Cherokee National Forest sign tile

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A Monroe County man is facing federal charges for using property in the Cherokee National Forest to construct a home.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports that charges against Terry L. Sharkey include damaging national forest property, cutting protected trees and using the forest as his home.

The case began in April when a pilot conducting a flyover of the forest spotted a tent and what appeared to be a bathtub made of rocks on Gravel Stand Mountain.

The sighting came soon after Sharkey was freed from jail for squatting in the forest via tent.

A few months later, Forest Service Agent Shawn Reece was hiking a trail in the forest when he came across a clearing that contained the tent the pilot saw from the air, as well as a "partially built three-room log cabin approximately 40 feet by 30 feet in size," Forest Service Agent Shawn Reedy wrote in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

Reece also discovered a vegetable garden and a combination water basin and outdoor tub constructed with rocks surrounding a spring head. Stumps from the trees used to craft the cabin surrounded the clearing.

A week later, Sharkey was arrested after Reece and Reedy returned and found him notching logs to finish the roof on the cabin and complete a second structure that had been added since Reece's first visit.

A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 8.