Park rangers along with Blount County Sheriff’s Office and Blount County Rescue Squad divers recovered the body of a Knoxville seventh-grade student from the waters of Abrams Creek in the Cades Cove section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park on April 30.

A Knoxville ham radio operator notified park officials that a school child had possibly drowned in the water below Abrams Falls. Rangers were on the Abrams Falls Trail by 1:30 p.m. The students was on a field trip from Vine Middle Magnet School in Knoxville. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the boy go into the water. The field trip was in the park independently and was not participating in the formal education programs provided by the National Park Service.

Abrams Falls is one of the more popular short hikes in the park — a moderate walk of 2.5-miles one way. While the falls are not the highest in the park, the volume of water is significant and the pool at the base is wide, deep, and full of jagged rocks. The surrounding rocks are often slippery. Warning signs discourage swimming and climbing on the waterfall.

This is the second fatal accident in the park in 2004. Over the past 10 years, drownings have been the second leading cause of accidental death in the park. Investigation is continuing as to the cause of the accident.