At 71 years old, Susie Greengold has never lived anywhere but Gatlinburg — and her family's roots in the area go back to the 1700s, generations before the town was even incorporated in 1946. Susie traces her lineage to some of the area's earliest settlers, including William Ogle and his wife Jane Huskey Ogle, who loaded up her children and crossed the mountains alone to settle the homestead after William died before he could bring his family over from South Carolina.
Susie attended both Gatlinburg-Pittman High School and Pi Beta Phi — once a K-12 school founded and funded by the Pi Beta Phi sorority of Monmouth College, Illinois, whose members came south as education missionaries and helped establish Gatlinburg's now-famous arts and crafts community. Her family's land holdings once covered what are today two of Gatlinburg's most iconic attractions: her mother grew up on the site of today's Gatlinburg SkyPark (next door to the Gatlinburg Inn, built by her great-uncle Rel Maples), while Susie herself grew up on the land now home to the Ober Mountain Tramway.
The conversation covers the sacrifices her family made when the national park was established — forced to sell their mountain homesteads, though many resettled in town on parcels from relatives like her great-great-grandfather E.E. Ogle — as well as Gatlinburg's transformation from a seasonal summer-and-fall town into a year-round destination once the ski tramway arrived roughly 50 years ago. Today, Susie carries the family's entrepreneurial legacy forward through two businesses: The Maples' Tree, a downtown shop featuring quilts, custom T-shirts designed by her daughter Carrie, and engraved gifts; and Far Horizons Lodge, a rental property built from two historic cabins relocated out of the national park.
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- Roots dating back to the 1700s. Susie's ancestors include William Ogle and Jane Huskey Ogle, among the area's earliest settlers — Jane crossed the mountains alone with her children to establish the family homestead after William died before he could bring his family from South Carolina.
- Her family's land became two of Gatlinburg's biggest attractions. Susie's mother grew up where the Gatlinburg SkyPark now stands, next door to the Gatlinburg Inn; Susie herself grew up on the land that's now the Ober Mountain Tramway.
- A school built by a sorority. Pi Beta Phi, which Susie attended kindergarten through eighth grade, was founded and funded as a philanthropic project by the Pi Beta Phi sorority of Monmouth College, Illinois — the same effort that helped establish Gatlinburg's arts and crafts community.
- A once-deeply seasonal town. Before the ski tramway arrived about 50 years ago, Gatlinburg's tourist season ran roughly mid-June through Labor Day, with a good October for leaf season and a Christmas bump — otherwise the town was largely shut down from January through May.
- Sacrifice behind the national park. When the park was established, Susie's family and others were bought out of their mountain homesteads; many resettled in town on land purchased from relatives like her great-great-grandfather E.E. Ogle, which is how much of her family's in-town property came to be.
- A horseback mail carrier who knew everyone. Susie's great-grandfather delivered mail on horseback from Fighting Creek through Roaring Fork, into the Sugarlands, and over the mountain to Elkmont — riding a horse he always named Prince, regardless of which horse it actually was.
- Two cabins with a hidden history. Far Horizons Lodge is built from two identical square cabins relocated out of the national park and joined with a custom-built living room addition — one of the only ways to preserve original in-park cabin construction while still offering it as an overnight rental today.
- A front-row seat to changing bear encounters. Susie recalls a childhood where people handed bears food and drinks along mountain roads without hesitation — a stark contrast to today's "bear wise" efforts to keep wildlife from associating people with easy meals.
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As the CEO of Mountain Laurel Chalets and a lifelong student of hospitality, Tom took the helm of MLC in 2012 — a company his in-laws Ralph and Dot Egli built from scratch in 1972 — and has spent every year since trying to learn from the owners, guests, and community that make this place worth caring about.
