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Buckhorn Inn and Roast Beef Hash

My first memory of Buckhorn is from 1952 when I was six years old–61 years ago.  We were staying on the second floor in rooms looking over my beloved Mt Le Conte–my parents, a mother’s helper and me.  There were many trips after that, originally with then innkeeper Doub Bebb fixing a fine breakfast, a tradition I am grateful has continued and expanded under Lee and John’s gracious stewardship.  I came to the Inn over the years with my parents, my great friends Judge Macauley Smith and his wife Emmy, with other friends and hikers and for the past 15 years with my husband Boyce Martin.

This Thanksgiving (2013) is our fifth with Lee and John and what a feast it has been.  It wasn’t always this way.  One memorable Thanksgiving in the mid-1970s I was with the Smiths in the only heated building at the time–either Cottage 3 or 4.  The Inn itself was closed for the winter, but Doug agreed to let us stay in the cabin.  I slept on the living room couch.  Judge Smith and I wore matching fire engine red pajamas from LLBean.  Most memorable was our Thanksgiving dinner, cooked in the cabin in a cast iron skillet supplied by Emmy.  It was canned roast beef hash to which she added onions and green peppers–and lots of sour cream. It was delicious, enhanced no doubt by the invigorating mountain air and a generous amount of cheering libations.  The Judge was a bourbon man and supplied me with Boisiere dry vermouth.

Tonight’s 75th Thanksgiving feast is a far cry from canned roast beef hash.  But never changing is the majesty and magical beauty of my beloved Mt. Le Conte seen from the porch, rooms and cottages of Buckhorn Inn.  Anne Ogden, Treasured Guest, Louisville KY