstream. 

  Kenny and I headed into the brush and found the narrow, faint track that takes you to the base. It is covered in downed trees which you have to work over and under. The one super significant good thing is that the final downed tree rotted and is out of the way. It was treacherous.  Trying to come back UP through it was horrible in the past. That's how Paul got discombobulated on his climb back out and lost his hiking poles.   I get it. It happened to me one time.  I had spent so much time down there eating, taking pictures and playing in the creek that when it came time to leave I could not easily reverse course.   I made it out, but not without a short ride on the struggle bus!  

        The falls was beautiful today as always.  I shot video here, but only a short clip with my phone from the top. I shot a 90 second video from the base.  Unfortunately my computer reformatted the video to a type that rendered the video useless.  I tried multiple fixes with no luck so I will include the short clip from the top and my favorite full video from a previous trip.  

    We enjoyed Paul and Amanda's company tremendously.  I loved meeting Jon Boy at last. We hiked back out and we were all tired and the day had grown rather hot.  We opted to skip Presley Falls. I will go back for that and possibly focus on ONLY that.  Going down that ridge and climbing back up is going to be a bitch.  Having visited by plowing up the creek I know it isn't any better. Perhaps on a future trip I'll go down the ridge to the falls, then just from there work my way downstream to the house.  It is beautiful and will get me another glimpse of that special spot.  

      We made it back to the vehicles after another tricky creek crossing.   We said our good byes and I got a hug.  We spoke of finally getting us all over to Scona and Tallassee Creek Falls.  I hope that dream comes true this year.   I love my friends and they have been through a lot the past couple years.  

      Below is a video of the top of the falls from my phone 2026 visit

And below finally is a video from a past visit that was particularly good. My favorite.

This is the entire falls from top to bottom. The music is "Tomorrow Morning" by John Cowan. We are going to see him in concert next week!  It will be a dream come true!  He's a favorite.   I hope he will play this song for me.