TALLASSEE, Tenn. (WATE) — Volunteers with Save Our Smokies, Inc. are accustomed to hauling litter out of the Smokies, but what they brought out Friday surprised everyone — a discarded 250-pound couch that had been dumped into Abrams Creek.

“It was around half a mile upstream from Chilhowee Lake. A kayaker saw it a few weeks ago and notified us and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” a spokesman for the group said.

The dump site is inside the park. The organizer said it took “a few days” to figure out how to remove the couch because it was “half a mile through the woods and another half-mile or so upstream.”

“We found it mostly submerged, but were able to get it loaded up on the boat provided by Larry Pound,” a spokesperson said. “We could not have done this without his help.”

Photos show volunteers pulling the sodden brown couch out of the water and onto a boat, then transferring it to a Blount County trailer.

“It was certainly a hand full to deal with,” the group spokesman said in a social media post.

Blount County Litter Crew carried the couch to a landfill for disposal.

Save Our Smokies Inc. is an all-volunteer organization that removes litter and graffiti from public lands. The 501c(3) nonprofit was formed in 2020 to support public lands, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, United States Forestry Service and state-managed public lands. Learn more about the group, including volunteer opportunities, at their website.