[6] By the time Euro-American settlers arrived in the area in the 1780s, Miller's Cove was part of a vast Cherokee hunting ground.

Cherokee warriors attempted to repulse the colonists through sporadic attacks in the vicinity of the Warpath, but the foreigners successfully countered them by erecting small defensive forts.

[8] A few years before the Millers arrived, Swiss immigrant John Hess built a grist mill in the west end of the cove.

[11] From the early 19th century onward, Blount County was a hotbed of abolitionist activity, due in large part to the influence of Rev.

Residents from the surrounding hills and mountains raised an American flag and saluted it, pledging their loyalty to the United States.

Later in the war, when a Confederate Army unit passed through the cove, Maryville Judge Jesse Wallace warned them to leave the flag alone, for "the mountains swarmed with men who were deadly with their rifles.

In 1893, the Walton and England Leather Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sent John W. Fisher to East Tennessee to look for suitable sites to build a tannery.

In 1901, using the railroad Walton and England had constructed between Walland and Maryville, the Schlosser Leather Company initiated an even more ambitious tanning project in Miller's Cove.

Using the thick bark from trees harvested in the heavily forested Little River valley, the Schlosser tannery was processing 300 hides per day by 1909.

[15] The tannery allowed Walland to modernize to some extent, bringing electricity, framed houses, and greater railroad access.

The company built Chilhowee Inn in 1902 to house executives visiting the tannery,[16] and helped complete Walland High School in 1922.

[17] While Schlosser Leather ceased operations in the area after the tannery burned in 1931, Walland was already benefiting from the growth of tourism in the Great Smokies several miles to the south.

With the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1934 and the construction of US-321, Walland was able to replace the loss of tannery jobs with income from through-traffic and tourism.