In Cherokee lore, the eastern slopes of Sugarland Mountain— along with the northern slopes of Mount Le Conte— were part of a ridgeline known as Walasi'yi, or "Frog Place."
 An ancient Native American trail— possibly predating the Cherokee— crossed the crest at Indian Gap and descended along Road Prong to the West Fork of the Little Pigeon Valley.
 The trail then followed the valley northward, where it intersected the Great Indian Warpath near modern Sevierville.
 This trail was expanded several times by Euro-American settlers throughout the 19th century.
 While the main road gradually shifted to the lower Newfound Gap, the Road Prong Trail still follows this ancient road.

In the late 19th century, the residents of Little River (now Elkmont) and the Sugarlands built a log schoolhouse at Huskey Gap.
 To allow easier access to the school, they constructed a crude road along what is now the Huskey Gap Trail.
 Although the schoolhouse had burned down by 1916, the trail received continued use by Sugarlanders working in logging camps in the Elkmont vicinity in the 1920s.
 By the time the Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission started buying up tracts of land in the late 1920s for the formation of the national park, the Little River Lumber Company owned the entire western side of Sugarland Mountain and the Champion Fibre Company owned the mountain's southeastern section.
 Members of the Parton family and Huskey family owned small farms around Huskey Gap and the headwaters of Sugarland Branch, and members of the Quilliams family lived in the vicinity of Backcountry Campsite 21.

Author Horace Kephart, writing in the early 20th century, described Sugarland Mountain as a "razorback ridge" that formed a "rampart tedious to scale from either side."
 Kephart referred to the upper Rough Creek Valley on the mountain's southwestern slope as "Godforsaken" — a remote land that seemed "unearthly in its dreariness and desolation."
 In "A Raid Into the Sugarlands," Kephart gave a quasi-factual account of a North Carolina deputy's excursion into the Sugarlands to apprehend a fugitive.
 The deputy and his hodgepodge posse chased the fugitive across Sugarland Mountain to "Barradale's upper logging camp" on Rough Creek, although they failed to locate him.
They returned to North Carolina empty-handed the following day.

George McCoy, writing in an early park guide in 1935, reported that the Sugarland Mountain Trail was "extremely rugged," but offered excellent views of Mount Le Conte.
 In 1937, Laura Thornborough— who wrote extensively of hiking trails in the Smokies— echoed McCoy's description, calling the Sugarland Mountain Trail "rugged and rough," but well worth an all-day trip.
In Cherokee lore, the eastern slopes of Sugarland Mountain— along with the northern slopes of Mount Le Conte— were part of a ridgeline known as Walasi'yi, or "Frog Place."  An ancient Native American trail— possibly predating the Cherokee— crossed the crest at Indian Gap and descended along Road Prong to the West Fork of the Little Pigeon Valley.  The trail then followed the valley northward, where it intersected the Great Indian Warpath near modern Sevierville.  This trail was expanded several times by Euro-American settlers throughout the 19th century.  While the main road gradually shifted to the lower Newfound Gap, the Road Prong Trail still follows this ancient road.
In the late 19th century, the residents of Little River (now Elkmont) and the Sugarlands built a log schoolhouse at Huskey Gap.  To allow easier access to the school, they constructed a crude road along what is now the Huskey Gap Trail.  Although the schoolhouse had burned down by 1916, the trail received continued use by Sugarlanders working in logging camps in the Elkmont vicinity in the 1920s.  By the time the Great Smoky Mountains Park Commission started buying up tracts of land in the late 1920s for the formation of the national park, the Little River Lumber Company owned the entire western side of Sugarland Mountain and the Champion Fibre Company owned the mountain's southeastern section.  Members of the Parton family and Huskey family owned small farms around Huskey Gap and the headwaters of Sugarland Branch, and members of the Quilliams family lived in the vicinity of Backcountry Campsite 21.
Author Horace Kephart, writing in the early 20th century, described Sugarland Mountain as a "razorback ridge" that formed a "rampart tedious to scale from either side."  Kephart referred to the upper Rough Creek Valley on the mountain's southwestern slope as "Godforsaken" — a remote land that seemed "unearthly in its dreariness and desolation."  In "A Raid Into the Sugarlands," Kephart gave a quasi-factual account of a North Carolina deputy's excursion into the Sugarlands to apprehend a fugitive.  The deputy and his hodgepodge posse chased the fugitive across Sugarland Mountain to "Barradale's upper logging camp" on Rough Creek, although they failed to locate him. They returned to North Carolina empty-handed the following day.
George McCoy, writing in an early park guide in 1935, reported that the Sugarland Mountain Trail was "extremely rugged," but offered excellent views of Mount Le Conte.  In 1937, Laura Thornborough— who wrote extensively of hiking trails in the Smokies— echoed McCoy's description, calling the Sugarland Mountain Trail "rugged and rough," but well worth an all-day trip.
Sugarland Mountain Trail