Construction on Interstate 65 began in 1958, and the highway opened through this stretch of Blount County on April 1, 1961. The interchange it created at Hayden explains the tangle of roads still there today: aerial photos from 1958 show the old Bee Line Highway (by then following the original rail bed, today’s White Oak and Poplar) curving directly through what became the new interchange, with Skyline Drive curving to meet it near where the urgent-care clinic now sits.
Before the interstate, the only route to the top of the ridge was a dirt road with a sharp switchback, first shown on a 1951 topo map. By a 1967 aerial photo, that dirt road had been replaced by the modern paved route of Mountain Trail, and Logan’s had appeared at the interchange. The interstate’s construction - more than any single event before it - set the road network Smoke Rise would eventually be platted onto.
