[1] The community is situated around the confluence of the French Broad River and Big Creek, the latter of which has its source high in the mountains to the south.

The Appalachian Mountains surround Del Rio on all sides, and, along with the river, have been the key influence on the town's economic and cultural development.

SR 107 connects Del Rio to a remote valley known as Lemon Gap, at the base of Max Patch Bald.

Like most Appalachian communities, Del Rio has several "satellite" towns, formed as early settlers branched out over the limited bottomlands in the mountain gaps and narrow coves.

Among these are Nough (sometimes called "Slabtown") along Big Creek to the south, Paint Rock, which is further up the French Broad to the east, and Harmony Grove, to the southeast.

The Catherine Marshall novel, Christy, takes place at Chapel Hollow (called "Cutter Gap" in the novel), a small valley just west of Del Rio.

[4] Frank Stokely, who lived in the area in the mid-20th century, collected a large number of artifacts left by the natives of this village and displayed them in a small museum.

[7] Shortly after the Huffs arrived, another Revolutionary War veteran, Jehu Stokely (1747–1816), settled in the Big Creek area.

According to family lore, Stokely was impressed into the British navy, but escaped and fought under American captain John Paul Jones.

In the decade following Huff's arrival, the constant stream of Euro-American settlers into East Tennessee agitated the Cherokee, who had lived and hunted in the region for centuries.

As the threat of Cherokee attacks declined, Big Creek slowly transformed itself into a stopping point for pioneers crossing the mountains en route to Tennessee.

When the storm passed, the news states that the engineer Joe Turner started pumping water into the boiler when an explosion occurred.

The deceased that were reported on that day were William Harmon Teaster who ran a team of oxen; Joe Turner, the engineer; Frank Plate; Merritt Burgin; and Harvey Briggs, 14 years old.

The names of the four men that were originally buried in unmarked graves were Joe Turner; Merritt Burgin; Harvey "Harve" Briggs; and Frank Plate.

[19] She was probably born in the home of her maternal grandparents, William and Emma Stokely, which sat on the west bank of Big Creek near the entrance to Nough.

In 1911, the Weeks Act put an end to the massive logging operations in Southern Appalachia, and Del Rio began to decline.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park didn't extend to cover Snowbird or Max Patch, so Del Rio missed out on the tourism boom that made towns such as Gatlinburg wealthy.

Mary Bell Smith, who taught at an elementary school near Nough in the 1930s, recalled elements of the poverty she witnessed during this period: Many students in large families brought their lunches in tin pails which had been emptied of the pure pork lard which was originally bought in them.

Like its neighbor Cosby, which is just over Stone Mountain to the west, Del Rio gained a reputation for moonshining during the first half of the 20th century.

Moonshining wasn't uncommon in Appalachian communities, where poor soil and low corn prices drove farmers to illegally distill liquor to supplement their income.

Long-time Del Rio resident Nathan Jones stated that while moonshining occurred it was typically low-scale and mostly for personal use.