Smokies spelling: Bullhead or Bull Head?

by Jim Matheny

Here at Friends of the Smokies, one of the projects we’re proud to fund in 2025 is our Trails Forever crew’s work to rehab Bullhead Trail. Or is it Bull Head Trail?

Look through national park maps and you see it spelled both ways. The NPS printed trail maps label it “Bull Head Trail” while the online interactive map on the park’s website labels it Bullhead Trail. The summit on the same interactive map calls the mountain peak Bull Head.

*Left: Printed trail map from the National Park Service spells it Bull Head Trail. Right: The park’s online map spells the mountain summit Bull Head and the trail Bullhead.*

What do the signs in the park say? Both spellings are used on the trail signs as well as road signage.

*Various signage in the national park spells it both Bullhead and Bull Head.*

I then looked up the location in the book Place Names of the Smokies by Allen Coggins. Coggins spells it Bullhead in the book. I contacted Allen and asked how he arrived at that spelling. He said both Bull Head and Bullhead are technically correct. He chose Bullhead because it worked for all three origin stories he found during his research.

Here’s a quick synopsis of the three origin stories Coggins found:

1. The name comes from the shape of the mountain, similar to a bull’s head. In this case, both Bull Head and Bullhead are acceptable spellings.

2. The name of a Native American leader, which could be correctly spelled Bull Head or Bullhead.

3. The name may have come from John “Bullhead” Whaley (findagrave link), who lived in the area from 1817 to 1909. His nickname is only spelled Bullhead.

Coggins does not argue which origin story is correct. He shares the information he found.

I tried to break the tie by digging a little deeper into photo and newspaper archives for any mention of Bull Head or Bullhead in the Great Smoky Mountains.

*Elevation list published Jan. 4, 1872, in The Asheville Weekly Citizen newspaper used the spelling Bullhead.*

Bullhead wins the newspaper race. The one-word spelling first shows up in newspapers in 1872 in an article listing the elevations of the various peaks in the Smokies under “Bullhead Group, Tennessee.” The two-word term Bull Head does not show up in the papers until decades later. If you think that settles it, think again. The same articles that spell it Bullhead also refer to Mount Le Conte as Mt. Lecompte. That leaves you taking the spelling of Bullhead with a large grain of salt.

Newspaper reports specifically about the trail in the national park first called it Bullhead in August 1933. The article discussed work done by the Civil Conservation Corps workers in the park, including construction of the new “Bullhead trail.”

The two-word spelling “Bull Head trail” first shows up in 1935 articles written by Carlos Campbell about the progress of trail construction.

Photographer Jim Thompson labeled the mountain Bullhead on the backs of his 1920s photographs that helped persuade the government to create a national park in the Smokies. Roger Howell also labeled his photos in the 1930s “Bullhead Trail.”

*Photos by Jim Thompson in the 1920s and Roger Howell in the 1930s used the spelling Bullhead. Photos courtesy of the Calvin M. McClung Historical Collection.*

In the aforementioned photographs and newspaper articles, none of the creators are bringing the spelling down from the mountaintop as gospel. Whether they spelled it Bullhead or Bull Head, they almost always misspelled the name of Mount Le Conte as LeConte.

Several popular online trail guides spell it Bullhead Trail. If you Google “Bull Head Trail,” the search engine will ask, “Did you mean Bullhead trail?”

So, is it Bullhead or Bull Head? The answer is yes. Both are correct.

You don’t have to choose. We do. At Friends of the Smokies, we’ll be sharing lots of updates over the next two years on the Trails Forever project supported by your license plates and donations. We want to be consistent.

Our style choice: Bullhead Trail. Bullhead is the spelling that’s in the place names book. It’s the spelling that works for all three origin stories. It’s the earliest spelling that shows up in newspapers and photographs. We could have flipped a coin but it seemed weird to call Bullheads or Bull Heads.

That’s our choice. We’re not going to be bullheaded and argue with anyone who spells it Bull Head.

What we can say for sure is this is a fitting one-word versus two-words argument for a trail on Mount Le Conte, home of the LeConte Lodge.

However you spell it, we’re thankful your support of Friends allows us to provide $643,000 in funding to the park in 2025 for Trails Forever staffing and supplies to rehabilitate Bullhead Trail. You’re also helping fund $180,000 for two youth crews to work alongside the NPS Trails Forever crew the entire length of Bullhead Trail. Thank you, Friends!

Spelling recap

Trail name: Bullhead or Bull Head. We’ll use Bullhead.

Peak name: Bull Head on USGS maps.

Mountain name: Mount Le Conte.

Lodge name: LeConte Lodge.

Learn more about how to get a Friends of the Smokies license plate at BearPlate.org. You can make a direct tax-deductible donation at our website. We are also grateful for those who pitch in at our donation boxes throughout the park. Every gift makes a significant difference for our beloved Smokies. Thank you, Friends!