Spence Field

[4] Since the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1930s, however, wooded plants have started reclaiming much of this stretch, including Spence.

[5] Spence and his wife, Caroline Law, were connected with the Cades Cove area, but preferred the solitude of the high mountains.

[7] Regardless, the field was still being used as a summer-time pasture in 1900, where thousands of cows, horses, sheep, and goats grazed while the bottomlands were used for planting crops.

[8] Arnold Guyot, who surveyed much of the Smokies crest in the late 1850s, measured the elevation of "Spence cabin" at 4,910 feet (1,500 m).

From Cades Cove (via the Anthony Creek Trail, which rises out of the campground), it is approximately 5.2 miles (8.4 km) to Spence Field.

The Eagle Creek trailhead is located on the north side of Fontana Dam, and rises 14 miles (23 km) to Spence Field.

The 9-mile (14 km) Jenkins Ridge Trail connects Spence Field with the remote Hazel Creek area, in the southwestern Smokies.