The fictional mountain community of Cutter Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains was isolated from cities and towns, filled with the beauty of nature, and entrenched in the terror of feuding and superstition. These mountain highlanders had very little to do with the “level lands” and the “level landers”. It was like a step back a century ago in time.
But just where is Cutter Gap? And who lives there?
A small cove located in the Smoky Mountains is home to Scottish highlanders, their roots harkening back to the Scottish Hebrides and its rich history of culture, music, community, and conflict. Cutter Gap’s residents are a proud, fierce, and lyrical people.
Miss Alice told Christy that these same qualities, resulting in an iron will in the people, also resulted in major feuds – “real killing and shooting feuds.” When Christy arrived in Cutter Gap, there were only two other sections of the country-one in Tennessee and one in Kentucky– known for worse violence and feuding than Cutter Gap.
The map of Cutter Gap displays the names of family cabins, and the locations of cabins of Dr. MacNeill and Miss Alice, as well as the bunkhouse of David Grantland, the new preacher. It also identifies the locations of the forbidden stills that produced one of the economic engines of the Cutter Gap economy.
The map also shows the relationship between the schoolhouse and Mission house and the many family cabins sprawled throughout protected areas of the cove. To visit her students, Christy walked miles or traveled by mule and, later, horseback.
Cabins were stark with no water or electricity. Children had no shoes or coats and were underdressed most of the time. On Christy’s first day as a teacher, sixty-seven children from young to old crowded into the one room schoolhouse, girls sat on one side, boys on the other.
When Christy tried to write down names and “addresses”, Sam Houston replied eagerly, and indicated a lot that Christy had to learn about these highlander children and her new home of Cutter Gap:
“Wal — First ye cross Cutter Branch. Then ye cut across Lonesome Pine Ridge and down. Through the Gap’s the best way. At the third fork in the trail, ye scoot under the fence and head for Pigeonroost Hollow. Then ye spy our cabin…”
Christy would soon learn her way around Cutter Gap, but not without a few misadventures!
The original hardcover edition of Christy published in 1967 that stayed on The New York Times Bestseller List for 38 weeks contained a 2-page full spread map of the fictional community of Cutter Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains, 1912. It is included in the current edition of Christy as well.
— Excerpts from Christy by Catherine Marshall.