To the people of this rural, mountainous county, it was a gathering of tourists like any other.
It was only after allegations of racism among law enforcement officers led to a congressional investigation that anyone in Polk County paid any attention to the annual Good Ol' Boys Roundup."Everybody knew when they were here, but it was no big deal," Ingrid Buehler, editor of the weekly Polk County News, said Friday.
The weeklong gathering has been held every May since 1980 in this bucolic southeast Tennessee county, sliced through by the Ocoee River, the site of the 1996 Olympic whitewater events.
"People are trying to make this out into an annual Klan rally, which it was not," Frank Payne, Polk County sheriff from 1982 to 1990, said Thursday. "Ninety-nine percent were good, fair people just enjoying the outdoors."
Visiting officers - usually about 300 - spent their time riding the rapids and horses, drinking, golfing and trading memorabilia.
The roundups went largely unnoticed until an Alabama militia group circulated a videotape purportedly taken at this year's roundup.
The videotape showed a sign that said, "Nigger Checkpoint" and showed a copy of a "Federal Nigger Hunting License." There were also reports of racist T-shirts for sale, such as one showing Martin Luther King Jr.'s face behind a target and O.J. Simpson in a hangman's noose.
Although Klanwatch, a watchdog group, later said the videotape was doctored, the allegations touched off a fervor of disclaimers from federal officials including President Clinton. The Senate Judiciary Committee began hearings into the gathering Friday.
Some locals said they wouldn't be surprised if the gatherings had racial overtones.
"Blacks don't spend the night here," said one businesswoman, who didn't want her name used because "people talk in a small town."
"If they have to be here, they do their business and go on," she said.
Polk County is one of six Tennessee counties with no black residents, according to the 1990 census.
Payne, now police chief in nearby Copperhill, attended his last Roundup in 1990. He said the only T-shirts he saw sold were annual roundup shirts, which usually showed cartoon characters.
Rafting outfitter J.T. Lemons has rented his Sugarloaf campground to the agents for the past 12 years, ever since the Forest Service restricted drinking at campgrounds in the nearby Cherokee National Forest.
He denied seeing any racism at the events and said there were never any complaints from residents, tourists or his employees.
"The militia and the media have blown this out of proportion," he said. "This is going to be the end of it and it's a shame."